Sacramento man’s quirky ramen recipes earn him the title ‘Chief Noodle Officer’
David Chan’s blog, Nichijou Ramen, roughly translates to “Ramen Every Day.” Fitting.
Chan will receive 50 years’ worth of Top Ramen starting next week after being named Nissin Foods’ first-ever Chief Noodle Officer earlier this month. He earned the title by turning a package of soy sauce instant noodles into a yuzu mille-feuille, a many-layered French pastry whose originators surely never conceived of it this way.
Chan’s prize will come in annual shipments of 16 boxes containing 24 Top Ramen packages apiece through 2070 — 19,200 meals in all. He’ll also receive $10,000 and get to preview new Nissin products before they hit the shelves.
A California State Water Resources Control Board engineer and Greenhaven resident by day, Chan moonlights as an amateur ramen cook (the non-instant kind) and runs his blog as well as an Instagram account with 21,000 followers. He’s hosted pop-ups at Device Brewing’s midtown taproom, Taiwan Best Mart and Silt Wine Co. in Clarksburg, plus festivals in New York and Portland, Oregon.
“Engineering kind of shapes my personality, where I think of everything technical and I think of cooking in a scientific way,” Chan said. “That’s really shaped the way I cook in general, because I try and be more precise, make everything reproducible, and that helps me improve on my ramen every day.”
Growing up in Carmichael, Chan’s comfort food simply required hot water and a spoon. The “gateway noodles” were what his dad made for weekend lunches and one of the first dishes Chan remembers making for himself, he said.
Instant dinners eventually gave way to handmade noodles and complex broths, though Chan has maintained a soft spot for Nissin’s simplicity. Guests at Chan and his wife Kristie’s 2018 wedding went home with commemorative Cup Noodles, another Nissin product. The long noodles, the couple told their guests, were symbolic for what will hopefully be a long marriage.
“Top Ramen, it’s very accessible to everybody. To me, it’s kind of that starting point into the culinary world or just ramen,” Chan said.
Competition was stiff for the title of CNO; one of Chan’s friends in Seattle submitted 50 different Top Ramen-based dishes in honor of Nissin’s 50th anniversary, the impetus for the contest.
Once Chan learned that Top Chef All-Stars champion Melissa King would judge submissions alongside Nissin Foods CEO Mike Price, though, he opted for a three-course spread similar to what might be served on the Bravo show.
“We received an overwhelming response to our call for the first-ever Chief Noodle Officer in celebration of Top Ramen’s 50th anniversary, and David’s entry rose to the top, impressing me, as well as Chef Melissa King. We were both blown away by his creative recipes and his innovative use of Top Ramen, truly showcasing the noodles’ versatility,” Price wrote in an email.
First was the appetizer, a Portuguese egg tart made with ground Top Ramen noodles, filled with a custard of chicken seasoning packet, soy sauce and mirin and finished with fried chicken skin sprinkled with more chicken seasoning powder. The main course was a mushroom paitan ramen with tri-tip, chives and dill oil, topped with a Top Ramen/black rice deep-fried crisp dusted with shrimp flavoring — a riff on shrimp chips, one of Chan’s favorite snacks.
Dessert, though, won Chan the Chief Noodle Officer title. He soaked noodle blocks in an egg mixture similar to how one makes French toast, then made jam from yuzu juice, cinnamon and a back-of-refrigerator ripe pear, which he spread between layers of noodles and puff pastry. A packet of dry soy sauce flavoring was mixed with miso and butter and brushed onto Chan’s mille-feuille pastry, capped with a toasted marshmallow.
“I didn’t want to just throw in ramen and substitute it for one ingredient. I wanted to incorporate it into the dish so that it’s not completely obvious,” Chan said. “But I also wanted to use the flavoring packet because I think that’s one of the challenges.”
A full-time career making ramen got less appealing as Chan earned his master’s degree and progressed further into adult life, he said. He’s opted to stick with pop-ups, David Chang books and bowls from Kodaiko Ramen & Bar, his favorite Sacramento shop.
As for the Top Ramen, he plans on giving a significant amount away to friends, family members and local food banks.
“I don’t think I can eat my ramen and also instant ramen for every day of my life,” Chan said. “I guess it’s always good to stock up just in case, though.”
Try the ramen
Visit https://nissinfoods.com/recipes to recreate Chan and other finalists’ dishes at home.
This story was originally published December 23, 2020 at 5:00 AM.