Every Monday, Chelsea Hindenach releases her weekly menu of gluten-free, locally sourced meals to her Facebook page. Customers place orders and pick up dinner from her Thursdays at Kindred Market. Saturdays, she parks her truck at the Athens Farmers Market, where the line starts forming before she's even ready.
Hindenach has been in Athens since 2001, long enough to call it home. Now she runs Chelsea's Real Food, a gluten and dairy-free food truck that serves sandwiches, baked goods and ready-to-eat meals from a full-service kitchen built into a mobile trailer. Everything from imitation butter to bread is made from scratch.
Hindenach said she grew up in Findlay, Ohio, with allergies and a family that let her experiment in the kitchen.
“I would make awful things,” Hindenach said. “And then they would eat it anyway.”
Hindenach said she also studied massage therapy, but her passion was always cooking with whole foods and locally sourced ingredients.
Hindenach worked at Crumbs Bakery and the Village Bakery in Athens, experimenting with gluten-free baking before she knew why it truly mattered to her.
It wasn't until years later, she said, when working as a personal chef for a family with severe dietary restrictions, that she realized her own gluten intolerance was celiac-level, serious enough that working in a traditional kitchen had become impossible.
When that family moved away, Hindenach said she contemplated what was next. She couldn't work in restaurants anymore, and she wanted to work for those who truly needed it.
"I just wanted to cook my food for nice people," Hindenach said.
The local health department suggested looking into a mobile kitchen. She said the farmers' market, where she already knew the farmers and loved the scenery, made sense for her business.
The Athens Farmers Market has been a regular spot for Hindenach since she moved to town, bringing her kids, feeding the farmers, and building relationships with locals. She said when she started thinking about a mobile kitchen, sourcing her ingredients from the local market was the obvious choice.
“That was my first thought, if I had a mobile … I could make soup from the local food at the farmers market,” Hindenach said. “That would be amazing.”
She took the advice from the health department and developed a business plan, but hit a roadblock when banks showed no interest in the idea.
“The businesspeople said that it was a terrible idea,” Hindenach said. “It was too niche, and I shouldn’t bother doing it.”
Hindenach said she was not dissuaded; she turned to private investors, five people who believed in her mission. In July 2013, Chelsea’s Real Food became official.
Hindenach is dedicated to sourcing all ingredients, including produce and protein, from local and clean farms, such as MoSo, Pasture Fowler, Sugar Butte, 9N and the OHIO Student Farm.
She said all of the animals used from those farms are pastured with non-GMO feed, producing clean and natural meat.
In alliance with her mission, everything on Hindenach’s menu, such as her sandwiches, soups and baked goods, makes for a transaction that stays in Athens with small farmers, not corporate distributors.
Hindenach’s trailer is not a typical food truck. She said most have a deep fryer and a couple burners, while hers is a full commercial kitchen with a full-size commercial freezer, a two-door fridge, five sinks, a full-size convection oven, four burners and a steam tray.
During the pandemic, she said she added a prep kitchen and bakery space to her house, offering more capacity for her and her crew to cook.
In addition to her work at the truck, Hindenach still picks up massage therapy clients, keeps chickens and ducks and leads a fruitful family life.
She has seven employees who rotate through shifts, and one volunteer, Susan Gilfert, who helps prep during the week.
Gilfert volunteers every Wednesday morning, chopping vegetables and washing dishes. She said she began volunteering after seeing Hindenach’s help-wanted sign during COVID-19.
“I thought Chelsea has such a wonderful mission,” Gilfert said. “She's so supportive of local food and good food that is prepared in a thoughtful manner with the various support that she gives.”
Gilfert praised the way Hindenach actively seeks out local farmers, how everyone at the market knows each other and the network of support that includes organizations like Rural Action and ACEnet.
"Hooray for Rural Action, hooray for Chelsea's Real Food, hooray for local business," Gilfert said.
Robin Bowman, a long-time customer of Chelsea’s Real Food, said one of his favorite breakfast meals is Chelsea’s Deluxe Scrambled Eggs. He said Hindenach has a friendly demeanor.
“She's very friendly, she's someone that supports local food and makes very quality food … I'm a person that loves to support local businesses,” Bowman said.
Hindenach said her food costs are high due to the quality of her sourced ingredients. Sandwiches at the farmers' market cost between $8-$10. Full dinners for her Thursday meal service cost $18-$19.
“It truly is an honor to me to get to feed all these wonderful people,” Hindenach said. “To have that trust of people to allow me to feed them really means a lot to me. I love that, and that's what keeps us doing what we're doing. We have the happiest customers that I know.”
