Bad Vegan on Netflix: Release date, cast and plot of new documentary

NEW Netflix true-crime docuseries Bad Vegan looks at the story of Sarma Melngailis, a restaurateur who was convicted of fraud back in 2017.

As the founder of New York's Pure Food and Wine, she took money from her restaurants, which she claims was under her husband Anthony Strangis' orders, a man she had mysteriously met online.

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When can I watch Bad Vegan on Netflix?

Bad Vegan arrives on Netflix on Wednesday, March 16, 2022.

To watch it, you'll need a Netflix subscription, which can roll on a monthly basis.

The series is made up of four episodes in total and is created by Tiger King producer and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened director Chris Smith.

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What is the plot of Bad Vegan?

The new series follows the true story of celebrity restaurateur Sarma Melngailis - also known as the queen of vegan cuisine.

The trailer shows the success of Melngailis' American raw vegan restaurant Pure Food and Wine, which was the top raw vegan food restaurant at the time.

It offered “high end, fine dining vegan experience”.

The restaurant was renowned for hosting some of Hollywood's biggest stars such as Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson.

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However, the series focuses more on how her vegan empire became a disaster after she met a man online by the name of Shane Fox.

The mystery man - real name Anthony Strangis - manages to con Melngailis out of her self-made fortune by convincing her that he has everything she needs to make her dreams come true.

In the trailer it shows him promising Melngailis that he would make her pitbull immortal if she is able to pass a series of tests.

The docuseries follows the months and years in which the famous restaurateur was forced to follow her husband's requests.

In the trailer, Strangis tells Melngailis “if I told you to take all the money out of your bank and set it on fire – you'd do it”.

Who is interviewed in Bad Vegan?

The docuseries interviews some of the many people involved in Sarma's downfall – including Melngailis herself.

When interviewing Melngailis for the series, director Smith said: "We filmed eight hours and I remember for the first two and a half hours, I wasn’t really convinced that there was anything there.

"And then something shifted about a third of the way through, where it just started to reveal itself in terms of the nuance of the journey she had gone on. Once 'Shane' came into the picture, that's when the story came to life."

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The team behind the documentary managed to speak to journalist Allen Salkin and restaurateur Jeffrey Chodorow.

They also are able to get up close and personal with Melngailis' family and Nazim, a friend and business associate of Strangis.