David Yusefzadeh

David Yusefzadeh’s career as a professional chef was off to a fast and furious, even sizzling start. At 19 he was already cooking for President George W. Bush at a Ritz Carlton in Georgia. After a stint in the south, he moved north where he triple majored at the University of Minnesota, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition, Sociology, and Agricultural Economics.

With his degree in hand, Yusefzadeh jetted off to Hong Kong in 2009 where he landed a position as Sous Chef at the world-renowned Mandarin Oriental hotel. He spent two years there before coming to America where he continued his career as a Sous Chef at the Mandarin Hotel in Boston.

Yusefzadeh was in the US for only a few short months when intense cramping in his abdominal region and severe intestinal bleeding landed him in the hospital. A colonoscopy revealed he had Chron’s disease, an inflammatory bowel affliction.

“At first, I started taking some pills to control the inflammation, but the side effects gave me hot flashes and made me nauseous. I went through five different medications over the course of 8 years,” says Yusefzadeh. “The pills helped control the inflammation, but they also weakened my immune system.”

Yusefzadeh was augmenting the pill protocol with rounds of low-dose chemotherapy when friends began mentioning the benefits of cannabis.

STORY BY STAASI HEROPOULOS PHOTOS SUBMITTED

INTERVIEW WITH David Yusefzadeh

PROFESSIONAL CHEF AND FOUNDER OF PLANT JAM AND CLOUD CREAMERY

“I decided to try some and was starting to find relief. I eventually moved onto it full time and got away from all synthetic drugs including chemo in June of 2018,” he says.

Yusefzadeh has been on cannabis exclusively for four years. He heats and inhales a concentrated form of the plant once a day, every day. His doctor says Yusefzadeh is in remission, completely cured of Chron’s.

“I feel wonderful. I have extreme relief. I’ve been able to leave all western medicine behind. It’s insane. I was told I had an autoimmune disease that would never go away. This is pretty fantastic,” says Yusefzadeh, who plans to continue consuming cannabis.

“I have no interest in stopping,” he says.

Even as Yusefzadeh dealt with the pain and complications of Chron’s, he never stopped cooking — but he did begin adding a new ingredient to his recipes. Because he believed so fervently in the overall calming and health benefits of cannabis, he began infusing it in butter, oils, salt, sugar, flour, oregano, and so much more.

“The uses of cannabis in cooking are limitless,” he says.

Cooking with cannabis was nothing new to Yusefzadeh. He and so many others had been dosing brownies and cookies with cannabis for decades. But now he’s using it in new and inventive ways, coating steak with cannabis infused butter, drizzling dosed oil on pasta or in salad dressing; baking bread with doctored flour, curing egg yolks with cannabis, and using the plant to ferment honey or caramel sauce for ice cream.

“I use so many strains of cannabis in cooking. There’s really no limit,” he says.

Yusefzadeh has recently opened two businesses, founded on his flair for cooking and a desire to help people. Plant Jam sells cannabis infused savory items and edibles such as no sugar added gummies and chocolates to dispensaries.

Cloud Creamery is also part of Yusefzadeh’s growing empire. The business makes and markets cannabis infused frozen desserts, ice creams, and sorbet to dispensaries. Cloud Creamery features all-natural ice cream and

sorbets infused with full spectrum live resin.

Some of the more popular flavors include Java Roast, Orange Whip, Chocolate Truffle, Tanzania Vanilla, Mango Yuzu along with Mint Chocolate Chip and Strawberry Shortcake, which are new to the lineup. Other flavors are continually being tested in the company’s Research and Develop lab and are posted on the company’s website www. plantjam.co/cloud-creamery when it’s time for the big release.

From the ingredients he uses to the way he distills and processes cannabis, Yusefzadeh uses an all-natural approach that preserves the integrity and benefits of the cannabis he uses to infuse products.

“There’s no real food in dispensaries. Everything is artificial. High fructose corn syrup, artificial food coloring, artificial ingredients, artificial flavoring. I don’t eat that stuff normally and I certainly don’t want it just to get the cannabis I need. Because I know how the body reacts to cannabis and how to cook with it, I feel I have the right group to start a business and bring real food to the edible market in Massachusetts,” says Yusefzadeh.

Yusefzadeh is not a doctor nor is anyone on his staff, so they don’t recommend specific products to address certain maladies. But he’s confident cannabis can bring comfort to people suffering from pain, inflammation, and other sicknesses.

“I know that it works. I have test results that prove it works for Chron’s. Some people use cannabis for other autoimmune symptoms. You really must figure out the best way to manage your

everyday life with cannabis,” he says.

Yusefzadeh journey from western medicine to cannabis has brought him great comfort. Now he’s an apostle for this controversial plant, weed that is blossoming into what some see as an alternative way to treat sickness and disease.

“People tells us all the time their prescription drugs aren’t working so their doctors prescribe more and more and more,” he says. “We just don’t think that’s the answer.”

Some of the more popular flavors include Java

Roast, Orange

Whip, Chocolate

Truffle, Tanzania

Vanilla, Mango

Yuzu along with Mint

Chocolate Chip and Strawberry

Shortcake, which are new to the lineup.