Dosed Dining

Entertaining and Cannabis

DOSED DINING

The next time someone invites you to their home for dinner, they may not be asking if you prefer red or white wine, or whether you’d like a microbrew. The question on tap just might be do you want your steak, chicken or fish garnished and dosed with cannabis.

There is a growing trend across Massachusetts and other states to cook with cannabis. Professional chefs are using it to season meat, bake bread, flavor salad dressing, and dose desserts.

David Yusefzadeh, 37, is a professional chef based just outside of Boston. He’s been cooking with cannabis for years and is in high demand to create and serve cannabis infused food at a growing number of private parties. He’s cooked up to 20 course meals at everything from millionaire soirees to back yard gatherings.

“People are learning how to entertain with cannabis and they’re not just providing weed to smoke. They’re having their friends and family over and offering food cooked and served with cannabis. There are also cannabis infused beverages on the market. You can drink those instead of alcohol,” says Yusefzadeh.

It’s unusual for people to cook with cannabis on their own because they don’t have the tools, technology and knowledge to do it. So they’re turning to professional chefs like Yusefzadeh who is riding high on this emerging trend and growing business.

“Most people are a little nervous about working cannabis into their recipes. They’re afraid of putting too much in. They want someone they can trust to do it for them,” says Yusefzadeh.

There are countless ways to use cannabis in cooking. The key is identifying the delivery vehicle, infusing it with cannabis, and then using it to make or season the meal. Sugar is one of those vehicles. So is olive oil, salt, flour, garlic, and oregano just to name a few of the countless options.

The trick is properly infusing these ingredients with cannabis, and then carefully cooking with them. Many people are reluctant to do it themselves because it’s so easy to make a mistake.

“If you put infused olive oil into an extremely acidic dressing, you might modify the strength of the THC. If you use that same oil on a piece of meat and then cook it on a grill, the heat could kill some of the key elements of the cannabis,” says Yusefzadeh.

Caution over cannabis and hesitation over using it in meals goes beyond not knowing how to cook with it. Yusefzadeh says even though it’s legal in many states, cannabis still carries

a negative stigma. The words of vocal politicians who opined against the drug continue to discourage people from smoking it, cooking with it, or serving it up to guests.

“The bar is lowering for the younger generations. The older generations will never change because they grew up with Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan telling them that cannabis is the devil,” says Yusefzadeh. “The perception of cannabis is changing, so we’re here to help and make sure it gets on the right path.”

Cannabis has clearly come a long way from the days of baking it into brownies and smoking grass. Today is it an epicurean’s delight, highlighting fish, pork, veal, vegetables, desserts and drinks.

Cannabis cookbooks and online recipes are beginning to appear. But while they teach people how to cook with cannabis, the process of infusing ingredients remains difficult and elusive. That’s why chefs and entrepreneurs like Yusefzadeh, who know how to infuse, are making and selling those enhanced ingredients.

Yusefzadeh does business on PlantJam.co and while he’s yet to offer any cannabis infused ingredients for cooking, he is planning to roll out a variety of finishing salts, chili oil and olive oils. They will be available at dispensaries across Massachusetts. You can find out where to buy them by visiting his website.

“We’re at the cutting edge of people being able to do this at home alone. There aren’t a lot of resources to help people infuse right now. For the most part they have to use ingredients that are already infused or turn to professional chefs who know how to cook with cannabis,” says Yusefzadeh.

For his part, Yusefzadeh plans to create a cookbook and put recipes on his website. He’s also hoping to hold cannabis cooking classes. But there is some cannabis confusion over whether people would be able to eat what they create in class. The license for onsite consumption of cannabis does not yet exist.