We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jenny and Heather a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jenny and Heather, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Working for someone else, long term wasn’t an option.
We were raised by an art teacher Mom who grew up in LA by two hard working parents and by a Dad who grew up in Brooklyn, a TRUE self starter. They taught us to always be in charge of our own destiny. Dad didn’t ever want us going up to someone and asking for a raise. He wanted us to do this life thing on our terms, no matter how difficult.
Anyone who has ever opened their own business knows there are challenges that keep you up at night. We decided long ago to live a happy and healthy life no matter what was going on at work. This has been our promise to ourselves and each other.
Hey, Sunshine Kitchen wasn’t born out of choice. It is our deep life purpose.
We believe each being is here on this planet short term and each one of us has gifts no one else has quite like that individual does. It is up to each one of us to find these gifts, cultivate them, and give them to the world. Hey, Sunshine Kitchen is exactly that. Jenny’s culinary talents and Heather’s ability to market our passion and love, have culminated to this moment in time.
True passion can be found when the mind gets very quiet during meditation. This stillness is where we located HSK.
We came up with the idea for Hey, Sunshine Kitchen as a way to promote healthier eating within our community. We wanted to create a space where everyone no matter their dietary preference, could enjoy flavorsome, innovative, and hearty plant-based meals. Through Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to showcase how delicious and satisfying plant-based food can be.
Our dream of bringing Hey, Sunshine Kitchen to life started 4.5 years ago at a trade show in Dallas. We played with so many iterations of the menu for years. We had a plant-based BBQ idea at first, but ultimately we decided on super fresh and healthy warm bowls, salads, tacos and sandwiches that are all eco-friendly and non-GMO. We came up with the name, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen on a work trip in Denver during an actual thunderstorm at a restaurant called Linger. If you ever eat there you may see the painting that inspired our name.
Jenny and Heather, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We are Heather Golden Ray and Jenny Engel, sisters, Momtrepreneurs and lovers of the planet. We have been business partners since 2007 in the plant-based space.
We opened our first restaurant, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen just 3 weeks ago! Our restaurant is plant-based, non GMO, and our ingredients are high quality. We are a fast casual concept in Culver City seeking to inspire our community to nourish their inner shine through plant-based eating.
https://www.heysunshinekitchen.com
How did you come up with the idea for HSK?
We came up with the idea for Hey, Sunshine Kitchen as a way to promote healthier eating within our community. We wanted to create a space where everyone no matter their dietary preference, could enjoy flavorsome, innovative, and hearty plant-based meals. Through Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to showcase how delicious and satisfying plant-based food can be.
Our dream of bringing Hey, Sunshine Kitchen to life started 4.5 years ago at a trade show in Dallas. We played with so many iterations of the menu for years. We had a plant-based BBQ idea at first, but ultimately we decided on super fresh and healthy warm bowls, salads, tacos and sandwiches that are all eco-friendly and non-GMO. We came up with the name, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen on a work trip in Denver during an actual thunderstorm at a restaurant called Linger. If you ever eat there you may see the painting that inspired our name.
For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers:
About yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc:
We have had a love for cooking since childhood. Since we were five, we both adored being in the kitchen with our parents and cooking meals for our friends and family to enjoy. Plant-based cuisine is our passion and it has always been our mission to bring simple yet delicious plant-based recipes into as many peoples’ lives as possible. Over the course of our careers, we’ve held vegan cooking classes, offered catering services, conducted chef trainings and corporate events, and held private cooking consultations and innovated/sold plant-based food products to food giants like Follow Your Heart. We also authored two cookbooks, Vegan 101 and Spork-Fed, which are available on Amazon.
What type of products/services/creative works you provide:
At Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we have healthy plant-based dishes that range from warm bowls, salads, tacos, sandwiches, and fresh juices that pop with vibrant color and flavor. We wanted to create a space where everyone could enjoy flavorsome, innovative, and hearty plant-based meals. Through Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to showcase how delicious and satisfying plant-based food can be.
What problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others:
Eating plant-based can sometimes be a challenge. Some may find it difficult to adjust to the taste and texture of plant-based alternatives or may have limited access to these options. At Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to provide plant-based, 100% non-GMO options that are delicious to everyone, regardless of if they follow a plant-based diet or not. Our hope is to provide a nutritious dining experience that paves the way toward a greener, more sustainable future and encourages healthier eating.
What are you most proud of?
At Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we are committed to leaving the Earth in a better place for our children. With this initiative, I am incredibly proud of our partnership with Friends of Ballona Wetlands to help support pollinator conservation. Through this partnership, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen will be giving complimentary pollinator-friendly plants to guests on Mondays starting August 7, while supplies last, when they purchase a meal.
What are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc?
It is important for us that anyone that comes to Hey, Sunshine Kitchen for a dining experience is that they understand our passion for sustainability and the health of our planet. Through Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, our hope is that we can help people make healthier and more compassionate food choices that ultimately benefit our planet and the future of our children.
Can you tell us the story of how you met your cofounder/business partner?
We are both sisters and long-time business partners. We began working together professionally in 2007 when we founded Spork Foods, a Los Angeles-based vegan food company, and cooking school for cooks and chefs. For more than 15 years, we trained home cooks and chefs at resorts, hotels, and universities. We have always envisioned that we would start a restaurant endeavor together and are so excited to introduce the Los Angeles community to Hey, Sunshine Kitchen.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
For many years, as sisters, we lived together (Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz) AND worked together at an environmental non-profit org called TreePeople. We built a life around spending time together. We always knew we wanted to work for ourselves and own a sister business.
We have been concerned about the health of the planet since we were teenagers and in college, decided go vegan. Back over 20 years ago this was still considered a very strange thing to do. Jenny decided to go get an environmental law degree to make the biggest impact she could. To deflect the stress, she would cook. Over and over our friends couldn’t figure out why she was going for the law degree and not the cooking degree! Finally Heather sat her down one day and told her to forget this law dream and go to culinary school.
Months later Jenny moved to NY and attended the Natural Gourmet School.
From there we started teaching vegan cooking classes out of our apartment in Silverlake. A few years after that we decided to bet on ourselves and take a leap of faith, signing a lease on a big space in West Hollywood and it WORKED.
Our passion drove the business in more ways than one. The love we had for this earth and our love of teaching shone through. From opening up our vegan cooking school in 2007 to opening Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, our new restaurant, Grand Opening this Saturday, August 5th, it was a passionate leap of faith using intuition and love as our guide.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Hire people you enjoy spending time with. The first question we ask ourselves when hiring is “do they shine?” If the answer is no, they aren’t hired. Those who shine will make others feel that positivity. You can’t teach someone to shine, but you can teach them everything else, so that is our number one quality.
For us, one of the most impactful ways to build high morale amongst our Hey, Sunshine Kitchen team members is to make sure we are fostering a purpose-driven culture. It is important to us that every team member understands the positive impact we’re making on the environment and people’s overall health through our food. When employees feel connected to our overall purpose, they are more motivated and engaged.
That and sending donuts to our staff on the regular!
Contact Info:
- Website: heysunshinekitchen.com
- Instagram: HeySunshineKitchen
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/heysunshinevegan
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/hey-sunshine-kitchen-culver-city?uid=Y1az1tA5F2kOokIp7x3BeQ&utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
Image Credits
James Michael Juarez