LA Confidential - August 2007 - Sunfare

Press > LA Confidential - August 2007 - Sunfare

The Sunfare Way

John Stewart and Carl Ferro rebooted their business by maxing out a credit card. Now that’s priceless.

JOHN STEWART AND CARL FERRO never set out to become the kings of custom-meal delivery. The buddies moved to LA from Lawrence, Kansas, to surf and live the Southern California lifestyle. Work, of course, eventually became a necessity, so Carl, a certified trainer, set up a “sweat shop” while Stewart logged time at a Zone diet center.

Enter one well-connected client by the name of Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Sunfare brown-bag-delivery service was born.

“There was a time when I could refer everybody back to Lorenzo,” reminisces Stewart of the business’ early days. Di Bonaventura shed 50 pounds, and everyone from Joel Silver to the cast of Friends signed up for Sunfare’s delivery service. But it wasn’t that easy. When Stewart and Ferro first agreed to provide Zone-sanctioned meals for di Bonaventura, their attempt flopped. “We had a choice between two caterers: a guy and a cute girl.” They went with the latter and it turned out her looks were hotter than her cooking. Di Bonaventura was ready to pull the plug, but Stewart refused to throw in the towel. He called the other caterer, went to the supermarket, maxed out this credit card, and delivered a new batch of meals 24 hours later. Next thing they knew, Stewart and Ferro were getting calls from movie stars. “I had a whole conversation with Sandy Bullock and didn’t know it was Sandra Bullock,” laughs Stewart.

In the early days, Sunfare food was cooked in the six-by-eight-foot kitchen at Max’s (now The Dime) on Farifax – a sharp contrast to their current digs, an 11,000-square-foot kitchen in Downtown LA. A custom technology system keeps track of more than 900 clients’ calorie counts, portions, dislikes, allergies, and special requests. But it’s the tasty recipes created by Ferro (think orange-ricotta crepes, almond-crusted lamb chops, pesto tilapia, and shrimp Caesar salad) that keep people devoted to Sunfare. One contented client even likens waking up to his cooler of food to Christmas morning. “Our mentality is ‘let’s give people food they like that speeds up their metabolism’,” says
Stewart. “And we’ve had great results because people are satisfied – and they feel good.”