While growing up, Kenshiro Uki was called “noodle boy” by his friends at Waiau Elementary due to his lineage as the son of Sun Noodle founder Hidehito Uki.

Instead of being embarrassed by the moniker, he embraced it. “I think that whenever we had a potluck for soccer or school, it was kind of expected that I bring the noodle dish. My mom was quite the cook, so it was always a popular dish.

“My sister and I were always involved in the business growing up. Since my parents started in 1981, it was a fairly small staff when we were growing up. Hisae (who now runs the L.A. facility) and I would spend most summers and winter breaks at the factory either helping in packaging or cleaning. After I got my license, I started delivering and merchandising at the stores.

“I was very proud about this. Whenever my parents were thinking of launching a new product at the retail level, they would bring a ton of samples home. Whichever one my sister and I liked usually made it on the store shelves because my parents were firm believers that if children like the taste, the parents will buy it. “

Even so, Kenshiro thought he would grow up to be a pilot.

As fate would have it, when he entered Whitworth University in 2004, his father was contemplating building a small production facility in Torrance, Calif., at the request of restaurateurs who wanted closer access to Sun Noodle products. Since 1986 the noodles had been shipped to California.

Kenshiro flew home from Washington once a month to help his father prepare sales samples. “I was excited about the growth, plus the education I was receiving really fueled my interest in the family business.”

Today Kenshiro is the New Jersey-based vice president of operations at the family business, which in two generations has grown from one man knocking on restaurant doors to peddle his noodles, to a global phenomenon leading the international ramen revolution with facilities in California and New Jersey, serving markets from Peru and Brazil to Europe, and a Ramen Lab that — tradition be damned — works with chefs to reinvent the dish for their own clientele.

Last month, for the first time in the company’s history, a nonfamily member, Ahmad Yu, was appointed Hawaii president and national head of quality and innovation, to manage the local operation. Hidehito made the decision to liberate himself from the daily operation in order to oversee expansion details and explore other food-oriented enterprises.

There almost never was a Sun Noodle. Hidehito’s father was a noodle maker in Japan who struck up a deal to work with someone to bring noodles to Hawaii. The deal fell through, but the machinery for making noodles had already been shipped to the islands. At 19, Hidehito, who had spent two years working at his father’s noodle factory, volunteered to travel to Hawaii to see whether he could make a go of it.

Secretly, he said, “I didn’t want to make noodles. I wanted to go to Hawaii, but I didn’t know how.”

In 1981 he was the newbie among 20 other noodle factories. “Half of them were Japanese, and I didn’t know if I could make anything better.”

He had a lot to learn.

“I didn’t know there were so many different kinds of ramen noodles. I learned that Hokkaido, Tokyo, Kyushu, they all had different noodles.”

He found that most restaurateurs already had established relationships with other noodle makers, but said he was lucky that at Ohotsuku, in Waikiki, and Ezogiku, the owners were willing to take a chance on the teenager and asked whether he could make special noodles just for their shops. It took a lot of trial and error before they were satisfied, but the experience set the artisanal direction for Sun Noodle. While other noodle makers expected customers to choose from an established set of products, Sun would work with restaurateurs to create noodles exclusive to their operations.

Today Sun Noodle makes more than 600 products, from saimin to won ton pi to gyoza wrappers, variations on some 200 recipes. Depending on ingredients used, it can change the flavor, color and texture of the noodles. Egg yolks or vitamin B2 give certain noodles their yellow color because the Ukis don’t believe in using artificial ingredients.

Their noodle presses and cutters change the thickness and size of the noodles. With the variety available, 65 out of the 66 ramen restaurants on Oahu purchase their noodles from Sun, and Hidehito is working on winning over the 66th, which uses its own custom noodles from Japan.

At Sun’s 21,000-square-foot facility in Kalihi, the company starts operations at 3 a.m. and finishes at 8 p.m. to produce 90,000 servings of noodles a day. It is adding 14,000 square feet to keep up with demand. All noodles made in Hawaii stay in Hawaii.

Sun could have stayed a local company, but the idea of growth started with clients in California. “One restaurant owner in Orange County told me he was gonna open 100 shops in 10 years and told me to hurry up,” said Hidehito, who was more conservative with his expectations. “I expected to work with a few places; that other business closed about five or six years ago.”

He was confident customization that worked in Hawaii would work in California. “During research I visited a lot of ramen shops in L.A. They had very good quality, but there was nothing special that made me want to go back. I found they all used the same noodle; they needed a custom-made noodle.”

The California facility started distributing noodles nationwide in 2005. Three years later the company invested in a 10,000-square-foot factory to increase production for shipment to Canada and South America.

By 2011, Kenshiro said they could see future growth would be coming from the East Coast and Europe, and a sales office was established in Fort Lee, N.J., followed by construction of a 6,000-square-foot factory and partnership with chef Shigetoshi Nakamura to establish Ramen Lab in 2012.

At Ramen Lab’s kitchen in the New Jersey factory, people are welcome to learn about how to make ramen and see Sun’s noodle- making process. The lab staff also works with chefs and restaurateurs to develop ramen recipes.

Entering the East Coast market in 2014 was another point of pride. “I wanted to get into a market where the brand wasn’t known,” Kenshiro said. “I was lucky to be there at the right time. Ramen was trending but it was not too saturated.”

Just as at home, the Ukis championed customization and made it OK for restaurants to break from ramen tradition to come up with their own regional flavors. The creative license invigorated the ramen scene to the point where Texas brisket tsukemen is being served in Austin, Texas, and gator ramen is a hit in Gainesville, Fla. At a Ramen Lab pop-up at Lucky Belly in 2012, we were introduced to Italian-inspired “New York Heritage” ramen featuring a tomato broth with basil, crimini mushrooms, Italian sausage and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

In close proximity to New York’s media scene, Ramen Lab and Sun Noodle received glowing coverage from outlets ranging from The New York Times to the New York Post, Village Voice, the BBC, “CBS This Morning,” Bon Appetit magazine and more, fueling interest in ramen and its new incarnations.

Kenshiro knew that love of ramen would come from exposure. It had worked on him while growing up.

“Since my dad and mom were so busy, Sunday was the day we’d be able to spend time. These days were spent eating lunch at a ramen shop so that they could secretly get some business done as well!

“Looking back, though, these were great memories, and our parents would teach us what makes a great bowl of ramen, when the noodles and soup match and make a balanced bowl of ramen. Of course, my father was critical but would always give his personal advice to the chef.”

Having already outgrown the facility that produces 50,000 servings of noodles a day, Sun will be opening a 45,000-square-foot facility in New Jersey by early 2017.

Already serving markets in England, Italy, France and Spain, Sun is targeting Nordic countries next, knowing there will be growth for years to come as familiarity with ramen grows abroad and others’ experiences match Hidehito’s own.

After all these years, he said of his noodles and ramen, “I eat it every day. I never get tired of it.”