Meet Chef Nakamura: The “Ramen God” of NYC
It was a sticky summer night in the Lower East Side of NYC with the outdoor dining vibes in full swing. After a couple ice cold pints of Sapporo at Ronin Stones our stomachs started to rumble and we all know what that means... time to hit the “hangry button” on 8it. Luckily, the app pointed us just down the street to something special: the Steak Mazemen at Nakamura.
Watch Chef Nakamura describe the inspiration behind Steak Mazemen on this episode of 8it Worthy:
The Steak Mazemen looked like ramen, but it wasn’t what we know ramen to be - and the food world had nothing but good things to say about it; Hannah Albertine from Infatuation described the dish as “a salty rich comfort food dream with egg” and the notoriously hard-to-please NY Time’s restaurant critic Pete Wells said it’s “novel, straightforward, refined, unruly, and impure of heart”. We had to try it.
Hunched over a plastic bowl on a tiny outdoor table, we scarfed down the dish that we still dream about today. After slurping up the last bit of the Steak Mazemen, we met the angel behind this heavenly dish, the Ramen God himself: Chef Shigetoshi Nakamura.
We peeked inside the restaurant to see Chef Nakamura hard at work shooting photos of his own ramen dishes in between feeding each of his hungry customers. He saw the awe on our faces as we peeked through the window, and he graciously answered our questions about his special dish. With more to share, Chef Nakamura warmly welcomed us back to his kitchen to tell us about the inspiration behind the Steak Mazemen and his innovative style in the world of ramen.
Watch our feature of the Steak Mazemen on the new episode of “8it Worthy” followed by a series of flash-in-the-pan questions on this episode of “Grilled” with Chef Nakamura.
Watch Chef Nakamura answer some rapid fire food questions on this episode of GRILLED 🔥:
People call you the Ramen God, can you talk a little bit on how you got the nickname, The Ramen God?
There’s actually four of us, we made a Ramen TV show in Japan, it was the ramen version of Iron Chef and we competed against each other in making ramen. The show was called Ramen King.
How did you fall in love with Ramen?
Actually my parents owned several supermarkets. I made instant ramen first and it was amazing, dry and very instant. Then I asked my parents to take me to a Ramen shop. I went there and tasted it and I said wow. It opened my eyes. Before that I only knew rice bowls & fried food, but for kids noodles are so amazing. Kids LOVE noodles! The texture is very easy to eat. Then I started making Ramen when I went to San Diego, California. I surfed a lot and the temperature of the ocean is very cold there and I didn’t have enough money to eat out, so I made my meals by myself. I needed to make some hot food to warm my body up. That’s why I made a lot of soup stocks. Then I used the cheap instant noodle with my soup stock.
What is the easiest way to make a quick broth at home?
You can make a great soup stock from a lot of left over ingredients. I recommend chicken is the most balanced ingredient. Pork - some pork is very fatty and some isn’t good for the broth. If you buy a whole chicken this is balanced with the fat, taste, body, and just boil the whole chicken with the water. The only soup stock that doesn’t have enough saltiness and sweetness, you can make your own liquid seasoning with Shoyu or Sake. If you are lazy…just use the packet.
What does Mazemen mean?
”Maze” is mixed and “men” is noodle. It’s basically mixed noodle. People call it brothless noodles or saucy ramen. It has some liquid inside, but it’s not like a soup. It’s kind of a sauce. It has more of an intense taste than ramen because it’s not soup, it’s more of a sauce.
Are you more excited about Mazemen than ramen?
I think it’s a different culture. We have 3 types of ramen dish in the ramen world. First is soup noodle (ramen), second is like a dipped ramen - Tsukemen (tsuke = dip & men = noodle), and the last one is mazemen (a mixed saucy ramen). Not all the ingredients work with a soup stock. If the ingredients are good for a soup stock, then I use ramen. I think the mazemen is a good fit for American food culture because the taste is more intense and also very easy to arrange the noodle dish.
Can you talk a little bit more about the inspiration of the mazemen ingredients you use?
The most popular is the steak mazemen so I usually make the steak. I don’t make the Steak Ramen because the soup broth erases the steak’s flavor. The second popular here is the Russ & Roe inspired by Russ & Daughters. I love that shop. They have smoked salmon and also a lot of amazing fish. So I use cod roe for a sauce with smoked salmon & noodles.
What’s your favorite NYC steakhouse?
It’s hard to say, but I like the one near West 4th St, Minetta Tavern. They have a great steak, especially the burger: The Black Label Burger. (also one of Anthony Bourdain’s favorite burgers in NYC)
Do you have any other dishes that are inspired by New York?
New York has a lot of seafood culture and people love clams here, so I make a yuzu-dashi mazemen which is a pescatarian dish, so I use 100% clam juice for the sauce and mix with noodles which is amazing. (basically his Japanese take on the italian classic: Linguine Vongole)
What is it that you love about NY?
The mixed culture. Mixed noodle is mazemen. Mixed Culture is New York. It’s the best place in the world and the mazemen is the best dish to fit that. It’s like a melting pot.
Can you tell us the story about the custom Nakamura ramen bowls that you sell here in the shop?
Sometimes the classic bowls are too boring for me, so I made a NY design Ramen bowl with NAKAMURA name on it. There are many tourists in New York and when people are here they want something from NY’s culture, their food culture. That’s why I tried to make a NY designed ramen bowl. When I make a new dish here, I always focus on the local ingredients. I made this bowl because I want to present for the people here, NEW YORK RAMEN. It’s not only Japanese style.
Who created the design?
Dan Ichimoto, a Japanese designer here. He normally does a lot of movie design and packaging labels for products. You can buy these bowls at the store, but not online.
If you were leaving tomorrow and can never eat in NYC again, what would your last meal be?
I think steak in New York is my honest answer. Steak is everywhere and I can try it everywhere, but New York steak is good because there are a lot of steak geeks here. That makes the steak culture. Same as Japan, there are many ramen geeks there, so there alot of ramen developed there. Of course in NY, there’s pizza and cheesecake, but steak makes me feel like “OOOH this is NY”.
How do you see the COVID-19 pandemic affecting NYC restaurant culture moving forward?
I think for us, I am waiting for people to change the lifestyle. Of course restaurants need to change, but it’s necessary to connect with peoples lives. So, once people make changes to their every day life, then the restaurants will need to make changes to fit their lifestyle.
I am making ramen home kits here for people who want to stay home still but still want to enjoy restaurant quality food. Many restaurants need to think about how to bring their quality home. Another way is catering. I have also been doing private ramen parties for small groups of people.
Every restaurant has their own character and people still want to experience that character in the food. There are a lot of possibilities.
Where can people buy the kit?
People can purchase via delivery and pick up. I am also applying to Goldbelly.
Before the pandemic, were you set up for delivery or did you not do delivery yet?
We were set up for 1, Postmates. Right now we are working with Caviar and Doordash and takeout is through Toast.
Have you had to innovate how you package and deliver the kits to the customer?
The mazemen technique is good for delivery because it’s a seasoned noodle. Delivery of ramen is hard because people want noodle and the soup separately, but once the noodle is dry it is hard for the noodle to absorb the taste from the soup. It’s hard to get the same quality from the shop.
Now go support Chef Nakamura by ordering the Steak Mazemen & more featured on 8it!
Production Credits:
Videography & Editing: Emily Feng
Photography: Kyra Louie
Audio: Ana Fangayen
Producer: Mckenzie Muscat