I mean, what's a chef from New York doing opening a ramen shop in Tokyo?

I think it goes back to 1985, when I was a college student studying Japanese and my friends and I went out to see a new movie "Tampopo" a so called "noodle western".

Well, I was enthralled before even tasting real ramen.

I couldn't get it out of my head.

So of course when I finally got to Tokyo in 1987 the first thing I did was eat ramen.

And that was it! I was hooked!

I ate ramen every chance I got while I lived in Tokyo, and when I returned to New York I suffered with the rest of the ramenjunkies, counting the days when I could get back to Japan and eat my fill of my favorite food.

I've been a ramenjunkie ever since and when I returned to live in Japan in 2003 my personal ramen craze continued.

And when I started brainstorming for my next project, the idea of having my own ramen shop just made too much sense to ignore.

So here I am, presenting to you ivanramen, (アイバンラーメン) seen not through the eyes of a gaijin, but through the eyes of a ramenjunkie, a truly devoted lover of ramen.

I hope you like it!

Ramen Kodawari (Sourcing the best ingredients, using the best techniques)

My ramen is made with love, fresh ingredients and attention to detail. Although ramen is technically "fast food" everything is made by hand from scratch. Just because food is "fast" doesn't mean it needs to be junk. I make this extra effort because the food I serve is made for the customer, and to give them the best possible food experience. Of course this is a business, but without satisfied customers there wouldn’t be a business.