I have tried literally hundreds of different ramen restaurants over the years, both in Japan and Europe, and I have seen many differences in the way restaurant production is set up.

By far, my favorite is still the homemade ramen approach, where the restaurant produces its own noodles and soup in-house. It simply tastes so much better.

Setting up your own ramen production is actually quite straightforward. Once you have developed a strong menu and a solid production process, you can stick to the same process each time. This also makes it easier to plan your production based on expected volumes.

Another benefit of producing your own noodles and soup is that you can make your ramen 100% your own. It is also a great way to market your restaurant. Customers can see that everything is produced fresh and in-house.

What many people don’t know is that ramen can be split into five main components: flavored oil, tare, soup base, noodles and, finally, toppings.

The most complex of them all is often the tare, or base sauce. It takes quite some experience and effort to get this right and create a unique umami flavor. The good news is that once you have mastered it, you can produce it in batches and store it safely for future use when labeled and stored correctly.

In recent years, ramen has seen a huge boom in Europe and the United States. In Europe, customers are often looking for homemade ramen because of its quality, but ramen restaurant owners can struggle with setting up their production correctly from the start.

If there is one tip I can give to ramen restaurant owners, it is to start with a good plan and a few solid bowls of ramen made with high-quality ingredients and a soup that is rich in flavor.