Momofuku Ando

Ando had run several businesses and lost nearly everything when a credit association he chaired collapsed, before, at forty-eight, he developed flash-fried instant noodles in a backyard shed in Osaka. Chikin Ramen went on sale in 1958, and Nissin followed with Cup Noodles in 1971, when he was sixty-one. He built the company around one cheap, shelf-stable product that answered a post-war food shortage.