‘Bad Vegan’: Sarma MeIngailis Ate Chicken Twice a Week While in Jail
Netflix’s Bad Vegan subject Sarma Melngailis rose to fame with the success of her fine-dining raw vegan restaurant, Pure Food and Wine. After stealing from her business, she and then-husband Anthony “Shane Fox” Strangis skipped town and were apprehended by tracking their Dominos pizza order. Therefore, many began to doubt if the “Vegan Bernie Madoff” was actually vegan at all. While the pizza might not have been for her, she previously admitted to eating chicken twice a week while in jail.
Is Sarma Melngailis a vegan in real life?
Born in Latvia, Sarma Melngailis drew her inspiration in food from her mother, who worked as a professional chef. Even so, she pursued a career in economics after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994.
After working at investment funds and banks, she pursued a career in cooking, earning a degree from New York’s French Culinary Institute in 1999.
Following her graduation, Melngailis connected with renowned chef Matthew Kenney, and they opened the short-lived Commissary in 2001. Both vegans, the two decided to open the city’s upscale raw food restaurant, Pure Food and Wine.
They eventually split, and Melngailis owned the company, including new subsidiary business One Lucky Duck Juice and Takeaway, which became very successful and boasted of a high-profile clientele until its closure. Melngailis was a strict vegan and believed in her brand, inspiring others who supported her.
She admitted to eating chicken twice a week in jail
In 2011, the celebrated restaurateur met Anthony Strangis, who went by Shane Fox at the time, and the two secretly married in 2012. For over two years, she accused him of convincing her to transfer funds from her businesses to her personal account to wire him.
The married couple then went on the run following staff walkouts, spending time in Las Vegas before living in a Tennessee-based motel. In Bad Vegan. Fame. Fraud. Fugitives., Melgnailis explained she didn’t like Vegas because she had a hard time finding healthy food and noted she frequently ate at Chipotle when they stayed in Pigeon Ford.
As police apprehended the couple in 2016 by tracking their Dominos pizza order, many watching the case unfold wondered if Melngailis actually is vegan. However, she, and the detectives who arrested the fugitives, made it a point to note the pizza belonged to Strangis.
When the chef went to Rikers Island in 2016 to serve out her four-month jail sentence, she admitted to eating chicken twice a week in leaked messages obtained by the New York Post with her lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman, with whom she reportedly had an affair. Although she couldn’t maintain her vegan diet in jail, she suggested he did so in a May 2017 exchange.
Melngailis served a four-month jail sentence for fraud
Using the guise of a secret undercover agent, Strangis put his then-wife through a series of “tests,” including sending him any amount of money whenever he asked for it, reportedly convincing her that her compliance would result in wealth and happiness.
Additionally, he promised to make her beloved dog, Leon, immortal. Believing she would get the money back, the chef drained her business and personal bank accounts for him, resulting in an inability to make payroll.
Therefore, her employees staged a total of two walkouts. The couple also defrauded investors to reopen the restaurant before skipping town for a year.
When they were apprehended, the prosecutors offered her a plea for up to three years in prison. Melngailis eventually pled guilty in May 2017 for fraud and criminal tax fraud charges, serving a total of nearly four months in jail. Bad Vegan. Fame. Fraud. Fugitives is streaming on Netflix.
