One man was left in awe after setting up a fake fine dining experience as a joke, only to see people flocking to taste the instant ramen noodles he was serving.
YouTuber Stanley Chen, after reflecting on his past kitchen experience, decided to craft a brilliant video idea and gave himself just one week to bring it to life.
In his online video, Chen revealed that he had previously worked at a restaurant that advertised itself as selling fresh food. However, he discovered that the food had actually been prepared a week in advance and then frozen.
Like Gordon Ramsay says, there’s no such thing as fresh-frozen food.
Inspired by this, Chen came up with a clever plan to see if he could convince the public they were eating fresh five-star cuisine when in reality, they were consuming instant ramen noodles.
Chen developed a meticulous plan to execute his experiment.
He began by creating a website for his restaurant and then designed enticing images of his dishes to make the experience seem authentic.
The food featured ramen in a bowl, garnished with flowers from his garden, bamboo, and an ice cream cookie.
Next, it was time to choose a name.
Instead of opting for something grandiose, he decided to make it obvious to anyone who spoke Japanese.
He named his restaurant Nise (fake) Jangara (part of the name of a real restaurant) Ramen.
The website detailed its ‘backstory’, aiming to convince guests that it was an exclusive pop-up restaurant.
It claimed: “An Experimental Omakase Ramen experience available only for 2 nights every year. Nise Jangaru Ramen has been travelling around the world offering pop-up ramen since 1953, and has so far hosted events in Japan, Belgium, America and 50 more – Now in Australia.
“We liken our work to that of art in a museum. Subsequently, just like many museums our services are complimentary. We are walk in only.”
With a contact email and number in place, Chen was ready to proceed.
However, he needed to attract people to his restaurant.
He decided to send mass emails to influencers, inviting them to try his food for free in exchange for sharing their experience with their followers.
Afterward, he rented an entire restaurant, decorated it to resemble an authentic, upscale ramen establishment, and waited for customers to arrive.
It turns out people are drawn to exclusive offers, and soon, the restaurant was filled with individuals eager to experience the hype, with some waiting up to 90 minutes to taste the ramen.
Many diners were genuinely fooled, believing they were enjoying a legitimate fine dining experience.
One diner, when asked if she had any feedback for the chef, remarked: “He needs to make me another bowl.”
Another diner commented: “It tastes really nice and home-cooked. The broth is really good.”
It certainly seems like Chen succeeded in deceiving them.
Online viewers were astounded after watching his video and praised him as a genius.
One viewer wrote: “He’s gonna make it big time, there’s no way he doesn’t with this high quality production and I’m gonna be here from the beginning.”
Another commented: “This is a great social experiment. For the record, the instant ramen used in this vid is not bad.”