About

Our Story

Passion and creativity are synonyms for the vision that Yasushi Ueyama has embraced for more than thirty years. The following is his story and how his ramen came to be.

Prior to arriving in the U.S., Yasushi was a successful Chef/Owner of several restaurants, a bar and fast food store in Kobe, Japan. Yasushi’s initial exposure to cooking was quite by chance. He had graduated from college in Japan as a nutritionist. He was working in Kyoto, Japan in a medical laboratory, conducting tests; when his friend, a very successful restaurant owner in Kyoto, asked him to help out in the kitchen. He found that he really enjoyed it and in a short while he quit his job at the laboratory to apprentice at one of Kyoto’s most famous restaurants. He went on to receive his “Kikizakeshi Certificate” as a sake sommelier. So at the age of 28, he became chef and owner of his various restaurant businesses in Kobe, Japan.

Yasushi arrived with his wife Kathy and children in 2001. They opened several restaurants in Folsom, California. Yasushi’s culinary experience was in the fine dining “kaiseki” type and he realized that it was not the type of food his customers could relate to. It was also the height of the sushi boom and he had no interest in sushi. After much consideration, he sold his businesses and took a short hiatus to rethink his ideas about food and what his passion was.

The focus for Yasushi has always been a desire that all his culinary creations were to be healthy. Due to his educational background as a nutritionist and his own passion for cuisine that could be affordable and healthy, for all ages, young and old alike… he ventured upon the idea of creating a “non-traditional ramen”, he wanted to cook and create….not open a package of dry noodles and a package of dry ingredients to add to plain water. To him, this was not cooking….not from scratch. His creation came to fruition at the first store at 24th Street and later, a second location at R Street.

True to his passion, to this day, none of his broths contain preservatives or MSG. He relies on his knowledge as a chef and nutritionist to bring out the natural flavors present in all his fresh and organic ingredients. He often says, “Cooking is like science”, so after many “experiments” he finally created the ramen that we have come to love and crave.

It’s healthy…. for infants and on to the elderly. You can enjoy the soup, not only the noodles, to the very last drop. This is how Yasushi’s ramen came to be….a creation that truly is, “A BOWL OF DREAMS”

Yasushi, his wife and partner Kathy and son and daughter reside in Sacramento, California

Timeline