Three celebrity chefs who specialize in cooking with cannabis will give live cooking demonstrations at Blaze: Missouri Brand Showcase, an upcoming cannabis consumer product expo in St. Louis, Missouri. Each chef specializes in cooking with cannabis and have won awards and competitions through appearances across a variety of shows and will host multiple demonstrations at the event and make appearances on the show floor.
Chef Derek Upton, star of Netflix’s Cooking with Cannabis and Food Network’s Chopped, is a private chef who curates award-winning infused dining experiences. Chef Chris Martin is a founder of Zonka Chocolates as well as founder and CEO of Hempful Farms, a line of CBD products and retail ad café concept in Arizona. Chef Mike Delao is a two-time winner of Netflix’s cannabis cooking competition “Cooking on High” after becoming the first chef to cook with cannabis on nationally syndicated television with “Cannabis Planet.” Chef Delao remains the Cannabis Planet resident chef and executive chef at ChefMike420.
Many chefs, from amateur home cooks to professional chefs, are beginning to experiment with cannabis and food as more states move towards legalization and more people become interested in consuming cannabis in different ways.
Celebrity chef Todd English has launched his own line of cannabis-infused macaroni and cheese available at Culture Cannabis Club and Lemonade and Cookies stores across California. English told Forbes he first began cooking with cannabis after his sister was diagnosed with breast cancer and doctors recommended THC, so he began cooking cannabis-infused dishes.
The National Cannabis Festival in Washington, D.C. embraced the rise in culinary cannabis with a dedicated pavilion headlined by leaders in the food and beverage industry aimed at discussing the future and intersection of food, beverages and cannabis locally and beyond. A number of D.C-area chefs will also discuss cannabis and its place in the D.C. hospitality market.
Blaze is set to be held June 3-4 where over 50 regional cannabis companies showcasing their products that are locally produced and available at licensed dispensaries in the region. Non-dosed mock samples will be available, and each exhibitor will have representatives on-hand to educate attendees on medical and adult-use cannabis. Brands confirmed to be exhibiting at the expo include Rove Brands, Float Cannabis, Flora Farms Cannabis, Illicit Gardens Premium Cannabis, Glaze Cannabis, Clovr Cannabis and Double Bear Concentrates from Terrapin, among others.
The state of Missouri currently has 188 authorized cannabis retailers to sell approved cannabis-infused products, and over 200 planned to be opened, and around 80 licensed manufacturers to produce consumer goods. A bill in Missouri to legalize cannabis recently cleared a second House committee and has been sent to the floor, however the bill is up against a tight deadline as the legislative session is set to end May 13. The bill would legalize cannabis and allow it to be purchased at legal, authorized dispensaries by adults 21 and over, as well as provide expungements, authorize public consumption facilities and allow cannabis businesses to get tax deductions in the state.
Medical cannabis sales in the state broke the monthly record in March, reaching over $30 million for the first time and averaging nearly $1 million in sales per day. Total sales have reached almost $300 million since the first medical cannabis dispensary opened in October 2020, with more than one-third of the sales being recorded in the last four months.
“The state’s latest sales data is great news for Missouri’s medical cannabis license holders — and even better news for the more than 180,000 patients and caregivers who are benefitting from both greater product selection and more affordable prices as more new businesses continue to open,” said Andrew Mullins, executive director of MoCannTrade (Missouri Medical Cannabis Trade Association).
