Our guest is Steven Pursley, the chef/owner of Menya Rui in St. Louis, Missouri. Menya Rui opened in 2022, and since, Steven has received numerous accolades for his job at the ramen shop, such as Food & Wine magazine’s Best New Chef in 2023.

Steven has the right reasons to be recognized as a great ramen chef. He grew up both in Japan and the U.S. as a child under his American and Japanese parents, so he has lots of fond memories of Japanese food and in particular, ramen.

His soul search led him to study ramen in Japan, and his 24-seat ramen shop Menya Rui represents who he is now. For example, he makes everything from scratch, including noodles, which is highly challenging for even an experienced ramen chef in Japan.

In this episode, we will discuss why Steven decided to pursue a career in ramen, what he learned in his three-year intensive training at ramen shops in Japan, his unique philosophy of ramen, his advice to future ramen chefs, and much, much more!

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Our guest is Dr. Arielle Johnson. Arielle is a flavor scientist who advises some of the top chefs, restaurants, and bars in the world. For example, she co-founded the fermentation lab at the restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, which has been named the best restaurant in the world multiple times by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Arielle is currently the Science Director of Noma Projects and co-founder of Retronasal Industries among other important roles.

Arielle is also the author of “Flavorama: A Guide To Unlocking The Art And Science Of Flavor”, which came out in March 2024. The book is a wonderful tool for all of us to understand the science of flavors and to apply it to our daily lives in fun and practical ways.

In this episode, we will discuss how Arielle got into the world of tastes and flavors, the joy of applying science to top restaurants' kitchens in the world, how you can use food science in your daily life with tips from Arielle’s new book Flavorama and much, much more!

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Our guest is Takuma Inagawa who is the founder and CEO of WAKAZE. WAKAZE is a unique and forward-minded producer of Japanese sake based in Paris, France.

The Japanese sake industry has been facing challenges domestically due to various reasons, such as the decrease in the drinking population and the increase in competitive products in the market like wine and shochu. Compared to the peak of sake consumption in the 1970s, Japanese people drink only a quarter of sake now.

Ironically, the government regulations are not helping to stop the decline as they restrict licensing new sake businesses that can revitalize the industry.

However, WAKAZE is presenting a model to conquer the challenges by producing new styles of sake with traditional techniques and an innovative mindset.

In this episode, we will discuss why Takuma left his successful career as a business consultant and decided to start a sake brewery in Paris, his out-of-the-box approach to sake production, how he managed to convince French consumers to drink Japanese sake made in Paris, his new sake production in America, his global plans to grow the popularity of sake, and much, much more!!!

Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Japan Eats by becoming a member!

Japan Eats is Powered by Simplecast.