Global Ganja Report

Kim Severson, writing in the New York Times May 18 under the headline "Marijuana Fuels a New Kitchen Culture," quotes author and professional foodie Anthony Bourdain to the effect that chefs in the Big Apple's classiest eateries are regularly toking. "Everybody smokes dope after work," says Bourdain. "People you would never imagine." Severson argues that cannabis-induced cravings are even starting to influence the city's culinary trends:

In the 1980s, cocaine helped fuel the frenetic open kitchens and boisterous dining rooms that were the incubators of celebrity chef culture. Today, a small but influential band of cooks says both their chin-dripping, carbohydrate-heavy food and the accessible, feel-good mood in their dining rooms are influenced by the kind of herb that can get people arrested.

Call it haute stoner cuisine...

As examples of places serving that kind of food, he offered some of David Chang’s restaurants; Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, with its poutine of foie gras; Crif Dogs in the East Village, which makes a deep-fried cheese steak hot dog; and, in fact, the entire genre of mutant-hot-dog stands.

OK, we applaud this mainstreaming of marijuana—and especially those chefs who were willing to come out of the closet as tokers:

Roy Choi, who owns the fleet of Kogi Korean taco trucks in Los Angeles, likens the culinary culture that has grown up around marijuana to the one that rose up around the Grateful Dead years ago. Then, people who attended the band’s shows got high and shared live music. Now, people get high and share delicious, inventive and accessible food.

"It's good music, maybe a little weed and really good times and great food that makes you feel good," he said.

But we absolutely refute that cannabis intrinsically makes people want to plough "chin-dripping, carbohydrate-heavy food" like cheese-steak hot-dogs into their faces. If that is already your predilection, pot can enhance it. But if you favor healthy food—say, stir-fried tofu with veggies—pot can enhance that too. And while we don't have the figures to back this up, we'd wager that there is a higher percentage of vegetarians among pot-smokers than among the general population.

Anyway, whichever way your pleasure tends—bon appetit.

Photo by jamesyu.