Cooking with cannabis
Montague chef looks to turn pot legalization into a new business opportunity
A Montague chef is looking to take cooking at home to a new high.
Neil Menzie will launch his business, In Home Cooking Company today, teaching people to cook with cannabis in the comfort of their own home.
Today is also the day cannabis goes on sale legally across Canada.
Menzie will start off with an information session at Hot Shots bar in Charlottetown from 6-8 p.m. He’s also accepting bookings for his catering service at neilmenzie@gmail.com and thseacreations@gmail.com.
“I’m going to be offering cooking classes to people in their homes and that’s going to be cooking with cannabis,’’ Menzie said. “I’ll be teaching people different recipes other that the different edibles that they might have heard of before, like brownies, cookies and candies.’’
It also helps Menzie’s cause that edibles aren’t going to be sold at cannabis stores, at least not right away.
“I want to take it from what it used to be (used in) into something that’s more accessible to everybody, like doing pastas, curries and pasta breads.’’
Menzie said a 2017 study by Dalhousie University on edibles showed 46 per cent of people in Canada wanted to try it, but only 20 per cent knew enough about cannabis to cook with it at home.
“So, there’s about 80 per cent of the people out there that really have no knowledge of it that could gain some from it.’’
Menzie has worked as a chef on and off for the past 10 years. He was head chef at the Catch Kitchen and Bar at West Point and at Captain Jacks in Charlottetown. He also served as sous chef at the Big Orange Lunchbox in Charlottetown before it closed.
“I (also) know a lot about burgers and stuff like that. Another thing I’m going to try and push is a way to do stuff like burgers, just everyday food; try to figure out how to make that infused.’’
Menzie said he’s been doing lots of research online, following chefs doing similar work in Colorado and California.
Ask him why it’s fun to cook with cannabis and he’ll talk about how discreet it is as an ingredient. No matter what it’s used in, no one need know it’s in there.
“It (also) gives you a different experience that when you’re smoking it and there’s less room for carcinogens, the negative effects from smoking or vaping. It’s a totally different effect. I know there are going to be a lot of people who don’t want to smoke (cannabis) once it does become available.’’
As for how what Menzie cooks up would affect a person, he said it depends on a person’s weight and how much is put into the food.
“It usually doesn’t take effect for an hour but the effect could last anywhere from five to 24 hours.’’
Menzie also plans on offering a holiday cooking class around Christmastime for things like cannabis-infused mashed potatoes and gravy.
One of the big reasons why he’s offering to go into people’s homes to do all this is so that people won’t be driving themselves.
“People won’t be driving under the influence,’’ he stressed. “They can just . . . spend the night at their house, go to sleep if they want right after the class or do whatever they need to do in order to feel comfortable because we don’t want to leave a bad taste in their mouth, figuratively and literally . . . and we want the food to be good.’’