Item - February 2007 - Sunfare

Press > Item - February 2007 - Sunfare

TWO FOR THE ROAD

Sunfare’s John Stewart and Carl Ferro take healthy living to the streets

Sunfare owners John Stewart, in for the day from Scottsdale, and partner, Carl Ferro, living in Hollywood, sit in their office in the food company’s LA kitchens just east of downtown.  Chefs dot the space in hairnets and gloves, preparing Sunfare favorites: huge salads and fresh fruit – the Zone Diet core of equal parts carbs and fats and a little more protein, delivered personal chef-style.

Sunfare vans, with their ubiquitous home-style logo of an old delivery truck coming up a country lane, sit idle – until later that night when they’ll be filled with coolers of the tastiest health food you’ll ever eat, and make their way to drop off meals and snacks to the company’s 600 or so clients in the LA area, ranging from Hollywood studio brass and stars to athletes and trainers.  The affable Stewart and Ferro aren’t ones to drop names, which is why Hollywood’s power elite feel so comfortable coming to them when they want to eat a little healthier and shed some weight for an upcoming role.

Ten years ago Stewart and Ferro were two trainers in their twenties who headed west from Kansas when fate – and the trash – stepped in.  Stewart found an unanswered phone message in the garbage from a woman inquiring about the Zone Diet.  He fished it out and called.  The next thing he knew, he was on the Warner Brothers lot talking Zone Diet with the lady’s husband, an interested Lorenzo di Bonaventura and his friend, action producer Joel Silver.  The upstart wasn’t without some growing pains, however.

“I had these two caterers lined up – a cute girl and this guy.  And I went with the cute girl,” Stewart sighs.  “A few days later we got a call, ‘This food is terrible!’ We borrowed 500 bucks on our credit card…”

“At 25% interest,” Ferro adds with a laugh.

“We hired the guy caterer and drove a meal over that night,” says Stewart.

“Our business came from trying to save that one client,” continues Ferro.  “We couldn’t afford to say no to anybody.  If somebody was like, ‘Well, could you...’ We were like, ‘Yes!’”

“We needed to pay rent,” Stewart laughs.

Sunfare answered a need to break the Zone Diet down into everyday eating habits.  “We could get people pumped up about the Zone Diet in theory, but if we could actually get food in their fridge, we could keep their blood sugar up so they wouldn’t reach for the wrong foods,” Stewart explains.

Last fall Variety named Sunfare the best diet delivery service in Hollywood.  After expanding to Phoenix, where they have almost 300 Sunfare faithfuls from athletes to

publishers, they are eyeing Las Vegas.  And what about those first clients?  “We still get a Christmas card from the di Bonaventuras every year,” beams Stewart.