Chapter 1: What does Sarma reveal about her financial struggles?
They made it seem as if I didn't pay the employees, took a bunch of money and ran off with him. That is not at all what happened. Looking back on it now, do you realize how insane this whole thing is? I ended up getting into the restaurant business because I worked with this guy, Matthew, who I always say is sort of like my first rodeo with a certain type of person who completely lacks empathy.
This is the guy that wrote the book, The Vegan. Is he the vegan? Did he write the book that you kind of helped with? No, no. He and I co-authored our first cookbook. So he and I got together. He had written one cookbook. He was sort of like a – he was a celebrity chef light.
Chapter 2: How did Sarma get involved with the celebrity chef?
He didn't have his own show. He wasn't like Bobby Flay or Mario or all these names that everybody knows. But in New York, people knew his name. And he was this really good-looking guy. And he, oddly enough, had always been my – his restaurant was my favorite. And I loved his book. And I had this opportunity to work with him on his second cookbook. So I did that.
And then we ended up becoming a couple. And then he moved into my – he ended up moving into my place. And there were little sort of signs of, like, why he's the big-time chef with 11 restaurants. Why am I paying for a lot of stuff, you know, early on? And then – I ended up sort of getting involved in his restaurants, putting money in.
And I had earned a lot of money because when I worked at Bain Capital, I co-invested a lot. And I did that. I co-invested on my credit cards knowing that Bain Capital returns are historically and on average so high that it would be silly not to co-invest as much as you possibly can. So I'm like using those credit card checks.
to co-invest in deals, which was really smart because all of that money, you know, there were some deals where I put in like four grand and I got back almost a hundred grand. Like there are those deals that I knew that was going to be the case. So I did that. So I had, I, and then also that apartment that I bought, I sold and made, made a bunch of money on that as well.
So I had a lot of, for somebody my age, I think I was 20, 28, 29 when I got together with him. I had a lot of, I had a fair amount of money for somebody that age. And then about a year and a half into our relationship, I was in debt by the same amount. So that's sort of summarizing what happened. But I basically kept putting money into his company as his company was sort of unraveling.
And even to the point of when he wasn't able to make payroll for his staff – I felt I was involved with him in the restaurant business, and so I would start cashing their checks with my personal money. So I'm paying his staff over $100,000. I ended up paying them, and I never – of course, I never got any of that back. So you're not writing promissory notes or this is just your boyfriend.
He needs help out. Yeah, and – you know, that that's one of those things about me where it's like, if I'm, if I'm in something, I'm kind of all in and I'm committed and I want to help him. And I think he's, you know, I think he's just having a hard time and blah, blah. Anyway. So we were together for four years, but his, his entire restaurant business basically unravels.
He had 11 and then he has zero. Um, and what's kind of gross is that nine 11 happens in the middle of that. And, um,
I think it always sickened me that he seemed to kind of use that as an excuse where it's like, dude, your business was coming apart anyway, but now you have this handy excuse that that's why it happened and can kind of point to that as if that's the reason as opposed to you're incompetent and it was going to unravel anyway. Yeah.
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Chapter 3: What role did Sarma's investments play in her relationship?
Yeah, no, no, no. I can do way better than that. Let me step into another nightmare that's like makes that one look like no big deal, which is what ended up happening. But so he and I ended up opening the restaurant that I had – that I then ran on my own for over 10 years. Um, so he and I both at the same time went to a, it was called pure food and wine.
And then I had also started this brand called one lucky duck, which was like the duck tattoo. Right. Um, but he and I ended up, shifting to this vegan thing together. So somebody took us to this restaurant and we were like, Oh my God, we're going where, what we're going to have to eat this food. And, um, Oh, I just kind of assumed that you'd always been a vegan, like since high school.
You know why it was, it's because I saw on the documentary, I saw the pictures of you with the purple hair. And that's what I said. Oh, she's, she's always been a little bit, you know, the vegan thing a little bit out there. She's always been kind of, Doing the – no? I just assumed that. I didn't know. No, I wasn't vegan until – I mean the blue hair thing. I also assumed he did vegan.
Like he was a vegan chef. That guy Matthew. No, no, no, no. He had very trendy, very popular restaurants. He had a restaurant in Atlanta. He had restaurants in – I know, but I still thought they were vegan. No. That's what I'm saying is that I guess I was already kind of pre-programmed. you know, to think that. So, okay. The vegan thing. Go ahead. Yeah.
So he and I went, we were supposed to go to this fancy new Jean George restaurant, uh, with this friend of his and his, his friend said, Oh, can we go to this other place instead? It's like this raw vegan place. Cause I've been eating that way and I really want to keep eating that way. And we were like, and I remember looking at the place and thinking like, Oh God, this is going to be terrible.
And I was super bummed cause I'd wanted to try that other restaurant. So he takes us to this place. It's very crunchy. Like everything you would imagine, A, quote, raw vegan place would be what that conjures in your mind is what this place was. It kind of has this curry smell. It's very earthy. It's small. It was the summertime. They're like AC didn't work very well.
But this guy starts explaining how much better he feels eating this way and the rationale behind it and why it works. You know, and we're kind of intrigued. And the food comes out and it's way better than I thought it was going to be. but not done in a very sophisticated way, but yummy, right? It's yummy, but it's not like, it doesn't look that great, whatever.
And while we're sitting there, I'm like, and the whole time my wheels are turning and I'm watching and I'm like, I'm seeing supermodels coming in, getting food and going. And I'm like, oh, there's another one. What's going on here? And then there was this lovely woman sitting next to us by herself and we were chatting with her and she said, yeah, I started eating this way.
I feel like a whole different person. I have more energy. All this stuff healed. And then she said, like, yeah, my friends won't come here because, you know, she said, I wish somebody would open a cool raw vegan restaurant. And that moment was one of those things like light bulb moment where I went. Somehow I knew in that moment that's what's going to happen.
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Chapter 4: How did Sarma's life change after the relationship ended?
That's K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com. Code ITC for 15% off. That's what we went through when we tried it as an experiment. And then it sort of became more of a permanent way of living. Now, I understand that everybody's different. So I'm never like pushing this vegan thing at all. And I'm not even, I don't like the label. I'm not a strict vegan, like everybody's different.
But the whole thing with the restaurant was we are making this food available. It's delicious. It's beautiful. It's an amazing vibe. People love the restaurant.
At any given night, probably more than half the people that were there, including a lot of regulars, were not vegan or raw, but they just liked to come there the same way that you might go to a Mexican restaurant one night or you might go for sushi another night and then you come to our restaurant. So it had this really great vibe. So Matthew and I split. Crazy story.
It was like in the tabloids, all this nonsense happened. He gets out of my life, and I'm now running the restaurant on my own, which was – He goes to the investor and tries to get him to cut you out or something, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the guy's name? I forget. Jeffrey. Jeffrey, right. Right. And then – But that guy knew that – Yeah, he realized that he doesn't have a great –
he doesn't have a great name and, and everybody's, and he's owes everybody and he's kind of going on. Matthew's history. If you look into it and now, now there's been all these articles written about everything he's done subsequently, which imagine what did he do? The same thing, you know, people get screwed over, over and over and over again. Um,
Which when those articles came out, I was like, whew, because nobody could look at the chapters I wrote about them in my book and question it now that that stuff is all out there. It's like, yeah. And plus I can back it all up. But so then I'm running the restaurant on my own. And also I've started this one Lucky Duck brand and we're making cookies and we're making all these products.
And now they're in Whole Foods and now they're in more Whole Foods and everything. All of this stuff is just happening. Like Whole Foods is coming to us wanting to carry it in more stores. And I'm making it all out of the back of the – we're making it out of the back of the restaurant. And I know that's not sustainable. Like we have to move to the next level.
And so thus begins sort of what probably was my issue the entire time I was running that restaurant. And things are going well and we're making money. But I know we need to – we needed capital to go to the next level. And – I could never quite find the right partners to do that and I was very wary of
The type of money that's private equity or venture capital type money where they'll come in, they'll see a great brand, they'll come in, they'll put money in, open locations all over the place. But then so often it ends up getting the integrity of the brand, everything that made it special and great is compromised. It loses that special something that it had and those brands tank.
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Chapter 5: What happens when Sarma is arrested and how does she feel about her dog?
I'm kind of in shock. And my biggest concern at the moment in that moment was what's going to happen to my dog. Right. I'm like, what? OK, but what what's going to happen to my dog? Like, oh, man, you know, well, he's going to go to the local pound. I mean, no, he can't. You can't take him to the pound. I'm like, he's a rescue dog.
please don't take him to the pound, please don't take him to the pound. And they were, I mean, they didn't handcuff me, nothing. They just were, like, gently explaining to me what was happening to me. And that's when, at one point, the detective said, like, it's over now. And I was like, what?
Chapter 6: What are Sarma's experiences in the holding cell?
But he said it to me as if he was pulling me out of a bad situation because I think he could tell. I think he was somebody who'd seen enough shit that he'd seen people like that guy In situations and probably people like me and understood the dynamics here and had also done his research and researched my background. That guy's background saw that he had a criminal background.
I don't mind squeaky clean. He kind of sussed out what was going on here. But. they very quickly said, okay, we understand. Uh, we all love dogs. My dog is very like dudes always really liked my dogs. He's kind of like a dude's dog and he's really super friendly. So I'm, you know, there's an arrest happening and my dog is like, thinks they're all there to play with him. He's all excited.
He's jumping around. Right. So they're all charmed by him. They're like, Oh, you know, Kevin here will take him home. Don't worry.
Chapter 7: How does Sarma reflect on her past relationships after her time in jail?
We won't bring him to the pound. And I'm like, oh, thank God. And this isn't a big time New York police department. This is a kind of a small town. Yeah. You know, they're all there. They're not jaded. And, you know, they're either way. I'm like, oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So they're more willing to help out. They agree not to take Leon to the pound.
Um, and it ended up that the manager of the hotel took him because they really liked me and they loved Leon. And so they, you know, they don't know what's going on. So they agreed to take Leon. And then eventually my father drives to Tennessee, picks up Leon. Um, but I'm arrested and, uh, they explained to me that I'm being charged with stuff.
Chapter 8: What lessons does Sarma learn about trust and vulnerability?
And I'm like, and again, I'm just like, what? Okay, you know, they tell me to change my clothes into something warmer because this is May in Tennessee. It's going to be kind of cold where I'm going, so I change into, like, jeans and a sweatshirt. T-shirt. And yeah, and I'm taken to the holding cell in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.
That's where my book opens because I'm in this holding cell and throwing up because I had been drinking coffee and when I was in the hotel I'd been drinking a couple cups of coffee a day. And so I'm one of those people, I guess I'm hypersensitive to caffeine that if you suddenly cut me off from caffeine I'm going to get the migraine of the century. And to the point that I'm nauseous.
And so I'm, I'm, this is like day two, probably the end of like 48 hours in the holding cell. I'm throwing up in this room where there's probably at any given time, anywhere between like eight and 20 women in a not very large room in a holding cell there. Most of them are all coming off of hard drugs and I'm throwing up. Oh baby, what are you coming off of? What is it? I'm like caffeine coffee.
Yeah. You sure? You seem pretty sick. I'm like, just coffee. So, yeah. Anyway, I'm in the holding cell for six days. Then I get moved to a dorm. The detective comes to see me a couple of times. He's super nice. But, you know, it's beyond his control. New York comes and gets me. And so this part makes sense to you.
I remember thinking – because I'm hearing all these stories by then and I'm thinking like, oh, am I going to have to go by bus, by bus, by bus in the heat getting transported back to New York? Fortunately – They sent U.S. Marshals from New York, and we flew back.
But getting handcuffed with a big leather belt and the handcuffs and going through the airport like that, it's a really weird experience. Yeah, you feel like Hannibal Lecter. Exactly. Like everybody's pointing and looking at you and terrifying. That's what it feels like.
And I remember thinking how bizarre it would be because we flew from Tennessee to Atlanta, then from Atlanta to, I think, LaGuardia or JFK in New York. And when we were in the Atlanta airport, I remember that it crossed my mind. And I look kind of cuckoo at this point because my hair is all – like if I don't blow dry and fix my hair – like it would look like a big old rat's nest.
So that's how I'm looking, right? I've got like the rat's nest and I probably look a bit disheveled. But I remember we're going through the Atlanta airport and I remember thinking, this is a hub, there's all these business people going around. I'm like, what if I bumped into somebody that, Because, you know, you run into people in airports sometimes.
Like, what if I ran into somebody that I worked with at Bear Stearns or Bank Capital? Jimmy, what's up? How awkward would that be? And the funny thing is, I think they tend to do this. Like, they had taken my sweatshirt and wrapped it around my hands so that people aren't turning their heads and staring. Because, you know, unless you look close, you don't notice that I'm handcuffed.
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