Meet Kathleen Higashiyama & Alec Totto | Co-Founders and Creators

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kathleen Higashiyama & Alec Totto and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kathleen and Alec what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
First and foremost, we are a married couple who love cooking and getting creative in the kitchen. After working in law and tech, we decided we wanted to be our own bosses and create a community of people who are as excited about food as we are.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Heirloom Pantry is unique in that we draw inspiration from our multi-cultural background. Each recipe is inspired by our Japanese-Italian heritage and California and Hawaii roots. These recipes are meant to be enjoyed and passed down, like heirlooms.

We started our site as a hobby and creative outlet while we were at our former jobs. From there, we realized we could turn our passion project into a full-time career. While we have been able to apply our professional experiences to our business, we’ve also had to learn a lot on our own. This includes food photography, how to run a small business, SEO, and how to connect with an audience.

Now that we’ve gotten the hang of it, we launched a second site, Happy Gut Lucky. HGL focuses on gut- and IBD (irritable bowel disease)-friendly recipes. Alec was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and we were inspired to provide flavorful recipes for the IBD-community. We’re excited to reach a new audience and help people on their IBD journeys.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
As an LA native, Kat definitely has her favorite spots. For coffee, I recommend Maru in Los Feliz for a cream top, a spinach and cheese croissant, and miso kouign amann. For food, I would take friends to Folliero’s for my nonno’s Neapolitan pizza, Yuca’s for a machaca burrito, Porto’s for pastel de carne and papas rellenas, and Bottega Louie for a nice dinner and cocktails.

Some favorites places to visit are The Huntington Library, Getty Villa, Norton Simon Museum, and the Hollywood Bowl for a show.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’d like to shoutout our families, who not only have supported us in our new career paths, but have also provided us with inspiration. Kat grew up in a family of talented cooks and draws inspiration from her family’s 55-year old restaurant, Folliero’s Pizza in Highland Park. Folliero’s showed Kat how to establish the foundation of a business and create community through food.

Website: www.theheirloompantry.co

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theheirloompantry/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theheirloompantry

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theheirloompantry

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuR0JEkHP-Vtmbr-E8kAZ1Q

Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theheirloompantry Happy Gut Lucky’s site: https://happygutlucky.com Folliero’s site: https://follierospizza.com

Image Credits
Personal Photo by Torrey Fox (https://torreyfox.com/ & https://www.instagram.com/torreyfox All other images by Kathleen Higashiyama & Alec Totto