← Author Hour

Sarma Melngailis: Writing Her Truth Beyond "Bad Vegan"

September 24, 2025 01:03:56

✨ Episode Summary

Sarma Melngailis, the entrepreneur at the center of Netflix's Bad Vegan, wrote her memoir with Scribe Media specifically so that no one could tell her what she could and could not say about her own story. After a documentary reframed her life and left her, in her words, on the defensive with all the receipts, she chose to keep full editorial control, the same independent path David Goggins took, and worked with Scribe to turn an enormous manuscript into a page-turner. As Sarma puts it, “I can say with 100% honesty that it was great every step of the way.”

⭐ Top Moments

She wrote it to keep control of her own story. “I knew I didn’t want to be subject to anybody else telling me what I can and can’t put in there, or how long it has to be, or ‘you can’t say that, take this out.’” There may be no better case for editorial control than the person who lived through Bad Vegan.
The documentary is exactly why the book had to exist. “I was put in a position of having to explain myself and be on the defensive and explain all the things they left out and how misleading it was. I have all the receipts.”
On working with Scribe. “I can say with 100% honesty that it was great every step of the way,” from the editing to the cover design to the quality of the people, better than her experience with a major publisher.

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★ About the Guest

Sarma Melngailis

Sarma Melngailis is a restaurateur who founded Pure Food and Wine and One Lucky Duck, two landmark raw vegan restaurants in New York City that attracted celebrity clientele and critical acclaim. A graduate of the French Culinary Institute and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, her dramatic story was chronicled in the Netflix documentary Bad Vegan.

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★ Scribe Case Study

Why Sarma Melngailis Turned Down Traditional Publishing to Control Her Own Story

Sarma shares the rise and fall of her business, the psychological manipulation that led to her arrest, and her desire to reclaim her story after the release of Bad Vegan.

Read the Case Study →

📚 Books by Sarma Melngailis

The Girl with the Duck Tattoo

Sarma Melngailis—best known from Netflix's Bad Vegan—opens up about reclaiming her voice and writing her own story. In this candid conversation with Scribe Media, she shares what it means to take back control of the narrative, the power of authorship, and how writing can transform even the most difficult chapters of your life. Whether you're an entrepreneur, author, or someone navigating your own reinvention, Sarma's journey offers insight into resilience, storytelling, and the freedom that comes with telling your story on your own terms.

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