Cumberland sausage noodles, cheeseburger mazesoba, and a Japanese take on ham egg and chips are just a few of Luke Findlay's crazy east-west mash-ups.
The Hackney chef's 'new wave' bowls push ramen rules to the limit and have gathered a loyal following for his Dalston restaurant Supa Ya Ramen.
It all started with a trip to Japan in 2019 and a visit to a backstreet ramen shop in a quiet Tokyo suburb. The ex Ottolenghi and Bubala chef said: "It was a fairly unremarkable little place specialising in only one kind of miso but I ate one of the best dishes of his life and was instantly hooked."
Taking inspiration from a new wave movement in Tokyo powered by "younger chefs who were thinking outside the box," he hatched a plan to return home and "do a pop up with a few bowls I had eaten out there".
"I tried the traditional route but it wasn't working so I started coming up with some creative ideas which resonated with the style of cooking that I know - no boundaries no limits - I started cooking how I like and relaxed into it. I asked my flat mates if I could do a supper club in the flat. It was three sittings of six, one bowl, no alternative, one hour and get out of there. It was hard to get a seat and people always want what they can't get."
He loved the "DIY spirit of the supper club" and when he put a few of his bowls on Instagram "it all took off and got a bit out of control."
His inventive flavour combinations include celeriac chashu, roast chicken with butter chili corn, miso curry butter chicken, and spicy sesame short-rib noodles.
Armed with a strong social media following the chef crowdfunded to open a bricks and mortar site in Kingsland Road in 2020, which proved so successful he opened a second in Peckham in 2022.
"It's completely different to any other ramen you can get in London," says Findlay, who has written a cook book Supa Ya Ramen (Pavilion Books) which is out on October 26.
He explains there are five elements to ramen; a soup, noodles, flavoured oils, an egg, and toppings like pickles and ferments. Traditional ramen is made with a pork soup, but he uses chicken and offers recipes for both the 18-hour traditional way of making a soup, or the faster method in a pressure cooker.
The Hackney resident puts his success down to "super tasty" dishes that fit in with Londoner's busy lives, but adds: "I'm very lucky the people of East London are open to new ideas, new experiences, and want to go out and try something different."
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