After 16 Years Working a Cooking Faculty, LA's Spork Sisters Open Their First Vegan Restaurant

Los Angeles-based vegan icons Heather Golden Ray and Jenny Engel, also called the “Spork Sisters,” have championed the vegan life-style by their cooking college for a formidable 16 years. Lately, they stepped onto a brand new stage of culinary innovation with the grand opening of their newest enterprise, a vegan restaurant referred to as Hey, Sunshine Kitchen. 

Ray and Engel, the driving forces behind the plant-based meals firm and cooking college Spork Meals, initially made waves in 2007 by imparting their culinary knowledge by vegan cooking courses in Los Angeles. 

Quickly, their cooking college expanded from small gatherings of their Silver Lake condo kitchen to a bigger house in West Hollywood.

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However their journey didn’t cease there; it blossomed into cooking demonstrations, best-selling vegan cookbooks, and now, the belief of a long-held dream—a vegan restaurant.

The launch of a vegan restaurant

The trail to Hey, Sunshine Kitchen was not with out challenges, because the idea of opening a restaurant usually met with skepticism attributable to its perceived dangers. But, for Ray and Engel, the enterprise was greater than only a enterprise resolution; it was a calling. 

“For greater than 15 years, we educated residence cooks and cooks at resorts, inns, and universities. We now have all the time envisioned that we’d begin a restaurant endeavor collectively,” Ray tells VegNews. “We got here up with the concept for Hey, Sunshine Kitchen as a technique to promote more healthy consuming inside our neighborhood.”

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Their dream of bringing Hey, Sunshine Kitchen to life began 4 years in the past at a commerce present in Dallas, TX. “We performed with so many iterations of the menu for years,” Ray says. “We had a plant-based barbecue concept at first, however in the end landed on what Hey, Sunshine Kitchen is in the present day.”

“We wished to create an area the place everybody, irrespective of their dietary choice, might take pleasure in flavorsome, modern, and hearty plant-based meals,” Ray says. 

The truth is, Ray and Engel got here up with the identify, Hey Sunshine Kitchen, at a Denver, CO restaurant referred to as Linger—and, paradoxically, throughout a thunderstorm. “When you ever eat there you might even see the portray that impressed our identify,” Ray hints.

Nourishing the LA neighborhood

Positioned within the coronary heart of Culver Metropolis, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen emerged because the manifestation of their lifelong ardour. A meticulously curated menu boasts an array of vegan choices, together with recent salads, hearty sandwiches, nourishing bowls, and delectable vegan desserts.

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The choices embody the Avocado Crunch Salad, that includes sesame-crusted avocado, dried cranberries, candy potato, and a cornucopia of different nutritious components. Ray and Engel’s private favourite is the Mediterranean Chickpea Heat Bowl, with a griddled house-made chickpea patty, caramelized onions, shredded carrots, marinated beets, cucumber, sunflower seeds, recent mint, massaged kale, home pickles, and a creamy lemon herb aioli. 

Consolation meals aficionados aren’t left behind, as Hey, Sunshine Kitchen caters to their cravings with dishes such because the Crispy Rooster Sandwich and Basic Cheeseburger. For a candy deal with, Ray says their Rainbow Chocolate Chip Cookie presents a “distinctive and kooky tackle the traditional chocolate chip cookie.”

With such a various menu, Ray and Engel wish to welcome everybody.

“We acknowledge that consuming plant-based generally is a problem,” Ray says. “Some might discover it troublesome to regulate to the style and texture of plant-based alternate options or might have restricted entry to those choices.”

“At Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we hope to offer plant-based, 100-percent non-GMO choices which might be scrumptious to all, no matter whether or not they comply with a plant-based eating regimen or not,” she says. 

Devoted to the atmosphere

Hey, Sunshine Kitchen’s mission extends past the menu. In collaboration with Buddies of Ballona Wetlands, the sisters launched into an initiative to showcase pollinator-friendly vegetation on their patio, inviting the neighborhood to partake of their environmentally acutely aware efforts. 

For each entrée bought on Mondays, patrons obtain a complimentary plant, solidifying the restaurant’s dedication to nurturing each its patrons and the planet. “At Hey, Sunshine Kitchen, we’re additionally dedicated to leaving the earth in a greater place for our youngsters,” Ray says.

Along with furthering the vegan motion in LA, Hey, Sunshine Kitchen stands as a testomony to the facility of dedication, the importance of neighborhood assist, and the potential of vegan delicacies. 

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And though Ray and Engel aren’t onsite on a regular basis as they proceed to supervise numerous elements of the enterprise, Ray says they’ve a devoted workforce that’s laborious at work establishing Hey, Sunshine Kitchen as a must-visit Los Angeles vacation spot.

“We love to return into the house as steadily as attainable to attach with our workforce and clients, collect suggestions, and soak within the vibrant ambiance,” Engel says. “This enables us to remain intently linked to the guts and soul of the restaurant whereas additionally engaged on its long-term progress and success.”