Lisa Nguyen, the internet’s queen of instant ramen, unveils a bespoke resource for elevating the convenience food

Lisa Nguyen // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Lisa Nguyen does most of her work in her Kansas City apartment, like a lot of remote workers. However, most remote workers don’t have millions of eyes from around the world on their work every day.

Since 2020, Nguyen has amassed nearly 5.4 million followers on YouTube, almost 400,000 on Instagram, and 3.1 million on TikTok. Her videos are focused on food, but highlight a variety of recipe- and community-centered content. The 30 Days of Ramen Challenge and Spicy Challenge are popular video series, as are Feeding My Neighbors and Exchanging Food with my Nail Tech.

Blending recipe instruction with personal stories in quick videos, Nguyen subtly fosters kindness and openness. She shows her failures and how she’s learned from them. She takes suggestions from followers to expand not only her own palate, but that of her audience. She omits judgment and pretension and fluff to focus on crisp and concise videos. But first and foremost, she shows how to take an inexpensive grocery staple and elevate it for a satisfying, custom meal.

This is precisely the point of her new project, and you don’t need to have any social media accounts to join in. Nguyen recently launched InstantRamen.com. This new website features her recipes and reviews of myriad instant ramen varieties, and allows anyone to share their reviews and save meal inspiration.

We sat down over coffee at Mildred’s on a brisk fall morning to chat about all things video and ramen. The next day, Nguyen invited me to her home so I could see the process and setting where she invites the world to join her in elevating a packet of instant ramen noodles. It should come as no surprise that the bowl she made for me, this one, was so good that I ended up recreating it just a few days later for dinner. She served the spicy and cheesy carbonara-flavored instant ramen with mushrooms, green onion, and steak.

The Pitch: Tell us about yourself.

Lisa Nguyen: I was born in Wichita, Kansas, and moved here to Kansas City about four years ago–it was during the pandemic, actually. I found success with YouTube, and it actually started with instant ramen, which is kind of like a full-circle situation. 

I was filming local restaurants in Wichita at the time, and because no one in the Midwest was kind of doing it at the time (that was like 2017-ish), I found a little bit of success with that. I quit my full-time job as a paralegal, traveled a bit, and then the pandemic hit. 

Everyone was at home, and I didn’t know how to cook, so every single day I was eating instant ramen. I figured I have a little bit of videography skills from filming the restaurants… why not just film my boring ramen for the day? Sometimes I would add an egg. Sometimes I’d eat this. (Gesturing to the dish she made me.) People would be shocked that you could add stuff to your instant ramen to level it up. But then I got suggestions from people. They would say, add this, try this. And then every single day I would eat it. That saw success on YouTube. It just blew up. 

And then I started learning how to cook, so I’ve been sharing my cooking journey. My channel is all about food: instant ramen, learning how to cook, and teaching people what I’ve learned along the way.

Lisa Nguyen’s filming setup // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Video content outside of YouTube in 2017 was still kind of cutting-edge. Do you feel like you were ahead of the game? 

I do, back then, because of what I was doing in Wichita was with restaurants. Some restaurants had only a Facebook account, but a lot of them didn’t. Basically none had Instagram. But I would see the videos from spots in New York City and LA, where it just made you hungry. And I started doing social media first for restaurants. Once I got a camera, I thought, you know what, it’s let’s try to shoot some videos. I would film the video, edit it, and post it on the restaurant’s Facebook or Instagram page. It got so many shares, like 10,000 views, and it got people through their door. I had never felt that satisfaction. I don’t know if that’s the word, but I’ve never felt that rewarded being able to do something for a business. And I was doing it for free.

I would work my nine-to-five, come to Kansas City on the weekends, and stay with my brother and his wife. And then one weekend, I shot 10 or 11 videos of Kansas City restaurants, and one of them was Old Shawnee Pizza. They got 14 million views on Facebook. That was 2018-ish. 

I was growing but still working at my paralegal job, and once you start finding a passion or success somewhere else, you start thinking of other things. I started thinking it might be time to leave. I made some Facebook revenue as well–enough to pay my rent, which in Wichita at the time was like $400, utilities included. I was very fortunate that I had my siblings who had my back and were encouraging me to pursue this. So I did. I quit in January 2019 and had about a year before the pandemic hit. The restaurants shut down, and I didn’t know what to do. That’s when I started YouTube and TikTok. I wish I had started posting more on Instagram, but I felt like the platform was so curated at the time, so I felt scared to post on there. I wish I did because I would have had more growth there, but I can’t think like that, because then I might not have the growth I did on YouTube. 

Your Ramen Challenge is the first content series I remember seeing. Are those your most popular videos?

Yes. In April of 2020, I had the idea–I’m already eating instant ramen every day, let’s actually make it a challenge. And I posted a video. 

I’m about to finish my sixth annual Ramen Challenge, but 30 days usually turn into like 40 days. It’s a treat for my audience, and this year was a little bit different since they didn’t know that I was working on the website. On the back end, it’s been quite a challenge doing all things at once: video work, content work, the challenge, and building a website. But the challenge is fun for the audience. 

This year, I asked what they wanted me to make. Next year, I might do that again, or I might just do what I feel like in the moment. If I get really passionate about something, I’m just going to get the video out that day. Anytime I’m trying to learn something new, I like to share that with my audience. I used to show a lot of my failures in the beginning. I’d cook salmon but burn it, and then I would tell them what went wrong, and then the next time I’d fix it. And then we’re kind of the same process throughout everything we cooked. During the pandemic, I also did a spicy challenge.

And then I do a series on feeding my neighbors, and another on trading food with my nail tech. I like getting to share this happy moment and positive news with other people. 

It wasn’t until I noticed viewers were coming from India and Germany and Australia that I was like, okay, wow. It took me a while to realize that something I’m cooking in Kansas is reaching millions of people across the world. I get to share cinnamon rolls and chili with the world. But they also get in the comment section. They get to tell me about what they ate that day. I’m mind blown, and every single day, I thank YouTube for this. I had never imagined I’d be in this position, and because of their platform, they were able to help my content reach millions of people. It’s crazy.

Lisa Nguyen’s filming setup // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Considering your experience with restaurants, now also with cooking, are there any restaurants around here that you want to shout out?

So the funny thing is, I don’t get to eat out much between cooking for filming and also traveling. But if I go to a restaurant more than once, it says a lot, because I should be trying other places. The three that I go to frequently would be Kata Nori and KC Craft Ramen–like, that is legit ramen. They make everything just like how they do in Japan. And then Anjin is really good.

Kata Nori is one of my favorites. You leave feeling so good, no matter what or how much you eat.

They just had a bluefin breakdown. I filmed it for a long-form vlog, and I still need to edit it. But I’ve never seen a breakdown before, and I didn’t know there are three different types of tuna grades. There’s a leaner part, a medium part, and a fatty kind, all from the same fish. I learned a lot from that one. I have been slacking on the video work over the last year because of the website. 

Your website features an extensive selection of ramen. Tell us about that process of procuring, organizing, etc.

I think the most expensive was about $10. The toughest was just reviewing all the flavors and varieties. It’s a lot of sodium.

Lisa Nguyen // Photo by Sarah Sipple

So you review the instant ramen plain? That’s literally the antithesis of most of your videos!

Yes, but this forced me to actually taste the flavors, instead of being like, here’s the egg and here’s some meat, adding other stuff into it. So that was the hardest part.

And we had Cultivate, who works with a lot of food bloggers, build the website, and they were great to work with. And a developer added some additional features, like the member feature. If you rate an instant ramen, it saves to your profile, so two years from now, you can look back on everything you’ve tried or remind yourself of your favorites. I want to give people a resource and a database, but also a reason to keep coming back to the website. I’m going to add new recipes. We’re going to be adding new instant ramen, and new toppings… There are endless possibilities for toppings. 

I have the video side of it, so I can funnel people from there to the site, so it’s a symbiotic relationship. I kept pushing off the launch because I’m a perfectionist. I could have potentially, like, tens of thousands of people going to the site once I post the announcement video. So I can’t half-ass the website. I kept pushing it off, but that’s allowed me to create the Member Profile element and the community ratings. That wasn’t an original idea in the beginning. It was really just going to be my reviews, and then it was going to be a section for those toppings and a section for recipes, and that was it. And then I was like, we should let people review, and that way it’s not just my opinion because I’m my taste buds are different than other people. So if we can have 20 people rating the instant ramen, you start to see a crowd-sourced average, which gives you a better idea of the ramen. 

You’re inviting the community you built in your comment sections to a new platform, where they have even more of a voice. It literally counts for something. People will like that. 

Yeah, I hope so. Just in the past week, we added a feature where you can actually suggest a ramen or suggest toppings. So if 100 people are recommending I try this ramen, I’ll prioritize it. 

You worked with some local talent for the website, like photographers Phon Wills and Anna Petrow. Tell us about that.

They’re amazing. Anna just has an eye for it. She did really well filming the toppings, the ramen, and she tried some of the instant ramen too. It’s good to get that third perspective. Phon also helps to shoot the instant ramen. She’s great to work with. As is James James Chang, Reviewer and Recipe Developer. I’m just very fortunate to be around people who love food as much as I do and are so talented.

Lisa Nguyen // Photo by Sarah Sipple

Who are some chefs or video creators that inspire you?

My friend, The Korean Vegan, Joanne Lee Molinaro–she is a big inspiration. She’s just killing it. She’s done two cookbooks, a beauty line, and she does video content. And she used to be a lawyer. 

My friends and I occasionally hop on a call. They are other video content creators, and we have a couple of hours where we work, but we also catch up, and we also bounce ideas off of each other. And I’m so grateful for that friendship. 

What are some common misconceptions about instant ramen? 

One is that just because a ramen is popular and everyone seems to like it, that you have to like it as well. I get a lot of comments with people saying that they didn’t like the ramen, but it seems like everyone else did. Everyone’s taste buds are different. You’re going to like it if you like it; if you don’t enjoy it, that’s fine. 

If you are not supposed to have high-sodium foods, then this may not be for you. You know your body best. Or you can use half the flavor packet and add things. Add veggies, an egg, meats, tofu. Moderation is big for me. I do heated workouts and love sweating out everything. 

Lisa Nguyen // Photo by Sarah Sipple

What is the ultimate compliment you could hear from someone who utilizes your videos/website? 

My mission statement for the website is, “I want to help you build the best bowl of instant ramen possible, using ingredients you already have on hand.” So if someone is able to say that they just didn’t realize that some of the ingredients they need to make their bowl were even possible, and that they create an upgraded bowl because of the website using resources, that’s a great compliment to me. It just hurts my soul when I see someone post a picture or a video online and it’s just the noodles in the broth. But again, for some people, that’s all they want. I like to add an egg to everything. Green onions, I always have in the fridge; leftover meat, I always add. 

I want people to have that accomplished feeling, because it also translates to their other cooking, like “I just made this bowl. Now I can go on and learn how to cook other things.” I want them to feel that empowerment in the kitchen, things that I felt myself. I started off with instant ramen, and now I’m able to make legit ramen. Now I’m able to cook steak and smoke meat and all these things that five years ago, I did not know how to do. I could never even think of doing these things in the kitchen, so if I could give that empowerment to other people, that’d be great.

Do you view this website as a crown jewel and a culmination of all your past work, or is this site simply the next step on a long journey?

I think it’s the next step. It’s also a supplement to one area. It’s going to help me build my video side of things. And the video content and audience I’ve built so far are helping the website grow. And then the newsletter is another component.

I just want the website to be a big resource for people to make the best bowl of ramen using what they have or even being creative. I’m very thankful to everyone I’ve worked with on this project. It was a big undertaking, and I feel good that it has finally launched.