Ramen Otaku: Mastering Ramen at Home

A guide to ramen for the home cook, from the chef behind the beloved shop Otaku Ramen.

Sarah Gavigan is otaku. Loosely translated, she’s a ramen geek. During her twenty years working in film production and as a music executive in L.A., Gavigan ate her way through the local ramen spots, but upon moving back to her native Nashville, she found she missed the steaming bowls of ramen she used to devour. So she dedicated herself to mastering the oft-secretive but always delicious art of ramen-making and opened her own shop within a few years.

An Italian American born and raised in the South, Gavigan is an unlikely otaku. While her knowledge of ramen is rooted in tradition, her methods and philosophies are modern. Though ramen is often shrouded in mystery, Gavigan’s 40+ recipes are accessible to the home cook who wants to learn about the cuisine but would sometimes rather make a quick stock in a pressure cooker than labor over a vat of liquid for twenty-four hours.

Ramen Otaku strips the mystique from ramen while embracing its history, magic, and rightful place in the American home kitchen.

Sarah Gavigan is a fourth-generation Nashvillian and music executive-turned-ramen otaku. After twenty years working in music licensing in Los Angeles, Gavigan returned to Nashville in 2010 and began to teach herself how to master ramen before opening her first restaurant, POP Nashville, in 2014, followed by Otaku Ramen in 2015. She has been featured in Food & Wine, Southern Living, Bon Appétit, Garden & Gun, Eater, The Kitchn, and many more.