Milk Street Digital Class: Homemade Ramen with Hugh Amano

Hugh Amano’s first dumpling memories are of his mother making gyoza for Japanese night at a restaurant in their small mountain town of Gunnison, Colorado.

His fascination with salt’s power to draw moisture out of cabbage, the mixing of the filling to create a cohesive emulsification, and the joy that variety of texture via various cooking methods brings were early culinary bedrock for his career in the kitchen. His education as a lover of dough-encased foods continued via travel: frequent visits to family in Japan, where he’d eat as many gyoza as he could get his hands on, late night/early morning dim sum in Macau following (during) several rounds of drinks with friends, and beef-filled, gravy-covered pasties in Montana brought to the region by Cornish miners. When a girlfriend’s Italian mother first taught him how to make homemade pasta for tortellini with a rolling pin and a well-worn wooden board, he was hooked on making dumplings of all forms. Hugh now lives in Chicago where the roster of dough-encased foods runs deep (tamales, pierogies, momos, you name it), working as a chef and writer. He most recently coauthored "Let’s Make Ramen!" with Sarah Becan (Ten Speed Press 2019), and he always puts out a big batch of gyoza for his annual New Year’s Eve dinner party.