Los Angeles – TV cooking contests have become a popular subgenre, but Netflix is taking a new turn with “Cooked with Cannabis,” a space that takes marijuana to the stove of the small screen.
Taking advantage of the fact that this Monday is known as International Marijuana Day (April 20), the digital platform has released this six-episode program focused on the taste of cannabis and its culinary possibilities.
“A revolution is raiding the world of cooking,” says singer and chef Kelis, who presents “Cooked with Cannabis” along with fellow chef Leather Storrs.
“And it’s all due to this star ingredient: marijuana,” adds Kelis.
The premise of “Cooked with Cannabis” is a carbon copy of the countless cooking contests that have invaded television in recent years.
Three different chefs come to each program, preparing a series of dishes under certain rules to win over both the presenters and a jury made up of guests.
The award? $ 10,000 to the winner.
And the difference compared to any other cooking contest? That all your dishes, from starters to desserts, must include cannabis.
“My initial introduction to cooking with cannabis, honestly, was like a game because I had too much weed,” says Amanda Jackson, one of the three applicants for the first episode.
Each of the chapters has a thematic axis and that of the first installment is that the dishes have a fundamental part made on the grill.
“What do grilling and cannabis have in common? Smoke,” says Storrs, the co-host of a competition that doesn’t avoid the jokes and curious moments that marijuana may cause in the kitchen.
But the skills of the chefs, all with many years of experience, are beyond question.
From gazpachos to hamburgers to tarts, tacos, pupusas or salmon, applicants try to defend the versatility and qualities of taste and smell of cannabis as one more incentive for menus.
“People should know that there is a lot of freedom when cooking with cannabis,” says Cynthia Sestito, another of the contestants.
“When I teach cooking, I don’t say, ‘Do a little of this and a little of that.’ You must really want to accept this whole process and you must feel free,” she adds.
In each of the dishes, “Cooked with Cannabis” explains what variety of marijuana they have used and what their properties are: mimosa, sour diesel, dream queen …
And to avoid unwanted sensory travel, in the recipe they specify how many milligrams of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive component of marijuana, they have used in each preparation.
As in any other television cooking contest, in “Cooked with Cannabis” there is no shortage of rush, the ingredients that do not appear, some errors on the stove and the countdown to put the chefs on edge.
“Cooked with Cannabis” thus adds to the television offer that has recently dealt with marijuana since normalization and even betting on humor.
“Weeds”, “Disjointed” or “High Maintenance” brought cannabis to television fiction, while “Cooked with Cannabis” has a culinary precedent in the contest also for the small screen “Cooking on High”.
In any case, these television spaces go hand in hand with the progressive acceptance and legalization of marijuana in countries like the United States, where states like California (the most populous) have not only regulated it for recreational and medicinal use, but have also included cannabis dispensaries among essential services opened during the coronavirus crisis.
