Today we’d like to introduce you to Kiki Heinzer.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Kiki. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I created Klean for two simple reasons: I love food and I like to help people. As a daughter of a Mexican mother and Texan father, culturally diverse food was at the core of our family interaction. I beat obesity at an early age thanks to a family pediatrician so I understood that food was medicine but never lost my love to eat! Years later, I am sitting at my desk in the Nike headquarters, feeling frustrated by the limited access to healthy meals. Eager to help people with the same issue, I told my husband, Steve, “I just want to cook for people”. As an Exercise Physiologist and Personal Trainer, he had meal plans that were proven to work.
At the same time, I met Jodi Rawlins, who became our first Executive Chef. We started making Klean meals by focusing on whole, organic ingredients and removing the big inflammatory triggers such as gluten, soy and processed foods. Suddenly my dream of healthy, accessible food that tastes good came to fruition. For the first few months, we cooked from my apartment kitchen and delivered meals late at night. Once we perfected our recipes and built our clientele, we moved to a commercial kitchen in Hollywood and the business grew! Since 2012, we continue to make real food for real people who deserve the best out of what they eat. Our sustainable sourcing and plant-based packaging mean that we are moving toward building a healthier future for our children and the planet.
To provide food as fuel is a wonderful opportunity that I hope makes a positive impact on the world. I’m grateful to be a Stanford alumnus, living in L.A. with my husband Steve and two boys, Sebastian and Santiago. We love our Klean meals and we hope you’ll enjoy them too!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Oh no, it has been more like a rollercoaster! There are highs and lows but if you are passionate about what you do and are able to mold and grow to change, you will make it. As a small business, you need money and resources to grow and if you do it like I did, I grew slowly and organically with very little resources. I had to figure everything out on my own. That meant that sometimes money was really tight and we had to really keep our operations running very smoothly as there was no room for mistakes.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
We provide high-quality meals and meal plans for weight loss, weight management and nutrition. To provide food as fuel while making it accessible to the everyday person has been my mission. In today’s day and age, our lives are so full and we have less and less time to focus on cooking healthy meals for ourselves. What we consume should be our priority but it often gets lost in the hustle and bustle of life. We make real food for real people that deserve the most out of what they eat.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up on the border of South Texas to a Mexican mother and Texan father. Food was at the core of our family interaction and everyone in my household was slightly overweight. It wasn’t until a pediatrician put me on a healthy path that I became increasingly passionate about nutrition and exercise. I loved sports, was very involved in school activities and politics (I was the president of my Jr. High and High School). I was always a go-getter, always engaging in some form of business start-up even from an early age. I have always been a hard worker and had big aspirations for life early on. I remember telling my track couch that I would go to Stanford. He responded with, “you’ll never get in, it is a very difficult school to go to”. I then spent the rest of that year trying to prove him wrong and went off to get my BA from Stanford in 2004.
Pricing:
- We have a la carte meals that cater to all price ranges. Sides start at $7 and full meals between $9-$15.
- Meal plans range from $150 for lunch and dinner for the week to $1600 for a full 30 days of food.
Contact Info:
- Address: 12454 Oxnard St.
North Hollywood, CA - Phone: 3106007445
- Email: info@kleanla.com
- Instagram: @kleanla
- Facebook: @kleanla
- Twitter: @kleanla
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/klean-la-los-angeles
- Other: kleanla.com
Image Credit:
Christina Ng Photography.
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