The founder of the Wagamama chain of restaurants has spoken about how he was inspired to create the noodle icon, and has revealed where the name came from.
Alan Yau, now a 60-year-old multi-millionaire businessman, had long dreamed of opening up a Chinese fast-food restaurant to rival the likes of McDonald's.
But, he said, he couldn't figure out how to speed up wok-based cooking, with Chinese dishes proving much more difficult to fast-track than your classic Big Mac.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Yau recalled how a remark from his sister's lodger turned his fortunes around. According to Yau, the lodger - a 19-year-old student from Japan - told him how much she missed eating ramen back home.
He explained: "Ramen had the same components of a burger. It was soup, noodles, and topping. I was blown away. I thought it was incredible and decided to follow through with turning it into a restaurant."
As a sweet tribute, Yau went on to name the chain after the affectionate nickname the student's pals would refer to her as on account of her middle-class upbringing - Wagamama, which mean 'spoilt'.
In 2017, the Mirror reported that the phrase 'Wagamama' roughly translates to 'self-indulgent', 'self-centered', 'selfish', and 'disobedient' in Japanese-to-English translation. In Japan, it will often be used to refer to a badly behaved child.
A Wagamama spokesman confirmed that the name had definitely been intended to mean 'naughty child' when it was first thought up, at the very beginning of Yau's astonishing success story.
Wagamama first opened its doors in 1992, and has since become a much-loved high-street staple. Just over 30 years on and the chain is said to be worth a cool £559 million, with 153 sites up and down the UK.
