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Sarma Melngailis knew she was on to something big when she was introduced to raw food. After only a few bites, her intuition told her to open a raw food restaurant, even though Sarma was a meat-eater with a bachelor of science in economics. Fortunately, she had experience at the country’s top financial investment firms, a recent degree from The French Culinary Institute and a life-long passion for food. Today, this raw food maven is the new face of the raw lifestyle, impacting people’s lives as the owner of Pure Food and Wine, New York City’s premier raw foods restaurant, as well as with her raw and organic online food store named One Lucky Duck, two books, and her blog on the One Lucky Duck website.

Growing up in Boston as the daughter of a professional chef and a physicist, Sarma wasn’t sure what she wanted out of a career. Always enjoying cooking, but feeling like she belonged in the business world, Sarma enrolled in The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and majored in economics. Her career in finance began in 1994 and took her to New York City where she gained mergers and acquisitions experience with Bear, Stearns, Inc. and back to Boston with Bain Capital, Inc. evaluating businesses for private equity investment.

Although Sarma was making interesting financial deals, she felt out of place at her firm. One day, a partner asked Sarma why she was working in finance because it seemed like that wasn’t what she wanted. Sarma almost started to cry because she knew he was right, food was her passion, but she also still had a mortgage to pay.

In 1998, Sarma returned to the Big Apple and joined a high-yield investment fund at CIBC. Pursuing her love of food, Sarma enrolled at The French Culinary Institute. After graduating in 1999, Sarma spent the next few years paying her dues in the restaurant industry, consulting for a culinary book agent and eventually meeting the man who would become her partner in Pure Food and Wine.

Sarma knew nothing about raw food when she was introduced to it during in 2003. As an experiment, she went all raw for two weeks. During that time Sarma researched all about raw food, but most importantly, noticed that she felt amazing after only a few days. Sarma realized the experiment had become a permanent shift. The reality of opening her raw food restaurant wasn’t too far behind.

Pure Food and Wine launched in New York City in 2004. What began as a restaurant concept soon became much larger. Sarma’s first book, Raw Food, Real World, was published in 2005.

Sarma also realized there wasn’t a comprehensive, hip, easy-to-use website for those interested in raw and organic food. She thought, “Why not start my own website?” Sarma knew she wanted an online business that was synergistic to Pure Food and Wine, as well as cross-promotional. In the summer of 2005, the One Lucky Duck online store hatched. Her blog, We Like it Raw, followed.

Sarma’s second book, Living Raw Food, contains recipes for fresh juices, shakes, soups, simple dishes, main courses, desserts and even cocktails. Her ambition is to make raw food accessible to everyone, whether they’re a die-hard carnivore, strict vegan or fall somewhere in the middle.

Today, Sarma’s influence continues to grow as she focuses on realizing her vision: presenting the raw lifestyle as accessible, uplifting and sexy; thereby increasing the appeal of living healthier to the largest possible audience for positive impact on people’s quality of life

What we learned from Sarma: “I learned not to put all my eggs in one basket. I wanted to be 100% owner in my restaurant, so I had to buy out my financial partner. I looked for investors and received offering documents where people said, ‘I’m in.’ I got lazy and wasn’t on top of it. I stopped speaking to other investors. Unfortunately, the ones I thought had committed to financing my effort fell through. It wasn’t a great situation. I learned a big lesson and I’m still working to find the right investors.”

A Chef at the Core

“I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I always pictured myself in an office doing something business-oriented so I majored in economics at the Wharton School of Business. But I constantly felt different. My classmates were reading The Wall Street Journal while I was reading cooking magazines.”

If it Quacks Like a Duck…

“When I was looking for wall art for the restaurant, people kept suggesting pictures of fruits and vegetables. I felt that was cliché. One day I was reading a gourmet food magazine and saw the most beautiful picture of a duck. I couldn’t look away. I had to have that picture. I tracked down the photographer and eventually got the picture, as well as several others. I ended up using the pictures in the restaurant, decorating the juice bar with baby ducks and putting ducks on the menu. I wanted a cute logo that would appeal to kids and would be memorable. When it came time to name the online store’s website, it made sense to continue the duck theme.”

The Writing on the Wall

“I split with my business partner, who was my boyfriend, six months into the restaurant venture. It was unpleasant, hairy and uncertain. We were in a relationship and living together when we opened Pure Food and Wine. It was like an ugly personal and business divorce. I realized that you can’t ignore the writing on the wall. You want things to work out, so you rationalize. We don’t see what we don’t want to see, but you have to look.”

The Raw Reaction

“My parents are fine with my raw food lifestyle and businesses. It’s other people who have interesting reactions. Even though I’ve helped raw food become more mainstream and acceptable, people seem to get weirdly offended by it. It’s as if they think I’m making a judgment about how they eat, like by having a raw food business I’m saying, ‘You eat like crap.’”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Megan L. Reese, WORDrobe™ Stylist for Her Write Image in West Grove, Pennsylvania.

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