It was mid-afternoon and a disciplined team of chefs began rolling out the day's offerings – four kinds of baklava, oatmeal butterscotch cookies and a toothsome Parisian macaroon.
There wasn't a pot brownie in sight, and the mere mention of it caused Hope Frahm's eyes to narrow.
"That's the first thing people think of when you tell them you work with marijuana," said the executive chef at Love's Oven, a cannabis bakery near downtown Denver. "But we are developing croissants, eclairs, maple bacon bars, olive oil. The sky's the limit."
Everything I know about molecular gastronomy and portion control translates so well to cooking with marijuana. It's just another ingredient.
Here in the national epicenter of legalized marijuana, where rules on getting stoned are still being hammered out, Frahm is busily elevating food that gets people high into something approaching haute cuisine.
The classically trained pastry chef, who worked under famed restaurateurs Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller, is bringing skills she learned in those kitchens to Colorado's burgeoning edible cannabis industry.
"Everything I know about molecular gastronomy and portion control translates so well to cooking with marijuana," said Frahm, wearing a spotless white smock and snug black cap. "It's just another ingredient." Well, not quite.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has recommended limiting edibles to lozenges and liquid concentrations called tinctures. To support that stance, officials cited cases of children eating cannabis-laced cookies and candy.
There also have been high-profile overdoses, including a college student who leaped to his death from a hotel balcony after eating a cookie with 65 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Others have reported galloping paranoia and hallucinations lasting for hours.
Frahm's motto is "start low, go slow."
"If you do 10 shots of tequila you're going to get sick," she said. "That's why we don't make cookies with 100 milligrams of THC – we make them smaller, with 10 milligrams each."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - Los Angeles Times
Author: David Kelly
Contact: Contact Us - LA Times
Website: Denver pot bakery puts the high into haute cuisine - LA Times
There wasn't a pot brownie in sight, and the mere mention of it caused Hope Frahm's eyes to narrow.
"That's the first thing people think of when you tell them you work with marijuana," said the executive chef at Love's Oven, a cannabis bakery near downtown Denver. "But we are developing croissants, eclairs, maple bacon bars, olive oil. The sky's the limit."
Everything I know about molecular gastronomy and portion control translates so well to cooking with marijuana. It's just another ingredient.
Here in the national epicenter of legalized marijuana, where rules on getting stoned are still being hammered out, Frahm is busily elevating food that gets people high into something approaching haute cuisine.
The classically trained pastry chef, who worked under famed restaurateurs Wolfgang Puck and Thomas Keller, is bringing skills she learned in those kitchens to Colorado's burgeoning edible cannabis industry.
"Everything I know about molecular gastronomy and portion control translates so well to cooking with marijuana," said Frahm, wearing a spotless white smock and snug black cap. "It's just another ingredient." Well, not quite.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has recommended limiting edibles to lozenges and liquid concentrations called tinctures. To support that stance, officials cited cases of children eating cannabis-laced cookies and candy.
There also have been high-profile overdoses, including a college student who leaped to his death from a hotel balcony after eating a cookie with 65 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Others have reported galloping paranoia and hallucinations lasting for hours.
Frahm's motto is "start low, go slow."
"If you do 10 shots of tequila you're going to get sick," she said. "That's why we don't make cookies with 100 milligrams of THC – we make them smaller, with 10 milligrams each."
News Moderator: Shandar @ 420 MAGAZINE ®
Source: Los Angeles Times - California, national and world news - Los Angeles Times
Author: David Kelly
Contact: Contact Us - LA Times
Website: Denver pot bakery puts the high into haute cuisine - LA Times
