$100 ramen

[CFT]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100218/tsc-oukoe-uk-japan-noodles-life-8ad1534.html

The "Five-taste Blend Imperial Noodles" offered at Tokyo's Fujimaki Gekijyo restaurant is ultimately just a bowl of soup and noodles, albeit an expensive one especially as Japan's economy slowly recovers from its worst recession since World War Two.

But owner Shoichi Fujimaki said it's the soup, and the more than 20 ingredients used to make it, that elevated the dish from street food into five-star cuisine, with the price tag to match.

"It's not really ramen. This is my cuisine, it's my 25 years of experience distilled into one bowl," Fujimaki told Reuters as he poured ingredients into a bubbling pot. "This is the only place in the world that people have this kind of soup."

[annabelle]

If it's not really ramen why is he calling it that? I don't care if he's using 300 ingredients and 300 years worth of experience, he's got some stones to charge $100 (USD?) for a bowl of noodles.

I make some mean soup and have been cooking for 35 years. Pony up, ya'll!

Edited February 18, 2010 by annabelle (log)

[Tri2Cook]

I don't care if he's using 300 ingredients and 300 years worth of experience, he's got some stones to charge $100 (USD?) for a bowl of noodles.

If enough people are willing to pay that $100, he's charging exactly the right price. If people would line up to pay $100 each for any one of my dishes, I'd sell it to those people for that price all day every day. It doesn't have to be worth $100... it just has to be worth $100 to the people buying it.

[Hiroyuki]

Considering the fact that the food cost percentage for ramen is 30-35%, you will simply get what you pay for, provided that he spends 3,000 to 3,500 yen for the ingredients.

[CFT]

It only sounds outrageous because we associate ramen with "cheap" dining. We'd feel outraged if someone paid $100 for a burger (classic fast food), yet these gourmet burgers are on some menus.

We would question paying alot for sharks fin soup, truffles, caviar, foie gras, etc.

[Hiroyuki]

For me, even 1,000-yen ramen is outrageous. For me, ramen should be in the range of 400 to 600 yen per bowl.

But that's exactly why this man wanted to start a ramen shop where 3,000-yen ramen was served and then another shop where 10,000 ramen is served.

According to this article (Japanese only),

he entered the world of cooking at the age of 16. He became a head chef at a first-class restaurant in Tokyo, and then opened "Fujimaki Gekijo" in Ikejiri, Setagaya ward. The shop became popular, but he had a problem: He was fed up with the commonly held views regarding ramen, examplified by customers lining up, (customers purchasing) food tickets (at the vending machine installed in the shop), low-margin high-turnover, and "class B gourmet" (that is, ramen is inferior to fine dishes (class A gourmet)).

This article also says that he plans to change only the ingredients of the 3,000-yen ramen and open a shop next year where ramen will be served for 1,000 yen in Kanda, where ramen competition is fierce.