Who owns 'Buldak Ramen,' the world's spiciest restaurant? From housewife to billionaire

An instant soup made a company a millionaire : That is the case of Buldak Ramen , the spiciest of its kind in the world, which was developed by Kim Jung-soo, who was a housewife before joining the company in 1998.

Buldak Ramen is sold in individual servings so you can prepare it at home by adding hot water and then the sauces, seasonings, or spices that come in a sachet, ready in just a few minutes.

Kim Jung-soo is currently the director of Samyang Foods , creator of this instant food considered the “spiciest” that became popular to the point of being a favorite of singers like Cardi B.

Buldak (which means fire chicken in Korean ) is a type of instant ramen sold in sachets to be prepared at work, at home, or anywhere you have access to hot water .

The creator is the South Korean company Samyang Foods , which is led by 60-year-old entrepreneur Kim Jung-soo, who revived the company after it was at risk of bankruptcy in the 1990s.

She joined Samyang Foods after being invited by her father-in-law in 1998 to join the family business, despite having no business experience.

“Kim had no prior management experience (...) It is quite unusual that her father-in-law allowed her to join the company's management instead of considering other options among male family members,” said Park Ju-gun, director of the Leaders Index business research department in Seoul, according to Bloomberg .

However, he didn't develop the 'world's hottest' ramen until 2011, when he came up with the idea after seeing diners at a Korean restaurant enjoying their dishes despite sweating and 'suffering' from the effort of eating something spicy.

After testing more than a thousand chickens and using two tons of sauce, the popular recipe emerged, but they had doubts because they were "too spicy," but it didn't matter much, and they launched them on the market.

Buldak's instant noodles are now in high demand, with the United States becoming the company's largest overseas market, although it hasn't been as successful elsewhere, with some varieties in Denmark being recalled for being too "spicy," Bloomberg reported.

Demand is so high that the company can't keep up with the demand and fill the shelves at Walmart Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. stores across the U.S., wrote Kim Tae-hyun, an analyst at Seoul-based IBK Securities.

There's an incident where Kim and her family ran afoul of the law after being convicted of embezzlement for diverting millions of dollars from the company to use for personal expenses and credit card payments. Kim's husband was sentenced to three years in prison; the South Korean businesswoman was pardoned.

Today, Kim Jung-soo has become a billionaire in her own right in her country's male-dominated business world.

Buldak Ramen was featured in the food offerings at the Coachella 2025 festival , where singer Lady Gaga and Charlie XCX were part of the line-up.

According to Bloomberg , videos of influencers eating the 'hottest ramen' shared on social media led to an exponential increase in sales for the instant food and soup company.

It quickly went viral thanks to a flood of people posting short videos of themselves trying to finish the notoriously spicy ramen. Grammy Award-winning rapper Cardi B shared that she drove 30 minutes to buy it.

Ramen's popularity abroad has boosted the fortune of Kim, her husband and their children to nearly $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index .

Samyang Foods Co. has its Buldak ramen as the South Korean company's flagship product, which has roughly the same heat level as a jalapeño pepper , but there are also other products such as the carbonara version, which tastes similar to boxed macaroni and cheese, but with a spicy kick.

As these ramen packets go viral on the internet, they fly off supermarket shelves.

Thanks to Samyang Foods' success, it has been compared to Chinese company Pop Mart International Group Ltd., maker of Labubu, a plush toy that has become a global sensation.

Furthermore, part of its success is due to the fact that eating out in the United States has become a high-cost option; for example, a meal at a fast-food restaurant can easily cost $10 ($200 MXN). On the other hand, staying home with a bowl of Buldak ramen costs around $2 ($40 MXN), even with the 25% incremental tariff Trump plans to impose on South Korean products.