Cannabis Chef: Wendy Zeng
An interview with one of the brightest chefs in the game
Good food and good weed go together like peas and carrots. Getting high and enjoying excellent meals with chefs who love and obsess over food like me just hits different.
This week I’m shining a spotlight on a cannabis chef + friend who inspires me with her creativity and superhuman ability to do it all with kindness, grace, and immaculate style. And she makes a bomb-ass spicy Sichuan chili oil.
Vol. 4 // In this Issue:
Cannabis Chef Spotlight: Wendy Zeng
The Best Sichuan Chili Oil You Need for Your Pantry
Best-Ever Advice from Wendy
My favorite thing about Wendy is her radiant and effervescent energy that shines from the inside out.
You may recognize Chef Wendy and her neon-colored hair from Food Network’s “Chopped 420” where she smoked the competition with her cooking skills. Wendy and I met last spring via Instagram and became fast friends through a mutual love of food and cannabis. We bonded over our Chinese-American culture, intense entrepreneurial ambitions, and all the crazy delicious food we want to eat while high.
In the past, I always felt like and was treated like the “bad kid” of the family because I was more rebellious, creative, free-flowing, and non-traditional compared to my cousins. Being open with my conservative Chinese parents about cannabis use is still a work in progress. As Wendy and I shared many delicious meals, joints, dabs, and deep conversations we found a sisterhood with each other and our fellow AAPIs.
Earlier this year, we started co-hosting Mogu Magu gatherings with other AAPIs in our industry to explore our cultural heritage through food + cannabis + conversation. I underestimated how important and soul-affirming these experiences would be — for us, and those in our community.
On next Sunday’s post, I’ll share a peek into Mogu Magu: Spicy Sichuan-style hot pot for Chinese New Year with Fly By Jing, Potli, and Sundae School. A joint rolling pool party with Papers + Ink featuring hand-rolled Vietnamese spring rolls, fried golden lumpia with tangy dipping sauces, and seafood hand rolls. Up next, an intimate movie screening + conversation of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” to celebrate Autumn Moon Festival.
Adapted from my original article published on MedMen’s EMBER:
“Best Thing I Ever Cooked While High” is a series where we ask our favorite chefs how cannabis unlocks their creativity in the kitchen.
Chef Wendy Zeng, winner of Food Network’s Chopped 420 on Discovery Plus, is the owner of Drizzle Catering and a pioneering chef of Chinese Sichuan cuisine in the U.S. Born in Chengdu, with Memphis Southern BBQ roots, she says, "I realized that, similar to Sichuan cuisine, Southern food is about family, history, and the dishes that bring us together." Her favorite dish she ever cooked while high is a decadent passion fruit scallop crudo that she says "tastes like summer."
Read on to learn why she prefers live rosin from a dab rig (it's the same reason she keeps whole spices in her pantry).
Tell me about yourself as a chef, your business Drizzle Catering, and how you learned to cook?
I was born in the city of Chengdu, capital of the Sichuan province of China and started cooking in my grandfather’s kitchen when I was seven years old. Growing up immersed in the flavors and techniques of Sichuan cuisine, I’ve always had an affinity for how diverse ingredients can come together to build a complex flavor and textural experience. Building complex but balanced flavor profiles is a hallmark of mastering Sichuan cuisine.
At the age of 10, I moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where I discovered Southern BBQ and soul food. I realized that, similar to Sichuan cuisine, Southern food is about family, history, and the dishes that bring us together.
Drizzle Catering is all about weaving together the flavors and techniques of my familial roots with Los Angeles’ local influences. I try to bring the joy of cooking and eating from my childhood to every table, fostering community among cannabis and food lovers alike.
What is the most delicious dish you've ever cooked while high on cannabis?
I love making crudos (Italian-style raw seafood dish) when I’m high. Most recently, I made a passion fruit scallop crudo that was to die for. I plan to serve it at multiple events throughout the summer.
What did it taste like? And why was it the best thing you ever cooked/ate?
It tastes like summer! Beautifully sweet diver scallops bathing in a refreshing pool of tropical tanginess with just the right amount of kick from thai chili and a hint of herbaceous pineapple sage oil.
How did you make it? Why did you choose those specific ingredients?
First, I let the scallops sit in salt and lime juice for 30 mins then I slice it up and arrange it on the serving plate. Then I pour the passion fruit coulis on top. Drizzle some pineapple sage oil on top and garnish with micro cilantro. I choose ingredients to produce a well-balanced flavor profile where each ingredient plays off of each other to enhance the overall taste and aesthetics.
How does cannabis enhance your creativity with cooking?
It's another ingredient I get to play with and I try to experiment with different ways of incorporating it. Cannabis lends itself to engaging all of our senses elevating the entire food experience. So with every meal, I try to make sure there are some elements of the experience that surprises and delights our sense of smell, sight, taste in both flavor and texture, and even touch and sound. One time, I went as literal as creating a five-course meal based on the theme of our five senses.
What's your preferred way of enjoying cannabis?
Definitely smoking, there’s just something very therapeutic and ritualistic about the act. My favorite is using a nice live rosin from a dab rig. This method produces the most natural and intense flavor experience. Since rosin doesn’t use chemical solvents to make and dab rigs vaporize the concentrate instead of burning plant matter, the terpene profiles tastes much richer. It’s the same reason why I keep my spices whole and grind them fresh to use. You get so many more terpene notes than keeping a jar of ground up spices that ends up oxidizing faster over time.
Follow Wendy on IG @wenyerhungry
Thursday Recipe
Did you sign up to get emails in your inbox yet? New recipes are shared every Thursday at 4:20 p.m. Pacific.
This Thursday, I’ll share Chef Wendy’s recipe for Passionfruit Scallop Crudo.
Taste: Chili Party
Each batch is made from scratch in Wendy’s kitchen. This aromatic, spicy, crispy, crunchy Sichuan Chili oil goes well on… everything. We challenge you to think of something that this wouldn’t taste good on.
Best-Ever Advice From Wendy
In addition to being a chef with her own catering company, Wendy is also a content creator and tastemaker in the culinary cannabis scene, has a full-time job where she kicks-ass analyzing market and audience research insights for a well-known-household-name beverage brand, runs a consulting agency, makes + sells a packaged chili oil, and is building out an outdoor kitchen and supper club space to host urban farm-to-table food and cannabis experiences in Los Angeles.
WTF. How does she do it all?! I asked her, and this is what she said:
CW: Wendy, how the f*** do you do it all and not lose your mind?
WZ: I outsource and partner with people who are better than me at what they do.
COMING UP NEXT
Vol. 4.5 // Inside Mogu Magu
For Paid Subscribers
Mogu Magu? Inside our AAPI Cannabis + Food Events
Learn: Who is Magu, the Chinese Cannabis Goddess?
Make: Pineapple Coconut Cake
Want to get involved with Mogu Magu, sponsor our events or this newsletter, pitch me stories for editorial, or want to work with me to create content for your brand? Contact me and let’s find a way to work together!
XOXO, Christina W.
