Inventor of Instant Noodles Dies At 96

(click image for larger view -- PhD Comics)

Every graduate student owes Momofuku Ando a tremendous debt of gratitude.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I was enjoying the fruits of his entrepreneurship on the day he passed away (January 5th).

Mainichi News:

Momofuku Ando, inventor of the instant ramen noodle and founding chairman of Nissin Food Products Co., died of a heart attack on Friday evening. He was 96.

Born in Taiwan, Ando initially set up a trading company in Taipei before founding a wholesale company in Osaka in 1933.

Ando decided to deal in food after seeing people suffer from poor diet during World War II. Later, he built a laboratory in the garden of his home in Ikeda, Osaka Prefecture, and began developing instant noodles there.

By trial and error Ando found a method to dry noodles using hot oil, and finally succeeded in the development of the world's first instant noodle in 1958, called "Chicken Ramen."

The instant noodle was a big hit, and his company marketed instant "Cup Noodles" in 1971.

Something I didn't know was that he originally developed the food so poor people would have something affordable to eat.

More on Mr. Ando and his entrepreneurship from the BBC:

Mr Ando said the inspiration for his product came when he saw people lining up to buy bowls of hot ramen noodle soup at a black market stall during the food shortages after World War II.

It was the masterstroke of providing a waterproof polystyrene container for the noodles that made his Cup Noodle an instant success in 1971.

Nissin has led the global instant noodle industry since then, selling 85.7 billion servings every year, according to Agence France Presse.

"He was a self-made man who developed an epoch-making instant noodle product and spread it to all corners of the world," Akio Nomura, chairman of the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Kyodo news agency.

Mr Ando remained active until just days before his death, giving a New Year's speech to Nissin employees and having a lunch of Chicken Ramen with company executives.

And the innovation hasn't stopped.

Scott Beale has this excellent collection of links about Mr. Ando, including this great animated flash animation of The Instant Ramen Invention Story.  More links at Telstar Logistics. 

There's even a blog and a museum dedicated to instant ramen noodles. 

Time Magazine listed Mr. Ando as one of Asia's heroes last year.

Here's a link to Nissin Food's homepage, including Mr. Ando's bio. 

Rest in peace, Ando-san.