Kitch Bitch, A New Kind Of Ancient Fast

Chef Aura Winarick is over the restaurant and corporate dining scene.

On any given day during her 20-plus years in the food world, she would grill up giant slabs of meat for her high-profile clients and, no matter how hungry they were, she’d end up throwing half of it away.

Subconsciously, the chef felt conflicted, she said at her home in Noyac last month. What she saw herself cooking, and then tossing, in a professional kitchen went against everything she stands for as an Ashtanga yogi and Ayurvedic medicine practitioner—two Indian sister sciences that focus on balancing energies to restore wholeness.

Her food life and Ayurvedic life did not match, and she knew they never would if she didn’t make a change. So this past winter, she left her career behind and threw her self-declared “irreverent, quirky soul” into her newest business: the Kitch Bitch Fast—three or six days’ worth of freshly made Indian food that the chef cooks, packages and delivers herself.

But this is not a fast in the traditional sense, she reported. Participants are allowed to eat—and reasonably large portions, at that—as long as the food falls in line with the cleanse. No sugar, coffee, alcohol or meat, which are often the largest vices in any diet, Ms. Winarick said.

“Three days is really easy,” she said. “Anybody can do anything for three days, and it will make a difference. You will feel good.”

The heart of the three available fasts is kitchari, which is a combination of mung beans—sprouted or split—and grain, either basmati rice or quinoa. Fasters are responsible for their own breakfasts, and the kitchari—sprinkled with toasted almonds, fresh herbs and shredded coconut—is served for lunch and dinner with cooked vegetables and fruit chutney. A hot pink vegetable broth loaded with potassium and electrolytes can be sipped throughout the day, she said, whenever the faster needs an oral fix.

“The idea is that it’s a mono-foods diet. You’re only really eating one food,” Ms. Winarick explained. “By doing that, you’re giving your digestive system a rest from all the crap that we’re throwing in there. It’s very digestible food and very detoxifying food. Our bodies are then able to cleanse themselves of toxins and extra fats and anything else that’s going on. A principle of Ayurveda is that we heal through our foods and digestion.”

The fast is about coming into balance, cleaning up and feeling good, Ms. Winarick said. That means more energy and a general lightness of body and mind, she said. Some fasters may even shed a few pounds, though that is not the main focus of the cleanse, the chef noted.

“So far, this is more popular with women,” she said. “But I have definitely had my share of men, lots of them. Lots of them. They want to look good and feel good, too.”

Since the Kitch Bitch Fast launched in January, about 30 people have tried the cleanse, and some are even on regular schedules, Ms. Winarick said, as it’s meant to be repeated. The three-day package costs $240 and six days is $480.

“It was a good time to start this up because everyone wants to cleanse after the New Year, after all their naughtiness,” she said. “January was pretty slammed.”

The enthusiasm came as an unexpected surprise, Ms. Winarick said, considering the fast wasn’t exactly her idea—not directly, anyway. It was the brainchild of the Bhakti Breakfast Club, a group of devoted Ashtanga yogis, Ms. Winarick included, who practice yoga and eat together afterward.

Over breakfast one day in November, her friends suggested merging Ayurveda with Ms. Winarick’s passion for cooking, and calling it Kitch Bitch—bringing an ancient tradition through a modern modality and name. The chef mulled it over and remembered her horoscope that week.

“It said, ‘Whatever is happening now is going to be lucrative and successful, so say yes,’” the Sagittarius recalled. “So I said, ‘That’s my mantra this week. Yes! Whatever you say. Yes!’”

While Ms. Winarick hoped the fast would pick up, she didn’t expect it would so quickly, she said, simply because it’s an exotic, unfamiliar cuisine. If there is high enough demand, the chef will launch “Bitch on the Bus”—delivering the fast to Manhattan, she said.

“Even if you’ve heard of kitchari, most people don’t want to cook it because they think, ‘What is this weird, gross, yellow, Indian stuff?’” she said. “If they do cook it, they don’t go the extra mile to make it taste really nice, with the almonds and the herbs and the coconut. It’s just the gloop. And some people who have heard of kitchari cleanse, they’re like, ‘Ugh, I have to eat this for a week?’”

She paused and looked down at her nearly empty bowl of kitchari, which she was eating for lunch. “It’s pretty easy to eat this for a week,” she said.

However, she recommends fasting with a friend or significant other.

“It would suck if you’re doing kitchari and your husband’s having a T-bone,” she said. “You might not be so thrilled, no matter how tasty it is.”

For more information about the Kitch Bitch Fast, call (917) 517-5176 or visit kitch-bitch.com.