Kaileen Chisholm was preparing to start culinary studies at Edmonton’s Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) last year when her sister-in-law sent her a link to a cannabis event hosted by Travis Petersen, a former contestant on MasterChef Canada, a competitive cooking reality show.

Chisholm contacted Petersen and soon started working with the Vancouver-based chef whenever he held an event in Alberta. Earlier this month, she travelled to Vancouver to work alongside he and a handful of other chefs at two multi-course dinners that included dishes such as turkey medallion, stuffing and foie gras with cannabis-infused cranberry gravy.

“Cannabis cuisine is developing so quickly it’s hard to keep up with all the information,” says Chisholm. “It really keeps you on your toes.”

She isn’t alone. The legalization of recreational cannabis and, more recently, the legalization of infused edibles has generated a lot of interest in cannabis cuisine across Alberta.

That is especially true in Edmonton, which has a thriving culinary scene. In 2017, three of the city’s eateries made enRoute Magazine’s list of the 10 best new restaurants in Canada.

A harvest-ready table isn’t complete without cannabis tinctures. 

Petersen lived in the provincial capital and worked in the oil and gas industry until he appeared on MasterChef Canada in 2015. Buoyed by his experience on the CTV show, he opened a cannabis culinary company called The Nomad Cook.

Last year, he travelled across the country hosting cannabis-infused dinners at Airbnb rentals. He says interest has been growing steadily and he estimates he has treated more than 2,000 Canadians to his cannabis-infused creations. He has held six of these events in Edmonton in the past year and says every one of them has been sold out.

Six months ago, Petersen gave a cannabis cooking lesson at a brunch attended by a group of farmers in Camrose, 90 km south of Edmonton. He says they were very receptive.

“When the lesson was over, they all wanted to know more about cannabis,” says Petersen. “Six of them purchased tickets for my event in Edmonton the following night and they made the hour-long drive to attend.” The middle-aged farmers were all trying cannabis for the first time.

“The only thing that might get beaten up at a cannabis event is a bag of Doritos.”

“I see that kind of thing a lot,” says Petersen, who estimates that about a quarter of the people he serves at his pop-up events haven’t used cannabis in more than three years or ever before.

Creative solutions to Health Canada restrictions

Daniel Huber, a Red Seal-certified chef based in Edmonton has also capitalized on the growing interest in cannabis. Last year, he established a local dinner club for cannabis users.

He holds pop-up dinners for guests who have used cannabis beforehand. These multi-course meals are designed to taste great for those feeling the effects of cannabis. The inaugural dinner, in October 2018, covered the five basic tastes — umami, salty, bitter, sweet and sour.

Huber says he also prepared cannabis-infused meals for friends, and has been contacted by others who want him to prepare cannabis-infused meals for holiday parties, weddings and other events.

Daniel Huber in 2018.

“I’ll have to sign non-disclosure agreements for some of those events because there is still some stigma surrounding cannabis,” he says. “But really, the only thing that might get beaten up at a cannabis event is a bag of Doritos.”

Fellow Red Seal chef John MacNeil is also fielding more requests than ever to do private cannabis-infused meals. But his greatest interest lay elsewhere.

MacNeil worked at Michelin-rated restaurants in Europe before making a name for himself in Calgary. He was an executive chef of the popular Italian restaurant, Teatro Ristorante. Five years ago, he opened The Black Pig Bistro in the city’s trendy Bridgeland area. He later sold it to his business partners and started reTreat Edibles, which sells baking mixes formulated to accommodate the addition of cannabis.

MacNeil, who is based in Calgary, has teamed up with Zenabis, a Vancouver-based producer of medical and recreational cannabis. He develops recipes for the company and writes for its blog. The company is now sending him to destinations across the country to do live cooking demonstrations.

MacNeil shows curious Canadians how to incorporate cannabis into classically prepared dishes. He tells them that cannabis comes in countless strains with various flavours including citrus, berry, mint and pine. These flavours are created by aromatic oils called terpenes, and they form part of the flavour profile of a cannabis-infused dish.

These ReTreat edibles mixes for rosemary sea salt chocolate chip squares, peanut butter oat squares and double chocolate are sold out — for now. Photo: John MacNeil/ReTreat Edibles

“It’s a different way of thinking about how to consume cannabis,” says MacNeil, who has received a lot of positive feedback on one of his dessert creations in particular — a ganache infused with Purple Haze, a sativa-dominant hybrid.

“Four years ago, you rarely heard about cannabis cuisine,” says MacNeil. “But the industry has matured a lot. There are more and more talented chefs coming into the space every day.” MacNeil, who recently published a cannabis cookbook, says many young chefs have been reaching out to him to say his work has inspired them.

“How do we create these lounges? How do we make them happen? How do we zone these things?”

Cannabis consumption cafes and lounges have not been licensed in Alberta but some people believe it’s just a matter of time before they are.

“Cannabis lounges are going to come,” Edmonton city councillor Mike Nickel said last month, adding that lawmakers must first find the answer to several questions: “How do we create these lounges? How do we make them happen? How do we zone these things?”

“There will likely be one or two lounges to start,” Huber says, looking ahead. “As often happens in these situations, something is tried on a small scale and, if it’s successful, the floodgates open.”

Chisholm, now heading into her second year of studies at NAIT, believes it’s only a matter of time before cannabis cuisine courses are offered at many culinary schools. “You have so many students who really want to get into this field. There is a growing demand for education in this area,” she says. “That speaks to what the future will look like in cannabis cuisine.”