True Food Kitchen Hopes Oprah Winfrey Can Help Take Them Mainstream

Celiac.com 11/21/2018 - True Food Kitchen is a restaurant chain co-founded by holistic health guru Dr. Andrew Weil, centered around his Anti-Inflammatory Diet, which is a pyramid of how people should eat to "avoid and counteract chronic inflammation,” as described on his website. Gluten-free food figures prominently in the menu.

In addition to lending her high profile and celebrity as a minority investor, the restaurant group announced that Winfrey will also add her business sense by serving as a True Food Kitchen board member. The financial details of the investment were not revealed.

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The addition of one of the world's most influential female entrepreneurs to their leadership team is just one of a number of expansion-minded changes for Phoenix-based True Food Kitchen.  Over the next three years, says CEO Christine Barone, the company plans to double the number of restaurants; from 23 to 40 by the end of 2021.

Still, Oprah’s involvement was not a product of design, but a product of chance. According to Barone, it was Oprah, herself, who drove the idea to invest in True Food Kitchen. The company did not seek her out. Rather, “she invited me to lunch at her home," Barone says. The two discussed organic gardening and True Food Kitchen's motto that "we really want to be part of that life well lived," she explained.

According to Barone, Oprah’s passions dovetail nicely “with what our passions are, as a brand.” Winfrey is quoted in a company statement, saying she was "so impressed with the team's passion for healthy eating and, of course, the delicious food, that I knew I wanted to be part of the company's future."

Keep an eye out as True Food Kitchen looks to break out into the culinary mainstream over the next few years.

Read more at: TrueFoodKitchen.com, and Journalstar.com.