66 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • APRIL 2018
TULA KITCHEN:
FEEDING THE SOUL
By ERIC VOORHIS
When Jackie Sharlup was 4 years
old, her parents took her to the Long
Island Game Farm in Manorville,
where she saw, for the first time, live
pigs, goats and chickens.
She’s been a vegetarian ever since.
“I never ate meat again,” recalls the
chef and owner of Tula Kitchen in Bay
Shore. “I remember my mom pointed
out a chicken and I said, ‘Like – dinner
chicken?’ And that was it.”
Sharlup’s childhood informed her
career as a chef in a number of ways.
Around the time she was settling into
her late-toddler vegetarianism, her
father was diagnosed with cancer,
which led the entire family to a clean
and healthy, plant-based diet.
“My mom was always taking us
into Chinatown to get my dad weird
teas — all sorts of stuff,” says Sharlup.
“She always cooked for him, and got
him to a very good place. I knew at
a very young age that you could heal
people with food.”
As a teenager, Sharlup started
working in delis and pizzerias, as
so many young Long Islanders do,
and continued to cook and work as a
personal chef after high school while
earning a bachelor’s degree in art and
design. In 2006, she graduated from
the Natural Gourmet Cookery School
in Manhattan and started to think
more seriously about opening Tula
Kitchen, a dream she’d been fostering
for years. The restaurant officially
opened its doors that same year.
“It was a pretty crazy time,” she says.
“I probably didn’t see the light of
day for the first six years. Owning
a restaurant is no joke. You have to
give it your heart and soul, or else
you just can’t do it. It becomes your
everything.”
Although Sharlup has been a lifelong
vegetarian, she doesn’t like to force
it on others. She knew from the
start of Tula Kitchen that she’d offer
some more mainstream options –
chicken, turkey, fish and seafood –
but decided to leave red meat off the
menu.
“And nothing is fried,” she says.
There are, of course, plenty of
vegetarian options, including
some products you don’t often
see on menus in the area, such as
seared seitan, a high-protein meat
substitute made from wheat gluten.
“We try to cook as healthy and
natural and balanced as we can,”
says Sharlup, noting that nearly
everything they use is organic, right
down to the sesame oil. “We try to
make everything in this restaurant.
Maybe two percent is purchased.
Everything else we make; all of our
dressings, sauces — everything.”
Tula Kitchen offers breakfast and
lunch Tuesday through Friday and
dinner every night but Monday.
The breakfast menu feature flap
jacks with real maple syrup and
fruit. ($11.95). The extensive lunch
menu includes starters like stuffed
acorn squash with quinoa, kale,
caramelized onion and a lemon
dressing ($14); and sesame crusted
seared tuna with a wasabi drizzle
and Asian slaw ($14). Options for
“din-din” include balsamic glazed
salmon over cauliflower and white
bean smash with red grapes, roasted
beets and white balsamic dressing
($28); a tuna lentil burger served
with hummus and roasted sweet
potato salad ($15); and veggie
moussaka, a classic Greek dish
of layered spinach, feta, breaded
eggplant and potatoes ($19).
Tula Kitchen has a split personality:
two separate spaces – “west and
east” – that have completely different
décors. The western room, the home
of the original restaurant, is dim
and quiet, filled with dark wood and
accented by yellow seat cushions
and red floor-to-ceiling curtains.
Next door, a new space that opened
two years ago is flooded with light,
stylish crystal chandeliers and a
long dramatic bar,
what the restaurant’s
website describes
as “French
chic.”
“There are a
lot of jokes
about how it’s the
two sides or my
personality,” says
Sharlup, cracking a
smile. “Good versus
evil; dark versus
light; whatever
works for you.”
Tula Kitchen is
located at 41 East
Main St. in Bay Shore.
They can be reached
at 631-539-7183 or
tulakitchen.com.
PRESS MAIN DISH
Jackie Sharlup with her business
partner, Lina Rinaudo,
outside the popular Bay
Shore healthy locale.
Tula Kitchen’s flapjacks are
a must-try.