American Man Opens Ramen Shop in Japan!

Ivan Ramen”Owner, Ivan ORKIN

Ramen, originally brought to Japan from China, has long been familiar to Japanese people due to its popular taste and cheap price. The dish, comprising noodles in a unique broth combined with other ingredients, has experienced such a big boom in Japan that in Tokyo, competition has been fierce between ramen from different areas with different tastes and broths.

Then a blue-eyed ramen shop owner entered the Tokyo-centered ramen battle. “Would you like shouyu or shio ramen? (soy or salt flavored ramen)” The welcoming voice — in Japanese — comes from American Ivan ORKIN, owner of the “Ivan Ramen” ramen shop that opened recently near Rokakouen station, Tokyo.

With a huge pot of boiling broth behind him, Ivan remarks, “I created my own ramen and noodles using my many years of cooking experience. I knew that being an American I would have to work harder than anybody else. Just making good ramen would not be sufficient to have people come back. It had to be great!” Ivan’s ramen shop has only 10 seats. The shop’s logo and menu are modeled on pop-art, and jazz music plays in the background. The noodles are all handmade by Ivan.

Born and raised in New York, Ivan began his career working at the world famous Restaurant Lutece and Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. He also spent seven years as the private chef to Furman Selz, now ING Barings, a stock analyst investment company. Having such a prestigious career, why did Ivan come to open a ramen restaurant in Japan?

The movie “Tampopo,” a so called “noodle western,” had a huge impact on him. “I had never even eaten ramen but I couldn’t forget it and couldn’t wait to eat the real thing,” he says. After majoring in Japanese culture at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Ivan came to Japan in 1987 and began working as an English teacher. He recalls at the time that all he did was go to ramen shops.

After returning to Japan in 2003, Ivan ran a small cooking school out of his home kitchen while taking on house husband duties. “I have always been interested in opening a ramen shop, but I was not sure and could not take further steps to actually realize it,” he says about that period. But his strong will to want to do something in Japan spurred him to action.

After a year of trial and error, Ivan was finally ready for business and opened his shop in June 2007. Ivan sells handmade ramen representing his unpretentious character. He makes clear that “A chef should not be arrogant. I am truly thankful that there are people who come to my shop to eat my ramen.”

But there have been some critical people who said, “After all it is a gaijin,” making ramen. But Ivan stresses, “I want people to enjoy ramen made by ‘a ramen junkie,’ not by a ‘gaijin,’” For now, he believes his entire soul should be put into a bowl of ramen. While it is too soon to talk about the future, Ivan’s aim is to keep feeding ramen junkies in Japan.

Ivan Ramen
www.ivanramen.com/

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