LOS ANGELES — Celebrity chef Joe Sasto’s favorite foods include pasta and nachos. Using his culinary skills, and happenstance, Sasto has brought his favorite foods together with the creation of the company Tantos — a puffed pasta chip featuring such Italian flavors as marinara, pesto, Cacio e Pepe and classico.
Tantos’ creation was “a happy accident,” Sasto said. The idea came to him while working at a private event at Cal Mare, a former Los Angeles-based coastal Italian seafood and handmade pasta restaurant, in 2018.
The partially dehydrated pasta had Sasto thinking about his other favorite food — nachos.
“I threw them (the pasta) into the deep fryer and said, ‘Look, these look like chicharrons (fried pork skin),’” Sasto said. “They kind of puffed up and had this unique texture that was crunchy. I felt like it could have more of a chicharron-like texture. I thought, ‘I might be onto something here.’”
Sasto kept perfecting the innovation and showcased the pasta chip at pop-up events.
“At that time, they were more fried and not puffed,” Sasto said. “While these (Tantos) are still fried, the texture is much more pleasant, airy and light.”
After watching season 15 of Bravo’s “Top Chef” that featured Sasto’s pasta culinary skills, Sean Knecht, chief executive officer of Tantos, found himself drawn to pasta making.
“I was on my personal journey of teaching myself how to make homemade pasta,” Knecht said. “I did a few rounds and it didn’t taste that good; there was something missing.”
While watching an episode of “Top Chef” Knecht decided to message Sasto on Instagram. The message marked the beginning of the co-founders journey of bringing Tantos to life.
“I asked Joe, ‘What’s your flour to egg ratio?’ I thought this (the message) would go into thin air and never be responded to,” Knecht said. “He responded to it within two hours and I was totally geeking out. Fast-forward we have a texting relationship where I would ask him cooking questions and he would respond.”
After Knecht secured a private pasta lesson with Sasto for his birthday, the founders became friends. In 2019, they met again at a Los Angeles pop-up dinner where Knecht taste-tested the pasta chips.
“I became obsessed with it,” Knecht said. “I stayed after (the party) (and) asked Joe all about it. Joe knew I was an entrepreneur and I asked if he wanted help with creating the business (Tantos) and he said, ‘Yes’ and here we are.”
Sasto and Knecht began promoting the puffed pasta chips on Sasto’s Instagram platform. Followers took notice of the chef’s product, which quickly sold out, Knecht said.
“People were getting upset that Joe didn’t have more to sell or that they were at work when he released them,” Knecht said.
Realizing the product resonated with consumers, the founders officially launched Tantos in July 2024 after working behind the scenes since the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
“Joe and I sat down and said, ‘Alright, we’re kind of at a fork in the road. Do we say, hey, that was fun we made our money back, we broke even and let’s just part our ways or should we go all in?’” Knecht said. “We obviously went all in and in two years we figured out the foundation of our company and supply chain, raised money, finalized flavors, rebranded and we officially launched.”
With Sasto’s large online presence, Tantos is featured on eattantos.com, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Faire Wholesale Marketplace, Pod Foods and Pop Up Grocer, New York.
“We are starting online leveraging Joe’s influence,” Knecht said. “Combine everything and you generate enough awareness and recognition where industry buyers, grocery buyers, snack buyers see us, find us and try us. Over the next few months we will sign our first distributor in the Midwest and we are getting interest in local regional chains that have samples. Our goal is 1,000 doors in the first year.”
The founders were working out of a commissary kitchen up until they started marketing on social media, but realized with the success, they needed to find a co-manufacturer. To create the puffed pasta chip, Tantos uses a process that takes water and wheat and then extrudes to create a product similar to dried pasta.
“When we went to figure out how to do this on a commercial scale, we realized we were making plant-based chicharrones,” Sasto said. “So, we partnered with a co-manufacturer and co-packer (that makes chicharrones), who is also our co-investor, and they do our puffing and bagging. They run it (Tantos) through the line like pork skins. To partner with a chicharron company made the most sense because they had the most experience in making the crispy, airy and puffed texture with this product.”
Tantos was created for “children, moms, carb curious consumers and pasta lovers.”
“I knew my kids, and most, eat pasta four times a week, including myself,” Knecht said. “When our company first began, we did research and noticed there was no pasta snack on the market. Our co-packer would go to trade shows and did research and would notice there also wasn’t a pasta chip on the market and that we were onto something.”
Sasto added, “We knew we had to be innovative but still be nostalgic. I feel like pasta is that perfect medium that everybody’s had before at some point in their life. We were smart about the decision, but still wanted to bring pasta to the people in a snackable form.”
Knecht saw that the market was full of the same Cheetos, Doritos and Fritos snacks and most snack innovations were either corn- or potato-based. Knowing Tantos cannot compete against Doritos, Frito Lay and Cheez-It, the company believes “there’s enough space in the market to be next to them and is wanting to become the household staple in everyone’s pantry.”
“Our long-term goal is to be in every national grocery store, convenience store, airport, hotel — wherever you can buy snacks we want to be in that location,” Knecht said.
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