Kristen Thibeault

Executive Chef

Favorite Food: Anything Shared with The People I Love

Chef Kristen Thibeault is considered one of the pioneers of the modern plant-based food movement. A nationally recognized vegan chef since 2012, Kristen founded one of the first plant-based personal chef delivery companies in the country. Having served over three million meals nationally, she is a leading authority in plant-focused food.

A stage-3, double cancer survivor, Kristen credits her plant-focused diet for her speedy recovery from treatment and a second chance at living her dream of being a chef.  

“I take my inspiration for the farm to fork meals I prepare from many places,” says Chef Thibeault. “My culinary idols include Chefs Thomas Keller and the divine Alice Waters. My favorite meals have been savored at Souen in New York City, L’Ami Jean in Paris, and of course The French Laundry in Yountville, CA. My time in Paris often comes through in what I have coined my vegan fusion style of cooking– I call it stealth health.”

Kristen first learned about veganism and sustainability in 1992 from the late founder of the The Body Shop, Anita Roddick, while sitting at her kitchen counter in Littlehampton, England. Years later, a magical macrobiotic dinner with Richard Gere and Professor Robert Thurman discussing Tibetan Buddhism and the principles of non-harming would open her eyes to the principles she employs today. In 1994 she co-hosted a plant-based dinner party for Sting and Trudie Styler in honor of their work helping indigenous peoples through The Rainforest Foundation Fund. That night augmented her belief in the importance of sustainability and power of local sourcing.

After launching Kombu Kitchen in 2012, Chef Kristen served as Executive Chef at The Four Seasons’ San Francisco where she opened the first plant-focused restaurant inside the esteemed 4-star hotel brand.

In 2013, Chef Kristen won the prestigious title of San Pellegrino Almost Famous Chef, having competed against 450 chefs with the first ever vegan dish.  She has since been honored to judge the 2015 and 2016 competitions.

In 2015, Kristen launched NIBLL, a next generation, high performance food company with kitchens in Los Angeles and San Francisco. “We focus on high performance food for extraordinary people,” noted Thibeault. Chef Kristen has redefined what healthy food looks like and turned an industry on its head. Today NIBLL is the fastest growing corporate catering company in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, serving thousands of healthy meals a day to athletes and high-profile companies.  Her client list includes The Dodgers, The Golden State Warriors, LA Clippers, Anaheim Ducks, NE Patriots, SF Giants, Astros, The Red Sox, Amazon, BuzzFeed, Ring, Pandora, Levi, Apple, Kayak, and Lyft to name a few. In 2018, Thibeault was honored to be the exclusive chef for The Rugby Sevens World Cup, serving 2000 international athletes, coaches and media.

Guided by a passion to end the growing food inequity in our country, Chef Thibeault founded The Patra Project in 2016, a non-profit 501c3 that gives at-risk children and their families access to healthy food in urban food deserts through a meal for a meal program. “1 in 4 children in our country goes hungry,” notes Kristen. “In a country obsessed with The Food Network, gluttonous eating habits, and obsessive eating out, it’s a travesty that so many of our children go to bed hungry.” The Patra Project pledges a meal donated to a child in need for every meal served to a corporate client with the goal of donating $10 million annually.

Chef Kristen is a certified sports nutritionist and holds her culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu. When she is not cooking, Kristen lives between her hobby farm in the bay and a beach house in SoCal with her husband and NIBLL co-founder Keven, her two sons Zander and Zacheo, and her Italian Mastiff Lola.