Building a Commercial Kitchen in Hawai`i in 2013
Back in 2012, my husband and I were learning how to make chocolate truffles in my Uncle Colins and Aunty Joan Kawai’s home every weekend and practicing during the week in our home. I remember I purchased a 6 foot stainless steel table and placed it in the center of the living room we rented because that is where the old air conditioning was the strongest. After a Google search on “What do you need to make chocolates and open a business?” I was pointed towards renting if not building a commercial kitchen. After then Googling, “What is a commercial kitchen?” I began the search. Unfortunately, after searching, contacting, visiting, and applying at several places and getting rejected, I cried out to God in frustration for His help.
That night, I had a vision. It was the one and only time I had a vision where all I saw a white picket fence. With that being my only clue, I got into my car and literally drove around Oahu looking for a white picket fence. That is how we came to be here in Mānoa from 2013. Literally after seeing this beautiful building with a white picket fence, I felt peace in my heart and knew somehow we had to be here. And even though nothing was available or in our budget, it was thanks to some people who gave this crazy girl with an idea a chance, we were able to be a small part in this community. Thank you to the owner of then LMS dress shop, Linda Sugihara, and property manager, Jake Murakami, we were able to sublease the back half of Lindaʻs shop to build a commercial kitchen.
That is where we began making chocolates and still make everything today in about a 400 square foot space. It is where some of our first customers who had what I called, Club Choco le`a membership, would pull up in the driveway once a month, knock on the back kitchen door, and Iʻd come out with a surprise box of truffle flavors I had selected to make for them.
Finding peace by piece:
May this story bring peace in that we may not know the path ahead, how we are going to do it, if we can do it, and if anyone will give us a chance, but we need to move forward in faith. Hope you find your white picket fence and even though it will be a crazy journey with ups and downs, one day youʻll look back and be so glad you kept going.
“So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.” -Genesis 22:14