history / inventor / development / news

King of Instant Noodle──Bai-fu Wu
　

    Instant noodles are the most important diet breakthrough in the process in which human beings march to 20th century when people pursues for speed. However, do you who invented the instant noodles everywhere?

    When hearing of this question, at the beginning, some members said patriotically that the inventor must be a Taiwanese and other members supported the Japanese who were known for invention. After we checked the information, we found that both were correct and wrong. The inventor was born in Chiayi, Taiwan; however, he invented instant noodles in Japan. We were curious how Taiwanese whose daily lives were filled with instant noodles would answer this question. Thus, we included this question in the questionnaire and see if the people with different ages had different answers!

    Out of our expectation, many people had the right answer! In fact, the inventor─Momofuku Ando (originally named Bai-fu Wu) was died of myocardial infarction on January 5, 2007. Because of the following reports on news, everyone was not strange to this inventor. The following was the information we checked and reorganized:

    Momofuku Ando, “father of instant noodles”, who invented the first bowl of instant noodles in the world and created Nissin Food food kingdom was died of acute myocardial infarction on the moring of the 5th.

    Actually, Momofuku Ando was originally a local Taiwanese whose origin family name was Wu. He was born Potze, Chiayi in 1910. When he was 22 years old, he was turned into Japanese nationality and changed his family name into Ando. After founding Nissin Food, he treated “sufficient food and peaceful world” as his motto. In other words, he hoped that everyone could have adequate clothing and food so that the world would be in peace.

    He invented the first bowl of instant noodles, “chicken ramen”, of the world in
1958. The instant noodles were sold to U.S. in 1966. In 1971, Nissin Cup Noodle entered the market. Being praised as “father of instant noodles”, he not only established the kingdom of Nissin Food, but also became well-known in the world because of instant noodles.

    Mr. Wu devoted all his life in food business. Until the year before last, he was still the honorary president of Nissin Food. He also established Instant Ramen Museum and assisted with ramen fair held in Osaka next year. Born in Taiwan, Mr. Wu has been awarded the second level of Rising Sun Medal of Honor in Japan and honorary citizen of Los Angele, USA.

    Besides instant noodles, Nissin Food also aggressively developed other. For example, it combined with pasta restaurant and invented the spaghetti which met the Japanese’s taste. In addition, it also invented the space instant noodles which could be eaten by the astronauts in the space. Mr. Wu originally intended to hold the first global instant noodles conference. However, he could not fulfill his dream, but he has creat a legendary page by instant noodles.

    The following is the news report of his introduction:

    Father of instant noodles was originally a Taiwanese who was not retired at 95 years old .

    “The life with over 90 years flies like the wind. I have experienced the incidents in and after the war which modern young people can never imagine……for me, there is nothing to regret in life.
   
    ——Momofuku Ando has written in “my resume” on Japan Business News in 2001. The president of Nissin Food. Momofuku Ando planned to resign the positions of president and director on June 29. However, he was not completely retired. He would continue offer his opinions to the company and promote culture to contribute to the society.

    Although being an old man, Momofuku Ando has been keeping good spirit and healthy. He worked every day. Whenever he met the journalists, he always said that he ate instant noodles every dya. He played golf twice a week. According to the people around him, he said the above to every visitor. It seemed that instant noodles and training were two keys for his health and longevity.

   “I am 95 years old and have been lived for nearly one century”, Mr. Ando indicated in his resignation declaration that before and after WWII, people were suffered because of the change of time. “After the war, I found that people starved because of the food shortage and I decided to devote to food industry. I believed that with sufficient food, the world could be in peace. My purpose to invent instant noodles was simple. I hoped that everyone could eat the noodles at any time and any place. I would thus be happy.”

    Mtr. Ando indicated that he hoped to pass his position when he was still alive. After resignation did not mean complete retirement. “The company accepted his resignation and it meant that he was determined,” one of Momofuku Ando’s speakers said, “however, he agreed to undertake the new position ‘the president of founder’ and continued to offer visionary opinions for the firm.”

    In addition, Mr. Ando also indicated that he would continue being the one in charge of the foundation he has constructed to promote children’s sport and food culture. “In my long life, I have been helped and taken care of by hundreds of people; many people loved instant noodles which accompanied their lives. I hoped to return their support for me,” he said.

    Mr. Ando in global instant noodles summit held in Shanghai in 2004 (with picture). The instant noodles created by the businessman born in Taiwan were called by the Japanese as     “the grandest invention in the 20th century”.

  ※Character: Momofuku Ando—Taiwanese businessman• invention •contribution to the world.

    Momofuku Ando was born in Taiwan in 1910 and was originally named Bai-fu Wu. In his early times, he managed the knit goods business in Taipei and was in business to Osaka, Japan in 1933. He founded the predecessor of Momofuku Ando in 1948——Chukososha Co., Ltd.
　

  ※Inspired by starvation

    Some people thought that the person invented the instant noodles must have remarkable view and be daring. However, in fact, Mr. Ando’s invention was “inspired by starvation”. After WWII, the food in Japan was in serious shortage. Once he passed a ramen stall and saw people lining up for 20 to 30 meter in the cold weather. He thus had an idea: making a kind of instant noodles which could be eaten with hot water. The businessman’s sensibility also reminded him that it would be a huge demand.

    However, Mr. Ando did not stard to develop them; instead, he managed knitting, raised silkworms, kept warehouse, sold slide projector, made salt, caught fish, run a school, developed nutritious food and was in jail once. Unitl the time when his credit combination as a president was failed, he was determined to transfer his business core to “food”. Later, he used the term “sufficient food and peaceful world” invented by himself ——after being full, the world would be in peace, as the business idea of Nissin Food which was originated from the experience during this time.
　

  ※The total searching at home
   
    In the spring of 1958, Mr. Ando constructed a 10 square meter humble house at the back yard of his residence in Ikeda, Osaka as the laboratory of instant noodles. He found an old noodle making machine and bought a wok with one-meter diameter, flour and oil to start developing instant noodles.

    The instant noodles imagined by Mr. Ando were a kind of instant noodles which could be eaten only hot water. Thus, he set up five goals: first, the taste was good and people would never feel tired of the taste; secondly, it could be the domestic common supply with high degree of preservative characteristic; thirdly, it was simple without cooking; fourthly, it was cheap; fifthly, since it was food, it must be safe and healthy.

    At the beginning, Mr. Ando walked in the house right after waking up at 5 o’clock in the morning and kept studying until one or two o’clock at night. His average sleeping time was less than 4 hours. The days lasted for a long period of time.
　

  ※The origin of chicken soup noodles

    At the time, the chickens he raised at the back yard were often used for cooking. One day, when Mrs. Ando was in the kitchen, the dying chicken suddenly jumped up and scared her son Hongchi next to her. Since then, Hongchi would never eat chicken. However, once Mr. Ando’s mother-in-law put ramen in the chicken soup and Mr. Ando found it delicious. Thus, Mr. Ando decided to add chicken soup in the instant noodles. He said that when he recalled of the incident, he still thought the decision was reasonable. After instant noodles entered the international market, there were no countries which did not eat chicken.
　

  ※The invention swept across the world

    His efforts were not in vain. The first chicken instant noodles were introduced in 1958. In the same year, Mt. Ando changed the name of Chukososha Co., Ltd. into Nissin Food. In 1968, the star product of Nissin, “Demae”, was born. In 1971, Nissin initially introduced cup instant noodles which immediately swept across the world. Instant noodles were treated by the Japanese as “the greatest invention in the 20th century”.


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