Mark and Diane Kobayashi pose with a few of the last bags of their family’s iconic Maui Kitch’n Cook’d potato chips Friday afternoon in Kahului. The familiar clear plastic bags with distinctive red-and-yellow prints are soon to be things of the past as the longtime family business closes down Dec. 15. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
For the past 66 years, customers have known that you can’t stop after just one of Maui Potato Chip Factory’s signature “Kitch’n Cook’d” chips.
As the family-owned and operated Kahului business closes on Dec. 15, the next generation may not get to experience this iconic salty snack, but the local company’s legacy is steadfast.
Third-generation owner, operator and potato chip maker Mark Kobayashi said the Maui Potato Chip Factory would not stay in business as long as it has without its regular customers and support from its employees, family, friends and neighbors.
“For us to have survived 66 years is more a triumph of community to take care of the local people here, the local companies,” Kobayashi said Wednesday afternoon. “A lot of times we were lucky because we were a small business and all these people who really didn’t have to step up, they stepped up and helped us out to survive and keep our name in the limelight.”
The original Maui Potato Chip Factory was established in January 1956 when Kobayashi’s late grandfather, Yoshio Kobayashi, took over the business for just $500. Yoshio was already familiar with the art of cooking potatoes, having worked at the factory, and also from his time as a chef at military camps located in “country potato,” like Montana, during World War II.
Founder Yoshio Kobayashi poses with sons Dewey Kobayashi (left) and Takayuki “Joe” Kobayashi in a family photo on display in the sales room of Maui Potato Chip Factory. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
He would ride with the sergeant and distribute meals to the workers in the field, Mark said.
His grandfather tweaked the recipe and produced handmade potato chips with no preservatives. As the business grew, Mark’s father, Dewey Kobayashi, and Uncle Takayuki “joes” Kobayashi stepped in to help. After school in the evenings, Mark and his brother, Edwin Kobayashi, would also assist with backstage operations, such as cleaning and bagging potatoes, in between homework assignments.
“My early memories were of my grandfather, grandmother, mother and my father, they would sit around in a circle and hand-peel bags of potatoes,” Mark said.
Then, while his parents were at work at Maui Pineapple Company, his grandparents would stay back to make the chips, bag them and wheelbarrow the goods across the street to the once-buzzing Kahului Shopping Center to sell their products to the different markets.
Their original idea was to make potato chips for when residents would go to the movie theater in the shopping complex, so that they would have salty snacks to bring in, he recalled.
Under the headline, “Business is Too Good — No More Orders Please,” Dewey Kobayashi graces the cover of Parade Magazine in 1976, which is on display in the sales room of Maui Potato Chip Factory. — The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Edwin was eventually supposed to take over the family business, but sadly passed away at 21 years old from cancer, a shock to the family. Mark was going to drop out of the University of Hawaii at Manoa to help with operations, but friends Michael Sueda and Claro Capili Jr. stepped in for one year to allow him to finish his degree in electrical engineering.
“It just blew all of our minds when he passed away and my two friends just stepped up to the plate,” he said. “My father folks really appreciate it.”
The building is currently in its third and final location at 295 Lalo St., where it has stood for 50 years. The original building located near the old Kahului Shopping Center was destroyed by a tidal wave.
Shortly after the second move to Happy Valley, The Wall Street Journal put his dad and his Kitch’n Cook’d Potato Chips on its front page in October 1975. From that point on, the business boomed. Customers started to learn the exact day and time that potato chip deliveries would take place so that they could get in line first.
His father quickly became the face and voice of the company, Mark said.
“Basically we were just the little guy, just trying to survive,” he said. “Then, it got crazy.”
Over the years, the see-through bags with red-and-yellow labels have become a nostalgic childhood memory for the Maui community and are nationally recognized.
At the company’s peak, there were 40 employees, Mark said, but recently he’s been the sole potato chip maker using a long-standing family
