美国国家公共电台 NPR Haute Pot: How High-End California Chefs Are Cashing In On Marijuana

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

Here in California, some chefs are bringing together high-end cuisine¹ with ingredients that might actually get you high.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BONG APPETIT")

ABDULLAH SAEED: Cannabis-infused foie gras - we've come a long way from weed brownies, huh?

TREVOR MILBERY: (Laughter) Yes, we have.

GREENE: A long way, indeed. All right, this trend is the subject of a Viceland show called "Bong Appetit." You get that, right? It's also been lucrative² for some chefs in San Francisco and LA, as NPR's Neda Ulaby reports.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE³: The biggest challenge for these chefs, they all say, is dosing. It's a new-fangled alchemy, adding just enough state-licensed weed to your sous vide pot roast.

VANESSA LAVORATO: It's just to add a little bit of herb. It doesn't even need to get you high. It shouldn't overwhelm you.

ULABY: That's Vanessa Lavorato. She owns a chocolate company in Los Angeles that sells handmade, organic, pot-infused truffles. She also co-hosts the show "Bong Appetit," making cherry chocolate ice cream with cannabis crumble⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "BONG APPETIT")

LAVORATO: We're going to sprinkle in some of the activated⁵ keef.

ULABY: The show has been popular enough to inspire a cookbook coming out this fall. Lavorato says weed's musky flavor was once thought to overwhelm other ingredients. But that's changed thanks to new cultivation⁶ and processing techniques.

LAVORATO: You don't have to taste anything if you don't want to. They have distillates. They have different concentrates that isolate⁷ it down to THC or CBD.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: That's going to be your CBD English pea soup.

ULABY: This upscale LA restaurant, filled with fountains and pepper trees, serves a prix fixe CBD menu. CBD is a cannabis product that does not get you high. The chef at Spring uses it in sweet corn risotto, branzino and poached peach panna cotta, says proprietor⁸ Yassmin Sarmadi.

YASSMIN SARMADI: It's like putting hemp⁹ seeds on a salad, which people do.

ULABY: When Sarmadi and her husband, who's also Spring's chef, noticed CBD popping up in fancy mixed drinks and bars all over LA, they thought...

SARMADI: Forget about the cocktail¹⁰; everybody's doing that. Let's do a menu with this.

ULABY: It's easier, legally, to serve gourmet¹¹ food with CBD than THC. That's the psychoactive stuff in cannabis that can get you high. State and local laws here change so quickly, it's tough for entrepreneurs to keep up. Chefs interested in creating Michelin-worthy cannabis restaurants have been hampered¹² by regulations. In California, for example, you can't buy and consume cannabis in the same place, with a few exceptions. But this year, West Hollywood is granting a few new licenses¹³ for cannabis consumption areas that might transform the city into a destination for upscale cannabis tourists. Imagine a high-end West Coast Amsterdam, says Vanessa Lavorato.

LAVORATO: But West Hollywood is saying you can do restaurants. You could do a spa. You could have a cafe. You know, it's really going to be exciting to see who gets these licenses and what they do with those licenses.

ULABY: Politicized questions in a country that's incarcerated¹⁴ hundreds of thousands of people for marijuana-related crimes. Andrea Drummer is a private cannabis chef who's catered¹⁵ dinners for Hollywood stars and created room service CBD menus for a luxury hotel. She plans to one day open a fancy cannabis restaurant of her own.

ANDREA DRUMMER: I would love to employ people that have been pardoned or coming out of jails for non-violent marijuana crimes. I would love to be able to give people jobs - you know, people that look like me, black and brown people that should have some part in this industry.

ULABY: Before working with cannabis, Drummer spent years working as an anti-drug prevention counselor¹⁶. She attended the Cordon¹⁷ Bleu cooking school and found herself interested in cannabis partly because she says it relieved the pain she experienced after so many hours of working on her feet. Now Drummer can be seen in a new Netflix cooking competition...

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COOKING ON HIGH")

JOSH LEYVA: Welcome to "Cooking On High," the first-ever competitive cannabis cooking show.

ULABY: ...Which, in the first episode, she handily won.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "COOKING ON HIGH")

MOD SUN: Andrea's sandwich was the best [expletive] sandwich I've ever ate in my whole [expletive] life.

ULABY: Right now Drummer is making a blue cheese salad with roasted pear dressing¹⁸. Her dishes are based on cannabis-infused butters and oils she makes from scratch. Drummer enjoys working with the flavor profiles that can come with different varieties of weed.

DRUMMER: The notes that you find in sour diesel¹⁹ that are different from lemon haze²⁰ that are different from OG Kush.

ULABY: Different seasonings²¹ for a different kind of foodie who puts the pharm - P-H-A-R-M - in pharm to table.

Neda Ulaby, NPR News, Los Angeles.

1 cuisine   

n.烹调，烹饪法

参考例句：

• This book is the definitive guide to world cuisine.这本书是世界美食的权威指南。
• This restaurant is renowned for its cuisine.这家餐馆以其精美的饭菜而闻名。

2 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 crumble   

vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁

参考例句：

• Opposition more or less crumbled away.反对势力差不多都瓦解了。
• Even if the seas go dry and rocks crumble,my will will remain firm.纵然海枯石烂，意志永不动摇。

5 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

6 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

7 isolate   

vt.使孤立，隔离

参考例句：

• Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
• We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。

8 proprietor   

n.所有人；业主；经营者

参考例句：

• The proprietor was an old acquaintance of his.业主是他的一位旧相识。
• The proprietor of the corner grocery was a strange thing in my life.拐角杂货店店主是我生活中的一个怪物。

9 hemp   

n.大麻；纤维

参考例句：

• The early Chinese built suspension bridges of hemp rope.古代的中国人建造过麻绳悬索桥。
• The blanket was woven from hemp and embroidered with wool.毯子是由亚麻编织，羊毛镶边的。

10 cocktail   

n.鸡尾酒；餐前开胃小吃；混合物

参考例句：

• We invited some foreign friends for a cocktail party.我们邀请了一些外国朋友参加鸡尾酒会。
• At a cocktail party in Hollywood,I was introduced to Charlie Chaplin.在好莱坞的一次鸡尾酒会上，人家把我介绍给查理·卓别林。

11 gourmet   

n.食物品尝家；adj.出于美食家之手的

参考例句：

• What does a gourmet writer do? 美食评论家做什么？
• A gourmet like him always eats in expensive restaurants.像他这样的美食家总是到豪华的餐馆用餐。

12 hampered   

妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The search was hampered by appalling weather conditions. 恶劣的天气妨碍了搜寻工作。
• So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. 圣彼德堡镇的那些受折磨、受拘束的体面孩子们个个都是这么想的。

13 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

14 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

15 catered   

提供饮食及服务( cater的过去式和过去分词 )； 满足需要，适合

参考例句：

• We catered for forty but only twenty came. 我们准备了40客饭菜，但只来了20个人。
• They catered for everyone regardless of social rank. 他们为所有人服务而不计较其社会地位。

16 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。

17 cordon   

n.警戒线，哨兵线

参考例句：

• Police officers threw a cordon around his car to protect him.警察在他汽车周围设置了防卫圈以保护他。
• There is a tight security cordon around the area.这一地区周围设有严密的安全警戒圈。

18 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

19 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

20 haze   

n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊

参考例句：

• I couldn't see her through the haze of smoke.在烟雾弥漫中，我看不见她。
• He often lives in a haze of whisky.他常常是在威士忌的懵懂醉意中度过的。

21 seasonings   

n.调味品，佐料( seasoning的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It emphasizes the use of seasonings, so no two dishes ever taste alike. 它对调味品十分讲究。因此，没有两个菜会有同样的味道。 来自地道口语脱口SHOW 高中超越版
• The food made of flour and various seasonings is called moon cake. 中秋节的食品也是圆圆的，也象征着团圆，这种用面和各种作料做的食品叫月饼。 来自互联网