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Los Angeles Times
15-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
She's L.A.'s Martha Stewart of weed. Her new cookbook makes edibles more fun and less scary
The spacious kitchen of a rented house just off Melrose Avenue in Beverly Grove is in full 420 mode. The stovetop is dotted with Le Creuset cookware. A peppercorn-studded prime rib rests on the counter next to an apothecary jar full of weed. And two videographers and a boom mic operator capture the action as three chefs plate hamachi crudo topped with a Szechuan mala sauce infused with Sonoma Hills Farm's cherry cheesecake cultivar and top cannabis cocktails with crunchy bites of spiced fried eggplant glazed with fish sauce. Out of the stoveside scrum steps a 30-something giving Audrey Hepburn vibes in a red shirt dress, pot-leaf print apron and a relaxed updo held in place with a white plastic clip. 'We invited Chef Wendy [Zeng] and Chef Doug [Rankin] to come and cook for us,' Vanessa Lavorato tells a table of 10 dinner guests. 'And we've got something to celebrate!' Lavorato is the L.A.-based founder of Marigold Sweets (a line of sea-salt-flecked, THC-infused toffee caramels sold in local dispensaries), creator of 'The Edibles Club' online cannabis cooking show and a recipe developer/brand ambassador for the Everclear alcohol brand. (Although the Everclear gig isn't cannabis-related, there's some synergy since the high-proof hooch has long been the go-to spirit for making infused tinctures.) She's feeling celebratory because this dinner party is being filmed as the pilot for a potential Vice Munchies reboot of 'Bong Appétit,' the James Beard Award-nominated cannabis cooking show she co-hosted for three seasons. Along with that, she has something else worthy of celebrating: Tuesday's publication of her cookbook 'How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time: A Cannabis Cookbook' (Simon Element), the 256-page, lavishly illustrated culmination of a decade and a half of efforts to make cooking with — and consuming — the devil's lettuce equal parts flavorful, fun and fear-free. The 'fear-free' part of that might not make a lot of sense unless you've accidentally overdone it on cannabis edibles or been responsible for someone else's bumpy ride. As Lavorato memorably recounts in the book, she has done both: inadvertently doing herself in by way of an infused apple pie on one occasion and on another, an ex-boyfriend courtesy of a cross-contaminated paring knife. 'I started [cooking with cannabis] in 2010 [the year she founded Marigold Sweets], so that's 15 years of dosing myself and dosing other people,' she said. 'So I've seen a lot.' That's why whether she's hosting a 'Bong Appétit' dinner party, interacting with her more than 103,000 social media followers (97,400 on Instagram and another 5,600 on YouTube) or hosting a twice-weekly livestream sesh for her canna-cooking-curious Edibles Club, she makes sure those about to munch on infused foodstuffs from meatballs to Bloody Marys and cookies to queso know just how much psychoactive THC they're about to ingest. Cookbookwise, that means before presenting an assortment of easy-to-make toothsome recipes, there's some science about the plant to learn. This includes how to prepare it for use in the kitchen (raw cannabis flower needs to be heated to a certain temperature — a process called decarboxylation — to make it psychoactive) and how to prepare what she calls the 'mother infusions': cannabis-infused butters, oils, alcohols and milks. As Lavorato acknowledges, one of the biggest challenges when it comes to cooking with the plant is knowing how much of the high-making magic one is consuming. To help establish reliable dosages of THC in her recipes, she worked with two local testing labs, Pasadena-based Encore Labs and Caligreen Laboratory in North Hollywood, conducting more than 200 tests along the way. All of the recipes in the chapters that follow are built on those mother infusions and are organized by type: beverages, hors d'oeuvres, sauces and dips, drinks, snacks and the like. The final chapters focus on pulling it all together, suggesting ideas for entertaining and gifting based on this newly learned cornucopia of comestible cannabis knowledge. Making the infusions requires very little beyond what's already in your kitchen (you'll find having an accurate digital scale, some cheesecloth and a roll of parchment paper helpful), and most of the recipes can easily be dispatched by anyone who knows their way around the kitchen. In addition to the recipes themselves, you'll find some eye-catching, color-popping images styled by Casey Dobbins and photographed by Julia Stotz (think floating meatballs, thrice-baked potatoes lounging on a tiny couch and pot-leaf-shaped shadows). The book also includes Lavorato's own story, a brief history of the magical plant and a primer on why bongs and brownies hit differently. The end result is a 'Joy of Cooking' for the kitchen cannathusiast that's the perfect launchpad for all kinds of herbal adventuring. In advance of the book's publication, I recently caught up with Lavorato (whom I first met almost a decade ago after falling in love with her infused confections) to talk about those 200 lab tests, her concept of ethical dosing, L.A. inspiration and rookie mistakes. Here are some excerpts from that conversation. You launched the Edibles Club out of your Echo Park kitchen in 2020 — the same year you started this book project. Are the two related in any way?The Edibles Club has about 600 members now. They really helped me figure out what I wanted to say and what recipes really clicked. It was a way for me to to understand who my audience is. A lot of the questions they asked are answered in the book. That's why I dedicated it to the Edibles Club — and to everyone who enjoys eating weed. Was there anyone in the cooking or entertaining space who inspired the way you approached this book?The idea of putting together the various recipes and then putting together a party using those recipes came directly from Martha Stewart's first book, 'Entertaining.' I have a lot of respect for what she does and how her books are put together. They're so in-depth and specific; she's really trying to solve problems for people at home. And that's exactly the [approach] I was going for with this book. I kept asking myself: 'What would Martha do?' When it comes to cooking with weed, what's the biggest rookie mistake people make?It's dumping too much weed into the butter. People think, 'Oh, I can smoke an eighth [of an ounce] a day,' so that's what they'll use. But what they don't know is that we waste a lot of THC when we smoke. And also that 11-hydroxy-THC [which is a result of metabolization through the liver] feels a lot stronger than Delta 9 [THC]. Which brings me to the concept of 'ethical dosing' that you mention in the book. What exactly does that term mean?The main issue with a lot of food is the serving size. When you get a bag of chips and it says on the bag that there are five servings and each serving is three chips, who is eating three chips? Nobody. And that's how you have to think about edibles. You need to dose them [low enough] so people can eat with grace. You have to think, 'How much of this is someone going to eat?' I want to be able to socialize with my friends, still be able to talk to them. That's why I try to have [recipes with] micro doses. … I'm really adamant about everyone knowing exactly what they're getting. You want to avoid anyone becoming what I call a 'cookie casualty.' You point out in the book that you conducted over 200 lab tests while working on these recipes. What were those tests trying to accomplish?When someone says, 'It takes this long to infuse butter,' my first question is: 'Well, how do we know that?' I really wanted to know. So I worked with a lab to figure it out. And that's how we ended up doing over 200 tests. [Cannabis] is an ingredient, and I wanted to educate people [about] how to use it responsibly. What exactly are you trying to accomplish when you're infusing butter? The answer is you're trying to wash off the trichomes [on the surface of the plant material]. You're just trying to wash it off. That's it. You're not trying to pull all the green out of the plant. Once people know what they're actually doing and what they are trying to accomplish, it takes the mystery out of the process. It's not that complicated. Since you've lived in Los Angeles for 13 years, I'm curious if there's any specific L.A. influence that made its way into the book?Yes! My [infused] salsa verde is inspired by the one at Taco Zone. It's a little taco truck right by the Vons [grocery store] on Alvarado [Street] in Echo Park. Now that your five-year-long project of working on 'How to Eat Weed and Have a Good Time' is done, what's next on the horizon?I'm already thinking about some ideas. I'm a cannabis chef. I could do an Italian cookbook or a chocolate cookbook. I have more to say about cooking with cannabis. There are more science experiments to be done. Maybe for my next book I'd look at it through the lens of health and day-to-day lifestyle.
Axios
11-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
Bentonville's future farm-to-table fine dining
An elevated tasting menu restaurant — already scarce in Northwest Arkansas — is just one piece of Bentonville Chef Matthew Cooper's next project. State of play: RYN in northeast Bentonville has a more rural feel than Cooper's downtown restaurant, Conifer. The property includes a pre-Civil War home that's being renovated, as well as a full-fledged farm just outside the fine dining restaurant. What they're saying:"I want to train people for the culinary field and show them what real farm to table is," the James Beard Award-nominated chef said. "And not just like, 'Oh, we grew this and then we served it,' but what it means to have relationships with local farmers and understand how they do their business." The plan is to grow anything RYN and Conifer needs while using products from other local farms. RYN may grow vegetables for other farms or restaurants, but there's no plan for wholesales or to compete with other farms. RYN will have an educational component, and Cooper wants to work with culinary programs and kids. The big picture: The property will also be home to a store selling locally-made goods, host events and have a guest house for visiting chefs or those holding events. It'll also be a community space where people can hang out and have a drink from the mobile bar inside the store, with a pebble creek for the kids. Zoom in: The restaurant will feature a 26-seat dining room plus an eight-seat private space. There's also a parlor room and room for the chefs to research and write menus. Expect a simple, thoughtful aesthetic with wood floors, a fireplace and stained glass. How it works: Diners will make a reservation, offered at one time daily Wednesday through Saturday, and won't know what's on the menu until they show up. Think nine to 10 courses of American cuisine sourced locally and regionally as much as possible (with exceptions, like fish). Like Conifer, RYN will serve an entirely gluten-free menu and can accommodate other allergens or dietary restrictions. Background: Cooper is originally from Arkansas and returned in 2010 after living in the Pacific Northwest. He's been cooking for some time, but Conifer was the first restaurant he 100% owned. It opened in 2022. "Being able to own something and not have to answer to anyone has really given me the opportunity to break all the chains and do all things that I've known that a restaurant was capable of doing in this area forever," Cooper said. He wants his restaurants to be a model, showing the industry that restaurants can sustainably offer livable wages, health care, and vacations. He also strives for "a good environment where you can successfully fail and not get yelled out and not have any of these traumas from the restaurant industry."
Axios
26-03-2025
- Business
- Axios
Oscar Diaz' new Durham restaurant is more than a taqueria
It feels unfair to call TaTaco, the new restaurant from James Beard Award-nominated chef Oscar Diaz, simply a taqueria. While the menu for the restaurant — located 620 Foster St. in downtown Durham — does include a wide variety of tacos using made-in-house tortillas, it goes far beyond that. Why it matters: Diaz has been on a hot streak since leaving the popular but now closed Mexican restaurant Cortez in Raleigh, partnering with the group behind the Mezcalito restaurants on a number of ventures. Since then, he has opened the Durham restaurant Little Bull, the all-day cafe Aaktun, which has locations in Durham and Clayton and now TaTaco. He also has plans to open a new, not-yet-named concept in downtown Durham later this year. Zoom in: TaTaco's menu includes the staples of Mexican cuisine, including tacos and quesadillas to enchiladas and flautas. But nestled next to those options include creative entrees like clams dunked in a complex birria broth, salmon made with poblano pasta and fresh seafood options, like a tuna and hamachi crudito and raw oysters featuring a passion fruit mignonette. The drink menu includes several takes on the margarita and lesser-known Mexican spirits like raicilla, bacanora and sotol. The brightly colored dining room offers a front-row view of the bustling kitchen, including a window directly peering into the tortilla-making process as well as seats perched in front of the raw bar. What they're saying: All of Diaz's restaurants are an attempt at what he calls remixing the Mexican food he grew up with, adding new takes or fusing it with cuisines from other cultures. "There's something truly special about being able to infuse a bit of yourself into the projects you create, and I've been lucky enough to do that at each of my restaurants," Diaz said in a statement. "With TaTaco, I really poured in my own story and roots, and it's an incredible honor to share that with the Durham community." What's next: TaTaco will evolve as it gets settled into the new space, but plans are already in place for events and pop-ups. Diaz said it hopes to launch a chilaquiles brunch, as well as occasional late-night "ghost kitchen" events in the coming weeks. Address: 620 Foster St., Durham Hours: Open daily from 11am-10pm.
Miami Herald
10-03-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Health-focused chain restaurant is coming to Florida. What to know about location, menu
A new health-focused restaurant is coming to Florida. Flower Child is planning to open a fast-casual restaurant on the Gulf Coast in Lakewood Ranch near Bradenton and Sarasota. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant is part of Phoenix-based Fox Restaurant Concepts, with 40 locations in 14 states. The Lakewood Ranch location marks the first Flower Child in Florida. 'We've been looking for the right opportunity to bring Flower Child to Florida, and Sarasota is the perfect place to introduce one of our most popular restaurant concepts,' Flower Child founder Sam Fox said in a statement. 'With its focus on wellness, active living, and a strong sense of community, we can't wait to be part of this incredible city and provide a space where people can gather and enjoy wholesome, flavorful meals.' Flower Child features a made-from-scratch menu catering to dietary preferences such as vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free and paleo. Favorite dishes include bowls, gluten-free mac and an avocado wrap. Protein options of chicken, steak, salmon, shrimp or tofu can be added to bowls and salads, or chosen as a main item with a choice of two sides. Fox, who is an 11-time James Beard Award-nominated restaurateur, opened his first restaurant in Arizona in the 1990s. He created more than 20 brands to date, including Flower Child. Fox sold Flower Child, along with North Italia, to the Cheesecake Factory for $308 million in 2019, Forbes reported. Now the restaurant, with its 'healthy food for a happy world,' tagline is less than two months from opening its first Florida restaurant. For more information about Flower Child and to view the restaurant's full menu, visit
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Exclusive: Outstanding in the Field Releases Lineup of Award-Winning Chefs for Coachella 2025
Outstanding in the Field, a roaming restaurant concept by land artist Jim Denevan, has reached 24 countries across the world and all 50 U.S. states, and this April, it'll be setting its communal table at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival for the 10th year in a row. Outstanding in the Field reinvents the classic dining experience, reconnecting diners to their food by curating a menu centered around local ingredients and farmers. At sunset every night, festival-goers worn out from a day of fun can re-energize with a four-course meal in the festival's VIP Rose Garden, where this 'restaurant without walls' will serve up full-service, family-style menu, curated by a lineup of award-winning chefs. Each chef's menu is a celebration of the cuisine and produce of Coachella Valley farms, paying respects to the local growers that make each meal possible. Here are the chefs bringing diners this unique experience. Friday, April 11th: Silvia Barban was born and raised in Northern Italy. After a childhood spent cooking alongside her beloved grandmother, she worked her way up to become executive chef at Brooklyn's Aita. After going on to compete on Top Chef Season 14, she opened the award-winning LaRina Pastificio e Vino. Just this past September, her newest eatery, Briscola Trattoria, debuted in Crown Heights, named a New York Magazine 2024 Top 10 New Restaurant. Saturday, April 12th: Diego Argoti is a James Beard Award-nominated chef and a Los Angeles local. Starting as the son of a grocery store supervisor, he rose through the ranks to become sous chef at Bavel, then opened the innovative pop-up restaurant Estrano in Downtown L.A. His iconic Poltergeist residency at the Button Mash was a smash hit that garnered him plenty more industry accolades. Throughout his culinary career, he's strived to bring some of his 'lucha libre swagger' to his dishes. Sunday, April 13th: Tara Monsod's years of experience and cultural ties to her Filipino background have been a source of inspiration for her cooking. As executive chef of ANIMAE and Le Coq, it's no surprise that her inventive, flavor-packed dishes have led to her being named San Diego's first James Beard Best Chef California finalist in 2024. Friday, April 18: Eric Greenspan trained in Paris under culinary icons like Alain Ducasse and Ferran Adrià before he went on to found The Foundry on Melrose, a James Beard Semifinalist eatery. Now a respected TV personality and cookbook author, he's also launched Virtual Dining Concepts and co-founded New School American Cheese. Saturday, April 19th: Byron Lazaroff-Puck, Los Angeles local and son of chef Wolfgang Puck, had an early start to his career in the kitchen when he began working at Spago as a 12-year-old. He returned to Spago after years of training to lead the front-of-house. Now a staunch farm-to-table advocate and champion of sustainability, he oversees Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining's global operations. Sunday, April 20th: Danielle & Alessandro Zecca both have extensive and award-winning backgrounds in the culinary field. The pair moved to Los Angeles together to launch a catering business, and eventually formed their pop-up restaurant, Amiga Amore. The standout cuisine quickly turned into a permanent spot, drawing visitors from all over and earning Alessandro a 2024 James Beard nod. Coachella festival passes and advance tickets will be required to attend the dinners provided by Outstanding in the Field and their roster of chefs. Each night is sold separately. Tickets can be purchased here for $350 and will cover not just the price of a four-course dinners, but a welcome drink and exclusive access to the VIP Rose Garden.
