The Next Phase In Cannabis Edibles Is Chef-Driven And Local
Chefs are teaming up with brands to bring a more epicurean edge to edibles
Enrique Olvera has been feeding his mole madre for years, replenishing the fine mix of black, red and green chilhuacle chiles with seasonal seeds and fruits for a complex, ever-changing flavor base. You can taste it primarily at Pujol, his Mexico City restaurant, but not at the chef’s Damian in the Arts District; those in Los Angeles hoping to try the mole can have it delivered directly to their door as a CBD-infused chocolate bar.
Olvera is among many chefs lately teaming up with cannabis brands to bring a more epicurean edge to the edibles market, a smokeless industry that’s seen an increase in sales since the COVID-19 pandemic began. In late 2020, even Martha Stewart joined the cause with a line of CBD gummies, drops and candy ribbons.
Olvera’s collaborations with Rose — an agricultural- and ingredient-minded cannabis company based in San Francisco and L.A. — most recently resulted in his pastry chef, Huerik Palos, flying to the Bay Area with a container of the mole madre. At that point, it had been aged for 2,714 days.
Rose co-founder Nathan Cozzolino says Olvera has hit him with several inspiring ideas: What if he could replicate a michelada, but trade the bitter edge of beer for the bitter, herbal taste of cannabis, then dust the cube-shaped THC edible with freeze-dried celery powder and salt? Or re-create the flavor of mezcal-poached pears, coated with ancho chiles. And then there’s this: After hearing that Rose was growing ground cherries on a 10-acre farm in the Sierra foothills, Olvera suggested developing a cola syrup from scratch with Palos to blend it with the farm’s fruit, replicating the taste of nostalgic Coke-bottle gummies.
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