Yuki Tanaka

Yuki Tanaka's journey to becoming a ramen master began with failure. After quitting his corporate job at 28, he opened a ramen shop that closed within a year. Rather than give up, he spent the next decade traveling Japan, apprenticing with master ramen chefs, and obsessively refining his craft. Today, his tiny 12-seat ramen shop in Tokyo has a Michelin star and a permanent queue outside. His tonkotsu broth, which he calls "liquid gold," takes 48 hours to prepare and uses pork bones from a single farm in Kagoshima prefecture. "Ramen is my meditation," Tanaka-san explains, carefully adjusting the flame under his broth. "Every bowl is a chance to do better than the last. After 40 years, I am still learning."