Photo Report of Professional Ramen Course April 2022
Updated: June 2022
JCI's professional Ramen Course has resumed for the first time in almost two years following the Yakitori Lessons after being suspended due to the COVID19 disaster.
Ramen is a simple dish consisting of noodles, soup, and toppings. Within this dish, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or even more unique ramen dishes are studied and consumed throughout Japan every day.
JCI's lessons will teach you the skills of a ramen master, so you can make them. Plus, you'll train your palate by going on food trips to some of Japan's very best ramen restaurants!
Not only that, but each student will be thoroughly trained to make ramen to their taste, using their recipe tailored to each student's market and taste. This is the characteristic of JCI's professional lessons. The lesson menu this time is as follows.
Day-1: Making Chashu pork and ramen soup broth
Day-2: Preparing soup with dried sardine/preparing soy sauce and salt-based soup and visit a famous ramen restaurant
Day-3: Making Tantanmen and making a ramen bowl at the ceramic studio
Day-4: Making noodles and Gyoza
Day-5: Preparing Tonkotsu (pork bone) soup
Day 1:Making Chashu Pork and Basic Broth
The master and student cooked Chashu pork and basic ramen broth together. Chashu is made by slowly cooking chunks of pork belly over low heat in a sauce made of soy sauce, sugar, ginger and green onion, etc. It is sliced and used as a topping for ramen. The base broth, made from pork thigh bones and chicken leg tips, is rich, full-bodied, and full of umami. The student's faces lit up with surprise "Oishii!" when they tasted it.
Day 2: Preparing soup with dried sardine/preparing soy sauce and salt-based soup andvisit a famous ramen restaurant
On the second day, the student cooked two kinds(clear and cloudy) with roasted Niboshi(dried baby sardine and horse mackerel) and tasted a combination of salt flavor x hand-tossed noodles and soy sauce flavor x medium thin noodles in clear soup stock, and a variety of salt tare x hand-tossed noodles and soy sauce flavor x thick noodles in cloudy soup stock.
The hand-tossed noodles increase their texture and give them a handmade texture. By comparing the clear and cloudy soups with salt and soy sauce flavor, the student was excited to learn that the same ingredients can look and taste different depending on how they are prepared.
After the lesson, the group went sightseeing at Kadonowaki Suspension Bridge on the Jogasaki Coast in Ito City and visited a ramen restaurant of an owner trained under the famous ramen master Minoru Sano.
Day 3: Making Tantanmen and making a ramen bowl at the ceramic studio
We are now on the third day of the ramen lesson. While the students still have more to learn, the ramen masters are busy working in the kitchens with more to teach!
Today, at the student's request, he tried his hand at making Tantanmen(Dandan noodles). The spicy minced pork topping was seasoned with chili oil, sesame oil, sake, soy sauce, sansho (Japanese pepper), and ground sesame seeds. The students were surprised to hear that the only adjustment for the four levels of spiciness was the amount of chili powder!