Sarma Melngailis

Melngailis graduated from the University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania, commonly called Penn, is a private research university and Ivy League member in Philadelphia. It traces its origins to a 1740 charity-school project; Benjamin Franklin proposed his academy in 1749, classes began in 1751, and a 1791 merger established the institution under its present name. Penn has 12 schools, with undergraduate education concentrated in arts and sciences, engineering, nursing and Wharton. Enrollment totaled 29,384 in fall 2025, and the fiscal 2025 endowment was $24.81 billion. As of October 2026, J. Larry Jameson was president, with his term scheduled to end on June 30, 2027.Open the full entry in 1994 with degrees from both the College of Arts and Sciences, where she majored in economics, and the Wharton School, where she completed an accounting concentration.⁠[1]

She says she grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and after graduating worked in investment banking at Bear Stearns, in private equity at Bain Capital and at a high-yield investment fund before deciding she did not much care for finance and leaving to study at the French Culinary Institute.⁠[2]

She recalled realizing after about five years in finance that she was not passionate about the field; she came to raw vegan food by accident, after a meal at the raw-food cafe Quintessence changed her view, and said she noticed more energy soon after switching.⁠[3]

Pure Food and Wine was opened by chef Matthew Kenney and his then-girlfriend Melngailis at 54 Irving Place in Manhattan’s Gramercy neighborhood, serving raw vegan dishes; it operated until 2015.⁠[4]

In an excerpt from her memoir she writes that the restaurant opened in the summer of 2004, did well in New York’s competitive, high-rent restaurant market and weathered the 2008 downturn.⁠[5]

Raw Food Real World, a cookbook she co-wrote, was published by HarperCollins in 2005; early that year she had the logo of her brand One Lucky Duck tattooed on her arm.⁠[2]

On June 1, 2009, Morrow published her 376-page cookbook Living Raw Food: Get the Glow with 100 More Recipes from Pure Food and Wine; the review describes her as the restaurant’s partner and executive chef.⁠[6]

In December 2009 the Pure Food and Wine team opened a new One Lucky Duck outpost in Chelsea Market, selling crackers, cookies, puddings, salads and juices.⁠[7]

That month she said she wanted to open more locations in New York and other cities, naming Tokyo and London as the international cities that made the most sense.⁠[3]

In January 2015 Pure Food and Wine staff walked out en masse over unpaid wages; they walked out again over unpaid wages the following summer, after which Melngailis disappeared.⁠[8]

In May 2016, nearly a year after disappearing, Melngailis and her husband Anthony Strangis were arrested in Sevierville, Tennessee.⁠[9]

A 24-count indictment announced by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office charged the two with second-degree grand larceny, second-degree criminal tax fraud, first-degree scheme to defraud and labor law violations, among other counts; prosecutors alleged that they took $844,000 from four investors, left 84 workers owed more than $40,000 in wages, failed to pay over $409,000 in sales tax and spent about $2 million on casinos, luxury watches and travel, with the top count carrying up to 15 years.⁠[10]

In December 2016 prosecutors offered her a plea deal under which she would serve one to three years instead of facing up to 15 years; she was then free on $350,000 bail.⁠[11]

In May 2017 Melngailis pleaded guilty to grand larceny, tax fraud and a scheme to defraud in exchange for four months in jail and five years’ probation.⁠[12]

Strangis also reached a plea deal and received five years of probation and an order to pay restitution.⁠[13]

After serving her four-month sentence on Rikers Island, she filed for divorce from Strangis in May 2018.⁠[14]

Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives., a docuseries about her story, launched on Netflix on March 16, 2022, and debuted at No. 5 on Netflix’s Top 10 list of English-language TV series with 27 million hours viewed in its first five days.⁠[15]

The four-part series was directed by Chris Smith, who said the team conducted an eight-hour interview with her; it drew on audio and video material she provided over time, while Strangis declined to be interviewed.⁠[16]

Journalist Allen Salkin, who covered the case from 2016 and was interviewed for the series, wrote that the media had been “complicit in assigning guilt to Melngailis long before she’d been convicted of anything,” while noting that she and Strangis pleaded guilty and were sentenced to jail, probation and restitution.⁠[17]

On her website she called the ending of Bad Vegan “disturbingly misleading” and argued that the series should not be considered a documentary; she also said she takes responsibility and is remorseful, and wants to continue repaying debts.⁠[18]

She said that being paid to participate was her own condition, so that she could pay what her former employees were owed.⁠[14]

She appeared on episode 288 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls her a chef and restaurateur who was the subject of the Netflix documentary Bad Vegan; topics included her childhood, Bad Vegan, remorse toward her employees, how she met Anthony Strangis, prison and running restaurants.⁠[19]

In September 2024 she said she was working to reopen Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck in their original location, with added space; she said several people had approached her about investing but that it had to be the right people, and that she still carries debts to settle.⁠[20]

Her memoir The Girl with the Duck Tattoo: A Memoir was published on July 8, 2025.⁠[21]

She said she chose to publish it independently rather than selling ownership and control of her story to a publisher, signing and mailing pre-ordered copies herself.⁠[22]

Personal website: Public link: https://www.sarmaraw.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[19]

X: Public account: https://x.com/sarma (opens in a new window)⁠[19]