True Food Kitchen, the health-focused restaurant chain backed by Oprah Winfrey, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday. The company filed in federal bankruptcy court in the Southern District of Texas, Nation's Restaurant News reported. It plans a court-supervised sale.

The chain closed 12 restaurants before filing. They include locations in Century City and El Segundo, Calif., Miami, Chicago, New Orleans, Bethesda, Md., and Reston, Va., Fox Business reported. Others were in Edison and Hackensack, N.J., Garden City, N.Y., Columbus, Ohio, and San Diego. The remaining 34 restaurants in 14 states stay open.

Money was tight. The company had about $1.6 million in cash, enough to run for about two weeks, court papers show. It carries about $42.1 million in funded debt. Investor HumanCo agreed to provide $20 million in financing to keep the doors open during the case.

The company's restructuring chief, Nathan Cook, laid out what went wrong in a court filing. He cited years of turnover among top managers. He also pointed to costly bets that did not pay off, such as ghost kitchens, which make food only for delivery.

Sales had stalled. The chain brought in about $314 million in 2024 and $312 million in 2025, according to NRN, citing industry data firm Technomic.

Here's the backstory. True Food Kitchen opened in Phoenix in 2008 with a health-focused menu. Winfrey became a minority investor in 2018. CEO Jeff Chandler now leads the company through the sale.

For regular customers, the 34 open locations are operating as usual for now.

What we know: True Food Kitchen filed Chapter 11, closed 12 restaurants and plans to sell the business.
What we don't: Who will buy it, and whether more locations will close during the sale.