A former chef at two Michelin-starred restaurants is bringing cannabis-infused cuisine to private parties in California hoping to provide diners with a “cerebral experience,” according to a New Straits Times report.
Christopher Sayegh, 24, infuses his dishes with a cannabis compound, which he says is unlike any other ingredient because one must be “extremely careful” with heat while cooking with cannabis. Sayegh says that it’s up to the chef to make sure the “trip” customers are being taken on is “done right.”
“I am literally changing people’s brain chemistry as the dishes go on,” he said. “By the third course you feel it a little, by the fourth a bit more and by the fifth course, you’re starting to hit your groove.”
Sayegh’s menu includes Wagyu Japanese beef, oysters, pomegranate sorbet, stuffed grape leaves, falafel and chickpea beignets. The dinners with The Herbal Chef run between $300 and $500 per person.
Robyn Griggs Lawrence, author of “The Cannabis Kitchen,” notes that while cooking with cannabis is not necessarily new, it is also not an exact science.
“It’s not like ordering a Jack Daniels and coke,” Lawrence said. “There is a whole discovery going on right now as this is kind of reaching out from the Wild Wild West.”
Sayegh believes his business might be able to expand beyond private parties if California voters approve cannabis for recreational use this November.