Best friends Jeni Cohen of Dia De Los Tamales and Rebecca VanderKloot of Puffs of Doom met a decade ago while selling their products next to each other at a farmers market.
“It was a natural progression, especially with COVID,” Cohen says.
Cohen is one of a growing number of Chicago entrepreneurs cooking with cannabis, which they see as the new frontier of the hospitality industry.
He cooks dishes inspired by his Filipino heritage, and 8th Street Treats’ flagship is the Ube Doobie, a pastry incorporating purple yam and 20 milligrams of THC and CBD.
Pilsen native Manny Mendoza began cooking with cannabis soon after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America in New York, moving to California to take advantage of the state’s trailblazing in the legalization movement.
You don’t want to be overpowered by it, just like you don’t want something to be too salty or too sweet.
Many workers burned out from the long hours in the restaurant world have pivoted toward cannabis, and one estimate claims 375,000 total already work in the cannabis industry.
West Garfield Park native Tiffani Piearson used cannabis to treat her postpartum depression and then began using it on a daily basis.
“The initial goal was to get more African American people like myself to eat healthier food and also use a healthy additive like hemp or delta-8 as an icing on top,” she says.
She might start with a charcuterie plate with infused mustards and jams alongside a tray of other appetizers without any cannabis.
“That allows us to have more control and accurate dosing of whatever we’re serving.
“That’s the glory of cannabis being legal now,” she says.
Menor works with Co-op Botanical Distribution, a Wauconda meat-and-dairy farm that also allows investors to purchase a plot of land for the cultivation and preparation of cannabis.
“Whenever we show up, it’s us trying to push the people at the top out of the way to make room for us.