Ramen with an American-Jewish flavour

[NEW YORK] At 50, Ivan Orkin appears to have pulled off a chain of unprecedented feats.

He is the first American brave (or foolish) enough to open his own ramen shop in Tokyo. (He now has two.) He is the first chef to publish a cookbook/memoir, Ivan Ramen in the United States before even opening a restaurant here. And last week, he may have become the first chef in Manhattan to intercept a bathroom-bound customer and order her back to her seat.

"She got up right after the ramen hit the table!" he said in self-defence, citing the first commandment of ramen: It must be eaten while still volcanically hot.