Sarma Style - Living Raw Food

Sarma Melngailis 

It is always a treat to encounter someone who is as comfortable in their talent as they are in their own skin. I had the pleasure to interview Sarma Melngailis recently about her new book, Living Raw Food (Harper Collins, 2009), and about life as co-founder of Pure Food and Wine restaurant and CEO of Oneluckyduck.com. I found her confidence, intelligence and bubbly personality to be enchanting. Whether she is updating on Twitter or greeting guests at her New York restaurant, she has a friendly and approachable style that endears her to her staff and her growing list of fans. Sarma is a prime example of what is right with the raw food movement and the new conscious way of doing business. Sarma has generously provided a sampling of recipes just for you, our Purely Delicious readers. 

I  N  T  E  R  V  I  E  W :

What inspired you to write Living Raw Food?

Sarma: People seemed to really love Raw Food /Real World and so it just made sense to write another book with more recipes from the restaurant. Of course by now I could fill two more books, but it takes a lot of time to put a book like this together. In Living Raw Food I really wanted to write more about the restaurant (Pure Food and Wine) and the kind of energy we have here among the staff. And while Raw Food /Real World was all about what it’s like getting started with raw food, this book is more about what it’s like after a few years (five years, in my case) living this lifestyle. I wanted to address some of the questions that I have been asked most frequently, mostly related to personal relationships with food. 

What do you like most about running a restaurant? Least?

Sarma: I’m lucky now that most of the day to day running of the restaurant is taken care of by very capable and dedicated mangers. Everyone pitches in with everything and works together really nicely so it’s a really nice environment to be in. I love that a restaurant is all about hospitality and making people happy. It’s like having a big dinner party every night. The social part of it is really nice. I also love how surprised some people are by our food (in a good way, of course) and it’s nice to have opened people’s eyes to seeing that natural healthy plant based raw food can be incredibly flavorful, exciting, filling, and delicious. I love it when traditional restaurant chefs come in for dinner to see what we’re all about. And it’s nice as the nights wind down when the staff come by the bar after they’ve clocked out to hang out for a while.

What I like least about running a restaurant is perhaps the flipside of what I like best. Having a dinner party seven nights a week can be exhausting! (Even though I’m not the one doing any heavy lifting anymore). And there is always so much that can go wrong. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are the only two days a year we’re closed so those are especially relaxing days for me. Even if I’m out of town or just staying home, I’m always thinking about what might be going on at the restaurant while it’s open.

Do you still act as a chef at your restaurant? Do you bring in new ideas for dishes?

Sarma: I don’t act as chef anymore. I haven’t for a while. With such talented people in the kitchen I don’t need to! And I’ve been spending so much of my time developing oneluckyduck.com and the overall business. But I still think about food and dishes a lot, and I love reading food magazines and cookbooks. Neal and Jana, in charge of the kitchen and pastry, respectively, along with the sous chefs, come up with the most brilliant dishes. It’s really exciting and fun to come in and try new things. If the restaurant were bigger we could have a much bigger menu!

What’s next for you and for PF+W, Any plans for additional restaurants?

Sarma: I started the online store oneluckyduck.com after Pure Food and Wine, but since then have developed One Lucky Duck as the parent company and overall brand for the more accessible side of the business (including our juice bar and snack line). Expanding that now is my priority. We recently relaunched our website with a new structure and a lot more content and we’re going to continue developing that further. And yes, I’m thinking of a couple more locations for Pure Food and Wine, but I’d like to make sure they’re the right place and the right time with the right partners! 

Do you see raw as a trend that has the potential to turn into something bigger? What will it take to get there?

Sarma: I don’t see raw as a trend, it’s more of a movement. I think it’s a shift that needs to happen given the overall decline in people’s health that’s been going on and the health of the planet. I think once people incorporate more raw into their diet and experience how much better they feel, they’re not so likely to go back in the other direction. It’s exciting how many more people are interested these days in eating more naturally in general, and how much more is available. I’d really like to help make raw more mainstream and also more appealing to kids and younger people through the one lucky duck brand.

What’s your ideal raw meal to eat al fresco in the summer?

Sarma: Right now we have a special on the menu: heirloom tomato, watermelon, and avocado salad with micro greens and pistachio oil. I love pistachio oil, it’s one of my favorite things. I’d also love to eat a bowl full of parsley with lemon, pistachio oil and coarse Himalayan salt. And of course, we have great summertime cocktails, like cantaloupe juice, lemon, and cilantro with sake. I also LOVE the stuffed squash blossoms that we have on the menu only in the summertime. But really, I’d be happy to sit in the sun with just a big bowl of watermelon.

What’s currently on your iPod and bookshelf?

Sarma: Right now I’m reading Spent by Dr. Frank Lipman, and Clean by Dr. Alejandro Junger. And I’m rereading Artie Lange’s book Too Fat to Fish, cause I love him. And I also am working my way through my stack of all of Seth Godin’s books. And there’s more. I always have about ten books lying around that I’m reading at the same time. I don’t have too much time to read so it takes me a while to get through anything! My iPod is such a mix of stuff. I haven’t downloaded anything new in a while, it takes time to play around with that stuff and making playlists. I wish someone could do it for me. We play really random music at the restaurant, usually from my iPod.

What don’t we know about you that would surprise us?

Sarma: I’m pretty open about everything, in my blog, facebook and twitter. However, there is quite a bit that I’ll save and maybe write about later on. I think people sometimes don’t realize how much it takes to build, maintain, and grow a business, and they think I live a fabulous life with a plush office, multiple assistants, a closet full of designer clothes, and take posh vacations. I think with most big brands and companies, there’s a story of how it all started and it’s usually not that glamorous.

What’s your personal kryptonite?

Sarma: My food kryptonite? Maybe the popcorn my boyfriend likes to make, using macadamia oil. It makes the whole apartment smell so good. Also maybe cold beer on a hot summer day. I’ve always loved the taste of beer. And about once a year I go to the one restaurant in New York where people probably would least expect me to go. My retail kryptonite is sneakers and summer dresses.

Who is your hero and why?

Sarma: Right now it’s Richard Branson. I love the way he built his business and his spirit. I admire his focus on quality and creating value and making people happy, and keeping it fun. He also gives me the courage to be unconventional and to be stubborn when I really believe in something. And he’s clearly been very successful. He also uses his influence now to do a lot of good things for the world and I’d love to be able to do that some day. I’d love to start a charity that somehow brings fresher foods into hospitals, and schools, and prisons. All prisons should have big gardens and the prisoners could all take care of the gardens and grow their own food.

What is a day in the life of Sarma like? Please walk us thru a typical day.

Sarma: I don’t have too many typical days! Some days I’m running all over the place, some days I’m in the restaurant all day or all evening, and some days I end up at my desk at home all day, never getting out of my pajamas. I live just across the street from the restaurant, and our One Lucky Duck offices are a block away, but there’s no room for me there anymore, so my desk is at home, in the one room that is not my bedroom. It’s easy to wake up, get online right away, and then get wrapped up in work. I’m one of those people who sleeps with my blackberry on the nightstand. As much as I know I shouldn’t. But having a business is a bit like having small children. When you’re not with them you want to make sure you’re easy to reach in case anything goes wrong. 

I don’t do it very often, but my favorite way to start a day (a nice day) is to go walk across town with my iPod out to a pier that comes out over the Hudson and sit on one of the benches for a while. I don’t get out of town very often so that feels like a trip to the beach for me. Of course, I have my blackberry, so I can reply to emails and take calls just as if I was at my desk. Right now I’m sitting at the inside bar at the restaurant on my little laptop typing out this interview, hanging out with Joey the bartender, and running outside to the garden now and then to see what’s going on out there. 

Earlier today I did a radio interview, then had a meeting where we tasted new (and hopefully improved) versions of some of our One Lucky Duck packaged snacks. Then I had a meeting with my CFO. Then I ran to get my hair blown dry while I worked on emails. Then I ran home to change. Then I ran back to the restaurant to say hello to some guests. Now I’m going to order some food to go for my boyfriend and get a green juice to bring home. I am really lucky that I get to be around such yummy amazing food all day, and work with such great people.

What’s the funniest thing that’s happened in the kitchen?

Sarma: The only thing I can think of is a home kitchen story. It comes right out of my new book (Living Raw Food) where I’m discussing the hazards of using a mandoline slicer if you’re over-confident and also drinking wine, like I was.

“With a mandoline, shredding and shaving takes only seconds. Just don’t shred your finger off! I did this once—sliced off the tip of my middle finger. Who uses the plastic safety guard? Oh yeah, it comes with a safety guard. I recommend using it. I should take my own advice. For the record, I was talking to, and looking at, a really cute boy while shaving fennel at home. These kinds of things are embarrassing when you’re supposed to be experienced in the kitchen. As soon as I saw this small piece of my body sitting on the cutting board, I panicked and threw it in the garbage, quickly wrapped a dishtowel around my finger, and finished making our salad as if nothing at all unusual had happened. Then we sat down to eat and, of course, all the blood soaking through the towel gave me away. Anyway, the boy bandaged up my finger for me, and being the super-human, raw-food person that I am, it grew back and healed in no time.”

One last question... What’s the secret to your success?

 Sarma: It’s a secret!

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We hope you enjoyed this interview with Sarma. For a sampling of recipes from her new book Living Raw Food, please see the summer 09 issue of Purely Delicious Magazine.