The rise of gourmet cannabis cuisine

In Amsterdam, in the Jordaan neighborhood, the restaurant Fraîche, run by Noah Tucker and Tony Joseph, recently invited 25 people to enjoy an 8-course «psychedelic dinner» for 70€ per person.

«Weed sommelier» Manas Akdag designed the dishes with Noah and Tony and advised them on flavor pairings between different ingredients such as the kanna, the’harmal or magic truffles (psilocybin mushrooms).

A Guardian reporter, Jules Marshall, was there: «We started with sashimi featuring an assortment of smoked avocado and Red Angel, plum, bacon, and a sauce made with kanna extract.».

Cannabis sashimi. Photographer: Floris Leeuwenberg

The Red Angel is a cannabis variety with equal amounts of THC and CBD: 15% of each. It’s designed to get you high, but not too high for the start of a meal.

Next up is the salmon en croûte hemp seeds, salsify with harmal—intensely bitter, but quite pleasant, mixed with sweet licorice.

Then there was the bar, with a vinaigrette made from lemon and Pineapple Kush, blood orange, and chervil, accompanied by a cloud of weed smoke that added to the already heavy atmosphere.

Marshall continues: »It’s not like the walls were melting, but game in chocolate-hashish sauce? My knife was starting to feel heavy, and the chocolate sauce seemed strange. I’m intensely aware of the taste of the meat in my mouth: it’s delicious, and I finish mine, but the other plates are being sent away barely touched. A psychedelic hilarity reigns…»

He concluded: «I won’t be hosting a psychedelic dinner every week, but for a special occasion? Absolutely. It’s an exciting new direction for experimental chefs who are interested in taking a gastronomic approach to consciousness.»

Across the Atlantic, in Colorado, you can buy «extremely strong" chewing gum«, chocolate-cherry cheesecake (we’ll let you guess the secret ingredient), or cannabutter.

In Washington, bottles of THC soda have made an appearance, whereas in Vancouver, it’s mostly cannabis-infused coffee. In San Francisco, people prefer popcorn and pretzels made with marijuana oil.

But some top chefs have also tapped into the potential of cannabis in the kitchen. In Denver, Chef Josh Pollack serves up his signature dish: cannabis gravlax—salmon marinated in salt, dill, lemon, sugar, and marijuana extract.

GrubStreet reports: «To achieve this result, the salmon is marinated for 3 days. The finished product isn’t green, but it’ll definitely get you high. It also smells a lot like weed.»

Cannabis-Infused Salmon Gravlax – Photographer: Chris Crowley

Josh Pollack also says that «marijuana isn’t worth anything in Colorado anymore because everyone grows it. But you can still wrap a fish or a bagel in weed, and people go crazy.»

The problem with space cake and other cannabis-infused products is that they get people too high and the effects last too long. «When amateurs—and even some professionals—cook with cannabis, they try to pack in as much weed as possible. The result is too potent,» says Pollack. His salmon, on the other hand, he says, doesn’t overwhelm the senses.

His restaurant's website > http://www.rosenbergsbagels.com/