Heidi Van Pelt was first seen by many TV fans due to her marriage to Taran Noah Smith, who played Mark Taylor on Home Improvement. People took note of the pair in the early 2000s. But she also spent years making and selling plant-based food.
Her food story ran from Los Angeles to Kansas City. She helped build a company that made dairy-free cheese. Later, she opened a restaurant where diners could try tacos, sandwiches, and comfort food with no meat or milk.
Her work began when many American diners had never tried cashew cheese or jackfruit as a meat substitute. The marriage made headlines, but her kitchens tell a fuller story. Here is how those parts of her life came together.
Who Is Heidi Van Pelt?
Heidi Van Pelt is an US vegan chef and food business owner. She worked on the vegan food firm Playfood and later helped open Füd, a vegan restaurant in Kansas City, Missouri.
She is also known for her past bond with Taran Noah Smith, an actor from the ABC sitcom Home Improvement. The pair held a wedding in 2001. Their shared food food firm later led to a public fight.
In Kansas City, she was also known as Heidi Van Pelt-Belle. Her restaurant opened in 2010 and served meat-free versions of familiar dishes. It closed in 2017 after a dispute involving the owners and staff.
From TV Fame to a New Kind of Business
Smith spent much of his childhood on American television. He played the youngest Taylor son, Mark, on Home Improvement, which ran from 1991 to 1999. After the show, his life took a path away from acting.
Their 2001 wedding made the news. She was 16 years older than him. It tied her name to a hit 1990s family show.
But they also shared an interest in food made without animal products. Instead of seeking more TV work, the two went into business. Their plans took shape when few stores sold vegan food.
Vegan food has no meat, milk, eggs, or other animal foods. Now many stores sell vegan cheese, milk, and frozen meals. Back then, small makers sold food at niche shops and markets.
For Heidi Van Pelt, making the food taste rich and familiar became a key part of her work. Rather than ask people to stop enjoying foods they loved, she tried to make new forms of them.
Playfood and the Idea Behind Cashew Cheese
Playfood was the food venture that linked Heidi Van Pelt and Smith as business partners. It sold plant-based products, with cashew-based cheese among its main items. This gave the pair a way to turn an love of vegan food into something people could buy.
Soaked cashews turn soft. They can be blended to make a smooth spread. Salt and spices add flavor. It is not dairy cheese. Yet it works in many of the same meals.
The food had to reach people keen to try it. The team had to find buyers, pack orders, and keep shops in stock.
The business faced a court fight when the pair split. In 2007, a dispute over Playfood reached a Missouri courthouse. Ownership and control of the company were at issue.
A report in The Pitch’s coverage of Playfood described the company and its business conflict. It showed how a firm can struggle when its owners fall out.
The split did not end her love of food. Heidi Van Pelt went on to build a different project in a place she knew well.
A Return to Kansas City
She moved back to Kansas City in 2005. Soon she began a new food project. At the time, few local spots served raw and vegan meals.
She began with small meals, not a full cafe. She hosted dining events in homes and tested new dishes with local people. She also served food for several months at the Bad Seed farmers market in the Crossroads area.
Those meals helped her see what guests liked. The menu was not meant to be a plate of plain vegetables or a few side dishes. She made meals guests would want at a cafe.
Some dishes used raw ingredients, while others were cooked. That let her serve more kinds of guests. It helped her win local fans before she opened a cafe.
How Füd Opened on the Westside
In April 2010, Heidi Van Pelt opened Füd at 813 West 17th Street on Kansas City’s Westside. She ran it with her partner, Jerimiah Rozzo-Belle. They took over an old cafe. Then they got it ready for guests.
Füd took a playful approach to meat-free food. Its menu included tacos, lasagna, and a version of chicken-fried steak. Guests knew these foods. But each was made with no meat or dairy.
At the opening, entrees cost about six to eight dollars. That made it easier for people to give something new a try. The kitchen served fresh food for lunch or dinner.
One taco used wild rice, avocado, and cashew cheese. A burger got its red color from beets and a chewy bite from seitan, a food made with wheat gluten. These foods gave old favorites new tastes and textures.
In a 2010 account of Füd’s opening in The Pitch, she explained her interest in making well-known food in a vegan way. That idea shaped both the menu and the mood.
Customers did not have to follow a vegan diet to eat there. The kitchen used tofu, mushrooms, nuts, grains, and fruit. The goal was a good meal, not a test of food habits.
The Food That Made Füd Stand Out
Füd had a small, bright dining room and an open kitchen. Guests could watch food being made and ask about ingredients they had never tried. That helped guests who knew little about vegan food.
One menu idea used jackfruit in a savory filling. When it is young and cooked with seasoning, jackfruit has a soft, stringy texture that works in tacos or sandwiches. It is fruit, but in those dishes it can take the place of a meat filling.
Cashew cheese also appeared in several meals. It added a creamy taste to tacos and other plates. This linked Füd to the product work Heidi Van Pelt had done at Playfood.
The menu drew on Mexican food and US diner meals. A visitor could see tacos alongside tofu sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and other filling food. The result was a place where vegan meals could take many forms.
Füd gained local praise. In 2010, The Pitch chose it as the Best Vegetarian Food winner in its Best of Kansas City coverage. That honor showed how the restaurant had become part of the city’s food scene.
The success also showed that a small neighborhood kitchen could help introduce new foods. Years before plant-based meals became common in national restaurants, this Kansas City cafe was using nuts, grains, and vegetables to make familiar favorites.
Home and Family During the Restaurant Years
By the time the restaurant opened, Heidi Van Pelt was building a family with Rozzo-Belle. A local food feature from 2010 described the couple as parents to a young child named Vox.
The same report noted that Rozzo-Belle helped in the kitchen and had made wooden tables for the restaurant. Their work was hands-on. A small place like this needed help with cooking, cleaning, service, and keeping the room ready for guests.
Her name also appeared as Heidi Van Pelt-Belle in restaurant coverage. That is why readers may see more than one form of her name in stories about Playfood and Füd.
The Closing of Füd in 2017
Füd stayed open for about seven years. In August 2017, it closed amid a dispute involving its owners and workers. The last days were tense. The closing hurt staff and loyal guests too.
Local reporting described a sudden shutdown during the workday. People involved gave different accounts of the conflict. Rozzo, then a co-owner, said he and Van Pelt were working through the details of ending their business partnership.
The closing put an end to the best-known restaurant venture in her career. It also ended a local place that helped many guests try vegan food.
A cafe can live on in diners’ minds long after it shuts. Füd had won praise, brought unusual food to the neighborhood, and stayed part of the Kansas City dining scene for years. Those parts of its story still matter.
Her Place in Early American Vegan Dining
Today, plant-based products fill shelves at many grocery stores. When Playfood began, the market was quite small. Small businesses often had to explain their ingredients and let customers taste new food before they could sell much of it.
Her idea was simple. Change the food, but keep the meal fun. Cashews could make a creamy topping. Young jackfruit could fill a taco. Mushrooms and grains could make a hot dish feel hearty.
That made vegan food feel less new to first-time guests. A diner did not need to know much about food science. They could order something they recognized and enjoy it.
Her restaurant also showed the value of local food spaces. People could speak to staff, try unfamiliar ingredients, and decide what they liked. A small cafe could do what a box on a shelf could not.
Heidi Van Pelt is often introduced through a Hollywood connection. Her work at Playfood and Füd shows what else she did. She brought vegan dishes to US diners.
Final Thoughts
Her public story has two main chapters. One is her relationship with a TV child star and their shared food company. The other is the Kansas City restaurant she helped build after that relationship came apart.
Playfood brought dairy-free cheese to customers. Füd gave her a kitchen where those ideas could become full meals. The cafe closed in 2017. Yet its years on the Westside still shape her food story.
FAQs
Was Heidi Van Pelt a cast member on Home Improvement?
No. Taran Noah Smith played Mark Taylor on the series. She became linked to the show through her relationship with him.
Was Füd a national chain?
No. It was a local cafe on Kansas City’s Westside.
Did Füd serve only raw meals?
No. It served both raw dishes and cooked food, including tacos, sandwiches, and hot comfort meals.
Why did the restaurant use cashews?
Blended cashews helped make creamy, dairy-free toppings and cheese-like spreads for dishes on the menu.
Did she have a child with Jerimiah Rozzo-Belle?
Yes. A 2010 Kansas City food feature identified the couple as parents to a young child named Vox.
For another story about life beyond television fame, read about Kelsy Ully and her career outside a famous TV relationship.
