Cannabis-Infused Pop-Up Dinners Liven Up the Dining Experience

[dropcap class=”kp-dropcap”]C[/dropcap]annabis-infused gourmet pop-up dinners are increasing in popularity. While usually held in private venues, for an admission fee, you can attend these events if you’re lucky enough to live nearby. Keep in mind, however, these events incorporate low dosages of THC or CBD, as they’re meant to enhance the flavor and experience, and not necessarily cause a strong effect. Here’s some of the best cannabis-infused pop-up dinner event companies with recent or upcoming events:

Cultured: Create & Destroy

Cultured: Create & Destroy offers fine multicourse culinary meals with the finest herbs from Botafarm Genetics and utilizing the talent of the finest infused chefs and cocktail artists in Los Angeles, California, including host Chef Nate Santana. The company will be throwing another curated event on Feb. 7. “I will be doing four courses and a dessert by Jerome Nebati,” Santana told CULTURE. “We’re going to be infusing the food using THC oil and CBD for the cocktails. “This time, I’m going to be using a lot of raw bud in the food. Our master grower Julien from Botafarm Genetics has been working really hard on growing new strains more for flavor so we really want to highlight that in our food. I really want to see those flavors pop.”

As you might guess, cannabis can be used like other herbs in the culinary processes. “One of the dishes I will be doing is a pork loin al pastor and I’m going to sous vide the pork with some of Botafarm Genetics mimosa [herb] to extract all that flavor of the orange pineapple and lemon to give the pork an intense flavor,” he said. “Then we will finish it with raw mimosa to bring out that earthiness of the dish.”

“With this dinner we’re really trying to build a community around our dining experience,” Santana explains. “We want our diners to have more of an understanding of what we’re doing and not just think we’re trying to fuck them up. It’s not about that. It’s about the experience you have with your friends and others while eating and sharing stories.”

The Herbal Chef™

The Herbal Chef™, aka Christopher Sayegh, has become one of the most popular and visible chefs to incorporate cannabis into fine dining. But again, it’s not about getting high. “All my recipes are meant to be very light doses, meaning a maximum of 10mg THC for one serving,” Sayegh told CULTURE in 2016. Two years later, the chef is even more popular with a strong following on Instagram and regular, returning customers.

Recently, however, Sayegh and his company launched a wellness-oriented pop-up operation, Wellhaus Gastropub. The company’s latest event, which ran from Jan. 25-27 in Park City, Utah for the Sundance Film Festival, was sponsored by Charlotte’s Web in partnership with Axcess Entertainment. The event drew quite a bit of fanfare. Next, the project is headed to Malibu and Indio, California for Coachella, plus Las Vegas, Nevada; Austin, Texas; Toronto, Canada; Miami, Florida and New York, New York. Book The Herbal Chef for the next upscale event you have planned.

INFUSIONS

Bronx, New York City-based Chef Charles Grand and the Capital Cookhouse, LLC are introducing the people of the state of New York to cannabis-infused dining. This event offers three-course meals, with the option of cannabis-infused or non-infused dinners. You can try dishes like “Caribbean Pillow,” which is two fried dumplings full of ackee and saltfish over a mattress of lemongrass curry puree, served with a crispy wonton. INFUSIONS+ are the option that we’re all interested in. “Meeting at the intersection of music and design, these culinary experiences serve as transformative events that display art and culture through several generational time periods,” the company stated. There is no definitive word yet on the next INFUSIONS event, but we’re all patiently waiting.