Tomo Shinoda
Yume Ga Arukara | Boston
JULY 2024
In the beginning, there was ramen. When Tomo Shinoda moved from Tokyo to Boston at only three years old, cooking was one of the few ways he stayed connected to his Japanese culture, but his path to noodles didn’t begin until college. At 18, while studying at Seattle University, Shinoda returned home to Boston and went with his family to eat at Yume Wo Katare in Cambridge. After inhaling his heaping bowl of ramen (and the rest of his sister’s), the owner—Chef Tsuyoshi Nishioka—asked Shinoda if he wanted to work at the restaurant. Although he was still in college, Shinoda started working in the ramen shop during school breaks. When he graduated, he went full-time, learning the craft of ramen making from Nishioka and developing a passion for handmade Japanese noodles.
And then came udon. In 2017, Nishioka opened Yume Ga Arukara in Porter Square. After managing the kitchen at Yume Wo Katare for about two years, Shinoda moved to the new restaurant and was retrained in a whole new style of noodle, udon. A month later, Nishioka moved back to Japan and left the shop in Shinoda’s hands. After almost three years there, he felt ready to learn something new, so Shinoda set his sights on soba.
He returned to Seattle and, for the next two and a half years, trained in the delicate art of soba making at Kamonegi, learning from Rising Stars alum Mutsuko Soma. When owner Juan Carlos Vidal decided to open a second location of Yume Ga Arukara at the Seaport in Boston, he asked Shinoda to run the restaurant. At the new location, which opened in February 2024, Shinoda is developing and expanding the already adored udon menu with tempura dishes, specials inspired by his time in Seattle and Japan, and the addition of beer, wine, and sake. As head chef, Shinoda is focused on perfecting his craft and becoming a teacher in his own right by sharing his noodle knowledge with his staff.
