This man also visually turns ramen soup upside down - with a mosaic in the courtyard of his restaurant on the Lower East Side.

There are many Japanese restaurants in the area.

But “Ivan Ramen” is different, not only because of the name, which doesn't sound Japanese at all.

The picture in the courtyard shows an overturned bowl of ramen.

The noodles dance along the wall, across the yard.

In between an octopus.

A fat pig.

A school of fish.

Halves of soft-boiled eggs.

Was his idea.

Ramen, the Japanese fast food, can be spicy or hearty.

Steam off heat or serve on ice.

A ramen soup is not a thoroughly choreographed kaiseki menu.

But unlike sushi, which has long been universal, ramen is still part of being cooked by a Japanese.

Jennifer Wiebking

Editor in the "Life" section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

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Ivan Orkin, 58, is American and still became famous for his ramen.

What's more, the Japanese themselves gave him great respect for his unconventional concept.

Orkin has lived and worked in Japan for 15 years, with his own restaurants.

Without the recognition of the Japanese for his work, he wouldn't be sitting here today, in his New York restaurant.

And it wouldn't be as well known without Netflix - but more on that later.

"Everyone was so nice to me"

Perhaps one has to start with his youth: Ivan Orkin grew up on Long Island, in Syosset, in sheltered Jewish-conservative circumstances. His father was a lawyer, his brother well on his way to becoming a lawyer. Ivan Orkin, however, did not like the prospect of becoming a lawyer himself. His classmates went to eat fast food in their spare time. "When I was 17, I couldn't go to any McDonald's," Orkin says. To do this, he stumbled into a sushi bar and asked for a temporary job. “The first thing I fell in love with was the food, and I found the language exciting. And: Everyone was so nice to me. ”On Saturdays, the cooks drove the dishwashers into town to the cinema to see kung fu films in Times Square. "Then we ate in her friends' restaurants."

At college, he took Japanese as the language. And when it came down to where he was going later, that too was quickly decided. Ivan Orkin moved to Tokyo and taught English. “My Japanese already improved there. But I didn't really know what I wanted to do in the long run. ”Then he met a woman, Tami. It took Orkin a while before the idea of ​​gastronomy came up. Orkin moved back to the United States with Tami and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America. He learned to cook and then worked in places that were known for fine dining. He and his wife had a son. It went well for Ivan Orkin. But then suddenly everything changed.