Cannabis cuisine is a culinary field that incorporates various cannabis ingredients into cooking, baking, or beverage recipes or that pairs cannabis with certain dishes. Cooking with cannabis dates at least to the early 20th century in Thailand and likely to the 13th.
In Thailand, cooking with cannabis goes back to at least 1908, when “tender ganja leaves” were called for in a curry recipe in Mae Khrua Hua Pa, Thailand’s oldest cookbook.[1] Medicinal use, and likely culinary use, dates to the 13th century.[1][2]
In 1954 Alice B. Toklas published The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, which included a recipe for hashish fudge.[3]
Legal cannabis as of 2017 was one of the fastest-growing industries in the US.[4] In the United States, the San Francisco area has been influential in the evolution of cannabis cuisine.[5] According to NPR and Vice, women chefs and entrepreneurs lead the movement.[5][4] According to Vice, more leadership roles are held by women than in most sectors.[4] In 2017 consumers in Canada and the US spent an estimated $1 billion on edibles and were expected to spend $4 billion in 2022.[6]
West Hollywood, California, held a lottery to allocate eight cannabis cafe licenses.[7] The first to open was the Original Cannabis Cafe (formerly known as Lowell Cafe) led by chef Andrea Drummer.[8][9]
In 2019 the Aspen Food & Wine Festival first had cannabis cuisine exhibitors.[10] The 2020 festival was cancelled due to COVID, but the 2021 event featured multiple exhibitors.[11]
As of 2021 the American Culinary Federation was offering a certification in cooking with cannabis[12] and the US National Restaurant Association listed cannabis cuisine among its top trends.[12] Canadian chef Travis Peterson in 2021 argued that Canada was losing culinary tourism opportunities because of its cannabis policies.[12]
The field incorporates various cannabis ingredients into cooking, baking, or beverage recipes.[13][14] Cooking with cannabis requires considering how decarboxylation affects cannabis[8] and how terpenes affect flavor.[15]
Crop-to-Kitchen is an organization dedicated to legalizing cannabis cuisine led by Terrance Alan and Kimberly Belle.[5]
Cannabis chefs and cannabis cuisine have appeared in a number of television series, including Viceland's Bong Appetit, Netflix's Cooking on High and Cooked with Cannabis, and Discovery+'s Chopped 420.[14][16][17]