Nau mai, welcome!
Kia ora and kumusta, we are Rangihoro and Ashley, the co-founders of Kai(n)! In 2013, Rangihoro and I met in Kirikiriroa, Aotearoa, where on our first date, Rangihoro made me my very first bowl of fresh pasta.
Rangihoro, our pasta maker and chef, was born and raised in Aotearoa, New Zealand. He shares ancestral roots with both Nga Puhi, from the Bay of Islands, and Te Arawa, from Rotorua. I’m Ashley, a second-generation Filipina American, and I was born and raised in the Bay Area of Northern California.
After moving to Hilo, Hawaiʻi in 2018 and then experiencing the effects of covid in 2020, Kai(n) became a way for us to keep our hands busy, and support our growing family. We knew that food had always played an integral part in both of our upbringings, no matter where the food originated from.
By providing a staple like pasta, we realized we could still pay homage to both of our enculturations. But this also meant that we could serve the collective around us. Now, Kai(n) pasta aims to feed and nourish its surrounding communities. By bringing all types of friends and families to the dinner table, we hope to soften cultural barriers, one pasta shape at a time!
