Photos by Elizabeth Gelineau
No one would be surprised if Wade Price had broth running through his veins and noodles in his genes. Judging by his daring ideas and adventurous ramen creations, it would be hard to argue otherwise. The lifelong fanatic of bold flavors and unusual pairings has taken his passion for ramen and turned it into an art form. With his adventurous approach to food that blends tradition with a rebellious twist, he’s created a unique fusion cuisine that’s as whimsical as it is meticulously crafted. When it comes to ramen, Price is serious about playing with his food.
Price was fated to become a ramen gastronome when he moved to China with his mother at just 8 years old. The bold flavors and diverse ingredients of Asian cuisine were thrilling discoveries to the young Alabamian, and he never tired of the chase for more. “I was there in China with my mom for probably a month — maybe a little bit longer. And it was obviously a culture shock for someone from Mobile,” says Price. “The food was so different and there were all these flavors I’ve never experienced before. From there, I kind of stayed obsessed with food.”
Introducing Price to Asian cuisine wasn’t the only way his mother influenced his gastronomic journey. Interest in something means little without someone to foster it. “My mom is a very creative, adventurous cook. She would see something on the Food Network or in a magazine and want to just try it out, no matter what it was,” Price says. “She’s probably who I attribute my palate to. She always wanted us to constantly try new things, whether it was pizza or curry or whatever. She was very adventurous in that regard. Dad would make me egg sandwiches and stuff too, but I really learned a lot from cooking with her.”
Price joined a kitchen brigade as soon as he was able. Granted, there are few positions in a kitchen for a 15-year-old foodie, but working in the dish pit put him close to the action and allowed him to learn a great deal through observation. “I got my first kitchen job when I was 14 or 15 washing dishes, and I kind of worked my way up,” he says. “I decided to go to culinary school at Virginia College, but I had gotten pretty good at picking things up from working in restaurants. It was great for me to have that hands-on experience in kitchens.”
Though he cultivated his foundation with practical training, culinary school inspired him to explore different avenues for his career as a professional chef. “Of course, I think everyone who goes to culinary school is inspired by people like Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller, and I originally thought I was going to go into fine dining,” Price says. “But then I started to eat off food trucks and in super casual environments. I realized I wasn’t interested in the fine dining world. But the dream has pretty much always been to open a restaurant with ramen. When I was in school, I got the ‘Momofuku’ cookbook from David Chang, and it kind of blew my mind. I was always just obsessed with it.”
Despite Asian fare being his first food fixation, Price didn’t leap straight into opening a ramen shop. He worked in the field for a few years before opening a brunch restaurant with a name as clever as menu items like kung pao chicken and waffles and eggs Benedict on bao buns. “I opened up a restaurant in Fairhope called Cereal Killer — spelled like the food. I really wanted to open up a ramen place, but the brunch thing just kind of fell into place. Then it got wiped out because we opened in 2019, and then COVID happened. I took a couple of years after that to travel and work. I would go to resorts and help them fix their kitchens up,” says Price. Through his trials, tribulations and travels, he never lost his hunger for one day owning his own ramen shop. He just needed to wait for the right time and place for it.
Price eventually found his future restaurant in his past. It seemed like a sign when one of his old professional haunts on St. Michael Street hit the market, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the opportunity he’d been waiting for. “I used to work at that location back when it was Von’s Bistro, and the place just kind of fell into my lap,” he says. “I was already familiar with the space, so I decided to give it another go and opened Slurp Society there. It went pretty well.”
Slurp Society struck a chord with Mobilians by filling a void in the downtown dining scene with something fresh and unique. Price tossed the culinary rulebook out the window and started throwing new recipe ideas at the wall to see what would stick, playfully blending Asian and Southern cuisines to create a unique fusion dining experience that keeps locals coming back for more. “Sometimes it might be to my detriment, but I like trying to break the mold,” Price says. “That’s why ramen really spoke to me. Ramen is the food of rebels. There are so many different styles, but people can kind of make it whatever they want. Sometimes people think we’re not being traditional, but we still put a lot of effort into pulling from Japanese style and making it our own. And I love doing that with food I like — tearing a dish apart and trying to figure out how to make it more interesting.”
RAMEN IS THE FOOD OF REBELS. DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!
– Chef Wade Price
As whimsical and imaginative as some of Price’s creations may seem, they carry some traditional Southern influences. “We’re still in Mobile, Alabama, right? There are various ways that we are inspired by where we are,” says Price. “We’ll look at a very traditional ingredient and, instead of doing that, we’ll use collard greens. Or we’ll do something a little different with our pork belly here. Japan and the South actually kind of cross paths when it comes to cooking. In Japan, they love to cook over charcoal. We love to smoke here, right? So, we’ll use a charcoal grill in the kitchen. We’re always trying to put a local twist on ingredients and dishes.”
When his restaurant outgrew its provenance, Price moved to a larger building where he could expand the playfulness in his dishes to the ambiance. His vision for Slurp Society was bigger than just cocktails and noodles. A mural of a tiger on the ceiling reminiscent of an irezumi tattoo and a wall of waving maneki-neko figurines pay homage to traditional Japanese icons in a bold, imaginative way. Behind a hidden sliding door is Little Dragon, a large open space he is transforming into a room he hopes will take on a life of its own. Instead of having a traditional restaurant layout, Price staged the area with high-top tables and an oversized sofa, Japanese trinkets and a replica of the “Kill Bill” katana on a built-in bookshelf, a neon cat wall hanging and a Ninja Turtles arcade cabinet. It’s a physical manifestation of Price’s creativity. “The idea for that space was to have events, but we’ve started to use it for trivia nights and open mic nights — just more live events,” he says. “But, you know, we have a lot of ideas and thoughts, and we are really looking forward to hopefully growing this over the next few years. We want to do some more fun things.”
Still, the original concept of Slurp Society remains at the front of Price’s mind, and his experiences working in restaurants helped him develop the kind of environment he wanted for both patrons and his team. “We’re a casual place to come and eat, but we still take our service and our food very seriously,” he says. “We’re not stuffy, but I like making sure the service is great and that the food is excellent quality. Part of that is treating the people who work for me with respect. I worked at some places where people would yell at you and treat you like you didn’t matter. I try to support the people who work for me. You have to have a level of care there, and that’s how you get good vibes. I want people who come to eat to have a good time and drink and hang out with friends, and I just want this to be a place where hopefully people like to be.”
Price has undoubtedly achieved his goal of cultivating an ambiance people flock to, but he credits his most important partner for helping his bring his vision to life. “My wife, Bree, has supported me in ways I can’t even describe. It’s crazy. I for sure couldn’t have done this without her,” he says. “It’s the simple things, you know. She’s supported me emotionally and financially. She’s an ER nurse who works crazy hours, and she does all these things that allow me to chase my dream. She’s incredible. It’ll take me a long, long time to repay her.”
Part of how Chef Price chases his dream is by looking for inspiration for new culinary ideas, and bringing Bree into that process is one of the ways he expresses his gratitude for her support. “The first thing I do when I am planning a trip anywhere is look up restaurants to go check out. We’re going to eat a bunch of food because I’m going to get inspiration,” he says. “My wife and I spent a month in Europe, and I got to try all these amazing things. We loved Copenhagen. I think it’s my favorite food city in the entire world. We ate a ton there, and it was just awesome. It’s so inspiring what they do with food there.”
Implementing new ideas that he brings home from his travels doesn’t happen without experimentation. Price tinkers with ingredients and spice levels to develop full, rich flavors — something be thinks everyone can do to become more culinarily savvy. “I think people just need to be less afraid with their cooking,” he says. “Don’t be nervous about adding things like spices. Salt and pepper are basic but big ones. Maybe try adding just a little sugar or honey to something. Grab that garlic powder and try throwing some chilis in the pot. Vinegar and a squeeze of lime can bring out so much flavor. It’s always just about finding the right balance.”
At the heart of Price’s culinary journey is playful, rebellious curiosity driven by his relentless pursuit of new flavors and ideas. He approaches food with the mindset of an artist, always hungry to experiment and create. His willingness to challenge tradition and press boundaries is a reflection of the type of chef he is: someone who embraces risks and trusts his instincts to develop something truly extraordinary.
Ramen is made up of 5 things:
1. broth
2. noodles
3. tare
4. toppings
5. aromatic oilAll of these things are what you need to take your ramen game to the next level.
Wade Price Ramen Recipe
SERVES 1
9 ounces of broth (We love a pork broth but chicken, veggie or beef work too!)
5 ounces ramen noodles (We recommend a low hydration fresh noodle from your local Asian market, but instant noodles will work in a pinch)
2 ounce Tare (recipe follows)
2 slices of chashu (aka pork belly)
1 soft-boiled egg (boiled for about 6 minutes)
2 ounces of pickled onions
Handful thinly sliced green onions
Black garlic oil
1. Get your favorite broth. We make a classic tonkotsu-style broth that takes many, many hours to make. Have fun with it and use your favorite broth recipe. Season it up with salt and white pepper. Don’t be scared of seasoning.
2. Bring your broth to a boil. Once the broth is hot, cook your noodles in a pot of boiling water. Low hydration fresh noodles should take 30 seconds to 1 minute to cook. If you have instant ramen, follow the packet’s instructions.
3. build your bowl! Place tare in the bottom of the bowl. Pour in hot broth. Give it a whisk to make sure everything is fully incorporated. Strain noodles, making sure to shake out the excess water out. Place them in the bowl
and shape into a bed for all your delicious toppings.
4. Make room for toppings. We
like to go with roasted pork belly, soy marinated six-minute egg, pickled onions and thinly sliced green onions. But guess what, rebels? You can do whatever you want. Try grilled chicken, roasted corn, caramelized onions! Get creative. Have fun!
5. Oil it up. Finish it off with your favorite aromatic oil. We love a classic black garlic oil or chili oil. We make ours but the Asian market has a ton of great options.
Japanese Tare
Makes 1 cup
Tare is the seasoning agent commonly used to flavor Tonkotsu in Japan.
1 cup tamari
2 tablespoons of mirin
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon ginger
Saute garlic and ginger in olive oil over medium heat until it’s well caramelized. Deglaze with sake, scraping up all of that beautiful fond. Add in tamari, mirin and brown sugar. Bring to a simmer and let it go for about 20 minutes. Strain and enjoy immediately or store in the fridge in an airtight container.
