Noodle R&D: A Ramen Lab in Teterboro

At Sun Noodle Company’s Ramen Lab in Teterboro, chefs plot the American future of Japan’s favorite meal in a bowl.

Sun Noodle Company's Ramen Lab
Kenshiro Uki, creator of Sun Noodle’s Ramen Lab, works with renowned chef Shigetoshi Nakamura (in black) to develop new types of noodles and soup.
Photo by Scott Jones.

Japan may be a small country, but every region prides itself on its own style of ramen—the steaming bowls of soup with noodles, meat and vegetables that millions of Japanese, from truck drivers to auto executives, slurp up every day. Kenshiro Uki, general manager of Sun Noodle Company’s East Coast operation, likens the variety to that of an American favorite:

“Here in the U.S., there are different styles of pizza, like Chicago style and New York style,” he says. “We want people to know there are different kinds of ramen, too.”

To spread the word among chefs, Uki created Ramen Lab—“an R&D kitchen,” he calls it—attached to Sun’s 2,500-square-foot, high-tech noodle factory in Teterboro. It may be America’s first studio for ramen education and innovation. Uki’s father, Hidehito Uki, founded Sun Noodle in Hawaii 31 years ago. The company expanded to Los Angeles in 2004 and opened the Teterboro facility, including the lab, last August.

“My father figured out that each noodle should be different for each restaurant,” says Uki, 26. Why? “Well, chefs work hard to create their own soup, so we see it as only right for us to work to match the noodle with the soup.” A leader in production of fresh (as opposed to frozen) noodles, Sun also makes more than 30 custom kinds for chefs, including luminaries like Marcus Samuelsson and David Chang of Momofuku fame.

Uki’s partner in the Ramen Lab is Shigetoshi Nakamura, former owner of ramen restaurants in Hollywood, Tokyo and Kanagawa, Japan. Noodle knowledgeables revere him as one of Japan’s “Four Ramen Devas,” a Deva being an exalted being. Uki says he couldn’t sleep for days before his first meeting with Nakamura in 2009. “I knew how to make noodles from my father, but learning the art of cooking from chef Nakamura was a mind-blowing experience,” he says. From that moment on, “I made it my goal to make ramen in the U.S. better than what people can eat in Japan.”

Chefs about to open a restaurant are among those who come from around the country to spend days in the lab, often staying at the nearby Hilton in Hasbrouck Heights. “First we’ll say, ‘What is your vision for your ramen shop?’ Then we can help guide them toward noodles and stocks,” Uki says. “With ramen, you’re free to express yourself, so chefs can get really creative. It’s different with sushi or tempura, where there’s a style you have to follow.”

In Japan, regional variations abound. In the South, thick, hearty pork-stock soups are traditional. In Central and Northern prefectures, ramen soups are lighter. Rameneers hoping to catch the next wave might steer toward tsukemen, or “dipping noodles,” Uki says. With tsukemen, an offbeat Tokyo (Central) style, the soup is so thick it’s sauce-like, and a separate bowl is needed for the chewy noodles, which are dunked before slurping. “In California, a lot of tsukemen shops are opening,” he says. “People seem to want thicker and thicker. I think it’ll get popular here.”

Nakamura spends much of his time teaching visiting chefs at the lab. Lessons range from $40 for a one-hour class for novices to the low six figures for extended one-on-one work with him. Chef Naka, as he is called, also devotes himself, Uki says, to “developing new soups and liquid seasoning products.”

In pursuit of ramen rampancy, Sun sells to Japanese markets, including Mitsuwa, in Edgewater, and several New Jersey HMart stores. (A package of Sun ramen, including a seasoning pack, serves two and sells for about $4.) Uki says he will open the lab to home cooks sometime this spring. In this day of wine flights, beer flights, caviar flights and even crème brûlée flights, he plans to call the $40 classes Noodle Flights.

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