While a lot of people who followed the case were almost giddy at the thought of the vegan it-girl eating something that is so far from vegan, that break from Melngailis' diet, which allows no meat, dairy products, or any type of animal products like food dye, gelatin, and honey, actually came a few years later.
At one point in time, Sarma Melngailis was the vegan queen of New York City, with a plan to revolutionize the culinary world with her raw-food creations.
Melngailis lives in the Harlem neighborhood of New York and is active on social media — a recent Instagram post from Dec. 24, 2022, features a photo with her dog, Leon. “Having Leon around me is extremely grounding,” she told the Netflix website Tudum earlier this year.
Sarma Melgnailis' ex-husband Anthony Strangis may not have actually been able to make her dog Leon immortal, but after the events of Netflix's Bad Vegan, her beloved pit bull is still very much alive and well.
Sarma has authored the books Raw Food/Real World and Living Raw Food, both about raw vegan food. Pure Food and Wine used to make $7 million in annual gross sales.
In a recent post to her blog Sarma Raw, the ex-restauranteur criticised the new Netflix documentary and specifically, how it ended. She addressed the circulating rumours about being paid for the docuseries (she wasn't), but clarifies that she insisted any payments be sent to her ex-employees.
She Paid Her Employees With Netflix Money
When Sarma and Anthony went on the run, they left behind a mass of angry, jilted employees, who were left high-and-dry without payment. However once the docuseries was finalized, Netflix execs decided to pay the balance of Sarma's substantial debt.
Level 5 vegan
Level 5 vegans are those who are seen as incredibly committed to the vegan lifestyle, and are often hailed as “extreme vegans”. Level 5 vegans go to an extensive effort to follow a vegan lifestyle that is free of any type of animal product or animal exploitation.
Putting her life back together. Melngailis ran a profitable restaurant for 11 years, wrote cookbooks (Raw Food Real World and Living Raw Food) and rubbed shoulders with celebrities. But now, she spends most of her time reading, hanging out with her dog, working on a memoir and recording podcasts.
Clad in black and sporting a noticeable Maltese cross pendant, Anthony Caruana speaks about his personal relationship with Sarma Melngailis, who ran Pure Food and Wine Restaurant in the series 'Bad Vegan: Fame.
Yovana admitted during the 30-minute video that she was 'completely vegan' for six years until she incorporated fish and eggs into her diet two months ago. This changed happened after Yovana's period stopped in 2014 when she underwent a 25-day water fast.
The star, has now ditched her influencer name 'Rawvana' and opened up about her difficult choice to incorporate animal protein back into her diet due to health reasons.
You might know of true crime perpetrator and so-called Bad Vegan Sarma Melngailis, but you might be short on knowledge about her ex-husband (or is he?) Anthony Strangis, who was also a co-conspirator and fellow convicted criminal in the fraud that sent them both to prison and brought down her raw vegan food empire.
In May 2018 Sarma filed for divorce from her estranged husband [according to Page Six], six months after leaving Rikers. There's very little information on what Strangis is up to now, but we do know from the documentary that the pair still have some contact.
Today, Susan still runs the orchard by herself.
Susan Jasse continues to own and operate Alyson's Orchard. And although she hasn't appeared on Sarma's Instagram in a while, there's nothing to suggest the two aren't still on good terms.
Did Sarma pay her employees? In the Bad Vegan documentary, we find out that Sarma didn't pay the Pure Food and Wine employees for five months, leaving them with $40,000 of back pay.
I won't spoil the plot, but Sarma ends up handing over $1.7 million to Anthony Strangis and leaving the government, her employees, and investors out in the cold to the tune of $6.14 million.
This time, the focus is on restaurant owner Sarma Melngailis, often called the “vegan Bernie Madoff,” who went from celebrity restaurateur to fugitive after becoming involved with a man calling himself “Shane Fox.” The story of Melngailis's restaurant, Pure Food and Wine, was baffling at the time, and it remains ...
After fleeing New York, Melngailis was tracked down in Tennessee and arrested for fraud in 2016. She was convicted in 2017.
Mike Fremont sets marathon world records on a meat-free diet
The centenarian has followed a vegan diet since the age of 69. After a cancer diagnosis, doctors offered Fremont life-saving surgery. But instead, he turned to whole food plant-based nutrition to regain his health.
Sam Bankman-Fried is a billionaire thanks to Bitcoin and his crypto trading company FTX. But the vegan altruist says he's only making money to give it away. If you tuned in to Super Bowl LVI, you may have seen an ad from FTX starring Larry David of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame.
The four main types of vegans are ethical vegans, environmental vegans, health vegans, and religious vegans.
'Bad Vegan' got the story right...for the most part. Movies, such as The Theory of Everything, may claim that they're based on true stories, but these movies won't include every detail from the story in the movie.
Leon is still alive and well and he actually just celebrated his 12th birthday. Leon even has his own Instagram account: @oneluckyrescuedog. According to the page, he currently lives in Harlem with Sarma.
Who is Sarma Melngailis? Melngailis is the former owner of and co-founder of the vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine in New York City, which opened in June 2004.