Who actually invented ramen?

Food shortages were widespread at the time, and Ando remembered telling himself, “Peace will come when people have food.” He resolved to come up with a nutritious, inexpensive, and easy-to-prepare ramen dish. Working in a shed behind his house in Ikeda, Japan, Ando experimented with different ways of making, drying, and flavouring noodles. Through trial and error, he finally came up with a method of preparing noodles by sprinkling them with chicken soup and then frying them. When Ando added boiling water to the fried noodles, they moistened and released their chicken flavour. The first instant bowl of ramen soup was ready for production. Although Ando’s product was initially more expensive than a fresh cup of noodles, the price gradually went down because of demand, and instant noodles soon became ubiquitous. Ando’s company, Nissin, continues to sell his product as Top Ramen and Cup Noodles in a variety of flavours, including beef, shrimp, and soy sauce. The Cup Noodles Museum, with locations in Ōsaka and Yokohama, Japan, celebrates not only noodles but perseverance and ingenuity.

Momofuku Ando was born on March 5, 1910. He established Nissin Food Products and founded the Ando Foundation. In 1958, Momofuku invented Chicken Ramen, the world’s first instant ramen, creating the instant ramen industry. In 1971, he invented CUPNOODLES, the world’s first ramen served in a cup. Along with serving as the CEO and chairman of Nissin Food Products, Momofuku contributed to building the instant ramen industry as chairman of the Japan Instant Food Industry Association and as chairman of the World Instant Noodles Association. Dedicated to the healthy education of young people, in 1983, he used funds from his personal fortune to establish the Ando Foundation.