Who We Are
Our Presidents
Hipp Kitchen, dedicated to creating safe and delicious dining experiences for people with food allergies and sensitivities, is the creation of a San Francisco Bay Area professional nutritionist and chef .
Willie Victor , Co-President
Tom Herndon, Co-President
Co-President Willie Victor has had food allergies her entire life and built a successful nutritional practice called Essentials for Health to help people understand how their diets are linked to their well-being. Co-President Tom Herndon owns a personal chef company in San Francisco called Full Fridge, loves abundant, flavorful food, and giving allergy sufferers the kinds of meals they never thought they could have again.
Our NFCA Certification
Hipp Kitchen has been certified by the National Foundation for Celiac Awareness (NFCA) as a GREAT Guide. GREAT (Gluten-free Resources and Awareness Training) is the NFCA’s train-the-trainer program designed to teach professional kitchens on how to procure, prepare, cook, store, and serve food free of gluten contamination.
Our Name
The name and logo for Hipp Kitchen are a nod to our inspiration, Hippocrates, the ancient Greek philosopher known as the Father of Medicine, who famously stated “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”.
Modern medicine, which relies primarily on pharmaceuticals, has lost sight of the power of food choices. For many people, the elimination of a few key ingredients can have a remarkable impact on their health. Allergens can be the cause of various chronic illness such as migraines, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and depression, and they can trigger the symptoms of many autoimmune diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, and multiple sclerosis.
Our Mission and Vision
Hipp Kitchen’s commitment is to not only make available delicious meals free of gluten, dairy, peanuts, soy, and shellfish but, by doing so, to restore our customers to a state of vigor they may never have thought possible.
The vision of Hipp Kitchen is a world without chronic illness; a world where people happily avoid the foods they should, knowing they can still enjoy good meals.
Willie and Tom met in a business networking group and she begain to refer her clients to Tom’s personal chef services. Very soon both she and Tom saw what great demand there was for good, allergen-free meals. They decided to join forces, and formed Hipp Kitchen to meet that need.
Hipp Kitchen was introduced to the public on August 8, 2009, when Willie and Tom hosted a dinner to prove to people with allergies and sensitivities that it was possible for them to have a safe and indulgent dining experience.
