Christina Wong shares a moment of laughter with her chicken. Photo Courtesy of Baking with Chickens.
Christina Wong is a Jane of all trades. As a doting culinary cannabis specialist, Wong transforms her ideas into delicious and edible delicacies.
She is the star of Baking with Chickens, a platform dedicated to baking, raising chickens, and culinary cannabis. Most recently, Wong appears as a contestant on Hulu’s new baking competition, Baker’s Dozen, which premiered on October 7th. But above all, Wong is a dedicated artist who uses cannabis to elevate her mindset and expand her vision for incorporating it into the culinary world.
Wong is passionate about using cannabis as a tool to curate recipes that alchemize intangible concepts into physical masterpieces. Not only does Wong infuse her creations with cannabis, but she also recommends consuming a healthy dose to optimize creative flow.
“Most of the time I’m baking something because I’m inspired by a cause or a story which is what I love. I try to inject a sense of myself and that magic realism into my food,” she tells Emerald.
A Girl and her Chickens
Wong uses her knack for storytelling to educate others about sustainable farming through Baking with Chickens. The platform she shares with her eight chickens hones in on telling stories through developing accessible, cannabis-infused recipes.
She notes, “one of the reasons why I love chickens […] is that they are excellent little composters. I like to say that chickens are the most useful pets.”
Wong’s brigade of rescue chickens contributes all of the eggs for her baking endeavors. In order to ensure they produce top-notch quality eggs, she feeds them organic layer feed balanced with fruits and veggies. Consequently, the chickens keep Wong’s food scraps from going to waste. On a healthy yet indulgent diet, the chickens are accustomed to paradise where they are free range and also consume bugs as a source of protein.
Post from @bakingwithchickens on Instagram.
Likewise, Wong comically suggests that a chicken is her zombie apocalypse pet of choice. She explains, “chickens provide food and also fertilizer to grow more food.”
However, this is not the sole reason behind Wong’s affinity for chickens. In fact, when life becomes overwhelming, she finds solace in the simplicity of consuming cannabis and spending time with them in the coup.
“…They’re very soothing and they make cute little clucking noises,” she says. When it comes to cannabis, “I just stop and inhale and breathe and smoke with intention and then breathe it back out. After about 15 minutes I could feel all of that spikey anxiety and all of the thoughts and overwhelming feelings just kind of soften and smooth out.”
Baking With Purpose
Furthermore, Wong cleverly incorporates the balance between her love for cannabis and chickens by using both in her artistry.
“What I love about cooking and baking with cannabis is that all of the strains have different flavors and aromas that can make you feel a certain way,” she says.
Likewise, one of her first cannabis-infused recipes won Elevated Jane’s Instagram’s cook off. Wong deems her award-winning Pineapple Meringue Tart as a defining moment because her victory presented the confidence to fully immerse herself into culinary cannabis.
“The flavor profile gets a little more complex [with cannabis], it brings down the sweetness. I paired it with Hawaiian cookies so it’s got a buttery cookie tropicality that mixes with the pineapple curd and the rosemary vanilla bean. All together it’s this wonderful symphony of textures and flavors and then you also get high and it makes you feel something,” she illustrates.
Now, Wong famously uses cannabis to create complex flavor profiles in her baking. Additionally, her recipes include low doses of cannabis. This is because she is cognizant of beginners who are weary of high-potency products.
“I generally write my recipes with the exact milligram count if you want to dose at 5 milligrams per serving. If you want to increase then you would just double accordingly,” she explains.
Baker’s Dozen
Wong consistently bakes with a purpose. As a contestant on Baker’s Dozen, she had the opportunity to bake a meaningful recipe. So, she chose her Black Sesame Rainbow Crinkle Cookies. With glimpses of rainbow sprinkles peaking through the cracks of white powdered sugar, this cookie represents a grieving period that Wong went through after losing her friend to suicide.
Post from @bakingwithchickens on Instagram.
Although Wong did not win this round, she recognizes her work as a personal victory.
Wong communicates, “…if I have a platform on a national TV show, even if it’s for a couple of minutes, I’m going to use it because I know that people are going to watch the show and if someone who needs to hear that message can hear it and see it, then that’s all that matters to me.”
Post from @bakingwithchickens on Instagram.
Additionally, Wong cherishes her experience on Baker’s Dozen for the friendships that were built within the baker’s tent. She reflects, “two of the women, Lindsey and Jocelyn; they have dreams and are also entrepreneurs and we’d sit and talk about that. To have people to talk about that with and work alongside fellow dreamers to help you grow your business and inspire you, to me, that was the big gift.”
Certainly, this is just one simple way that Wong demonstrates authenticity in her baking. Her greater purpose is to create complex and tasteful goodies, but also to contribute to society’s need for emotional release.
The Gratitude Chain
Throughout her career as an edible storyteller, Wong has established incandescent expertise in a multitude of fields. Her proficiency in the restaurant industry, the cannabis industry, public relations, communications, raising chickens and more are all corresponding links in her gratitude chain.
Post from @bakingwithchickens on Instagram.
Wong introduces the gratitude chain as a method for thanking those who have positively impacted her journey. She prioritizes showing gratitude in order to bring awareness to those who often don’t realize the life-changing impacts they can have on others.
However, the inaugural link of Wong’s extensive gratitude chain is, notably, herself. Wong thanks her younger self for igniting her passion for food at 19 years old. This defining moment was when she took a job as hostess in a high-end restaurant while attending George Washington University in Washington D.C.
“By working in a restaurant, I learned how to set tables and do the wine service. On slow days I’d hang out with the kitchen staff in the back and they’d teach me about food […] the chef there was really the first one who inspired me to learn more,” she reminisces.
Hence, Wong amplified this experience into experimenting with complex flavor profiles during her time at Papa & Barkley, a cannabis line that focuses on sustainable and regenerative farming. Her career as their director of communications stimulated her desire to further pursue cannabis in her culinary craft.
Subsequently, Wong acknowledges all of the seeds that were planted and how they harmonized to build her current success. She explains, “…it’s cool because it illustrates how it isn’t just one big thing or an overnight success. It’s all of these little things that are along the way.”
The Ultimate Rebrand
Recently, Wong admits that she’s been baking frequently to work through a fresh split with her life partner, who was also her partner behind Baking with Chickens. Although this split will dissolve the Baking with Chickens name, Wong remains uplifted by her ideas for the future.
“Since the breakup happened, I’ve been leaning so much harder into the culinary cannabis world. I find that has become my calling. So in a way, Baking with Chickens was kind of the conduit to be able to provide that opportunity,” she concludes.
Nevertheless, Wong firmly believes that she will rise as a phoenix from the ashes to conquer new heights.
Ergo, a rebrand is on the horizon. Additionally, Wong is reaching a creative peak in terms of building a bridge that makes baking with cannabis less daunting to newcomers.
Overall, Wong believes, “it’s not about how much you consume, it’s about what you need to feel like the best version of yourself.”
As such, she intends to advocate for the normalization of cannabis by creating an accessible lifestyle platform. Her hope, she says, is to educate the public about the plant’s benefits and how to use it in the culinary world. She confesses, “I would love to build a culinary cannabis media empire.”
As Wong works to actualize manifestations of a cannabis-style food network, she continues to tell stories through her baking. In the meantime, she continues to build a community of those who desire to walk with her on the path of evolving culinary cannabis.
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