about us
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are you?
Kahala Kitchens, LLC was co-founded and is owned by Jason Lee and Christopher Shimizu, both University of Southern California (USC) ’09 graduates. Kristen Higa (USC ’11), is also part of the team and primarily assists us with cooking, marketing, and sales.
I own a shop/gym/market/yoga studio. How can I stock your products?
For purchasing information, please contact us at info@kahala-kitchens.com or call our company phone at (213) 985-0502.
We’d love to provide our products for you! It is always our favorite experience to have a shop owner or food buyer tell us how they love our food and inquire about retailing them.
Where do you cook/sell your products?
We cook and package all of our products at a commercial kitchen in West Los Angeles. From there, we deliver them to our retail locations for sale.
Who cooks?
Chris and Jason do, and sometimes Kristen helps us from time to time!
Why are you called Kahala Kitchens? What does ‘Kahala’ mean?
Kahala is a beautiful neighborhood on the island of Oahu in Hawaii where Chris grew up, and where many of our recipes were originally conceived. Kahala also has several definitions in the Japanese and Sanskrit languages, but none of them are intended meanings for our company name.
Are you from Hawaii?
Chris and Kristen grew up in Hawaii, while Jason is originally from the much too chilly region of Northern California.
What do ‘Om’ and ‘Shanti’ mean?
Om (also ‘Aum’) is a syllable in Sanskrit and is considered to be the “sacred sound of the universe.” We named our Om-cakes such because of several reasons: 1) a bunch of our yoga friends suggested it, 2) it also can be short for oatmeal (main Om-cake ingredient), and 3) it just sounds nice, doesn’t it?
Shanti means peace, and is commonly used with “om” during eastern religious prayers and ceremonies. We simply think this is a beautiful name for our newest bar.
How can I buy your products directly?
Unfortunately, we do not have an online personal order service in place yet.
Do you do catering as well?
Yes! We do catering from time to time, and we accommodate a wide variety of food requests not limited to our pre-packaged food products. For example, we do a variety of salads, cooked hot foods, both vegan and non-vegan if needed. Just inquire!