The finished meal — lemon chicken, Greek salad and Tzatziki sauce. Participants made the meal during a virtual cooking class held May 8th by Food Flower Future. Photo by Adel Aschenbrener.
Food Flower Future is teaching consumers how to cook with cannabis — all from the comfort of their own homes.
The cannabis event series was founded by Khara Pechtes. Pechtes runs and coordinates all the company’s dinners and other cannabis-related events. Her goals are to educate and build a comforting environment for all. She also aims to promote women in the industry as well as spread knowledge about cannabis through social, intimate settings.
Pechtes’ cannabis-infused events offer more than just meals. Overall, normalizing cannabis, fighting stigmas, and promoting wellness and inner peace is what Food Flower Future is all about. Thus, the company’s events allow people to take advantage of nature’s medicine and make long-term connections with like-minded people.
What to Expect From Food Flower Future’s Virtual Cooking Classes?
Food Flower Future’s events were previously held in-person. However, due to the pandemic, Pechtes put those events temporarily on pause. Instead, she went online, and now hosts a series of virtual events.
So far, she has held three chef-led cooking classes on Zoom. Not only does this allow for more intimate experiences, it also allows Petches to offer classes at more affordable rates. Typically, ticket prices for a virtual cooking class is $100, while in-person dinners cost about $150.
Days prior to each event, Pechtes sends an email with details including: a grocery list plus a list of kitchen supplies, and recipes for each dish. Participants are responsible for purchasing all ingredients for the meal — except those with cannabis. Pechtes provides a gift bag in advance of each class with cannabis products that are provided by the sponsors.
Partnering With Sponsors
Pechtes built Food Flower Future on the phrase “for women, by women.” As such, she hires women-owned businesses. Women owned and run businesses who participated in this virtual event were sun-grown flower companies such as Aloha Humboldt, Arcanna Flowers, and Sol Spirit Farm. Additional sponsors were Kind Creations, Tempo Crackers, Wunder.
Each sponsor has a role in the meal pairing, whether it’s a drink, appetizer, or flower or oil products while educating the participants about their practices and their products.
Chef-Led, Mediterranean-Themed Cooking Class
The Food Flower Future dinner is different. The themes are different, the gift bags are different, and a new chef is featured, so each event is unique for those who return. The most recent event, which Pechtes held on May 8th, 2021, featured Mediterranean food. It included a three-course meal, led by Chef Adel Aschenbrener. She has been a professional chef for 20 years.
The event lasted for two and a half hours, which still allowed guests to enjoy the rest of their Saturday night. When they first joined the Zoom call, Pechtes welcomed and engaged with each guest, and introduced sponsors. Thus, creating an instant comforting feeling to all.
Next, Chef Adel took over. She started off with dessert due to a longer setting time. Meanwhile there were some tasks to complete before dinner began, like crushing walnuts and making the dessert syrup.
As mentioned earlier, this virtual dinner had three main courses. Here’s a sneak peak into what was cooked during the class:
Starting with Dessert
Participants began creating their final dish of the evening before digging into appetizers and the main course. That was due to setting time and to make sure guests were able to enjoy the rest of their elevated evening.
Appetizers
For starters, participants prepared a traditional Greek salad with Tzatziki sauce. Many sponsors played a role in the appetizer section of the dinner. In addition, Wunder provided lemon ginger sparkling beverages, Tempo contributed the rosemary sea salt crackers paired with the Tzatziki sauce, and Kind Creations was used to infuse salad dressing with their 2:1 tincture. In addition, the course was paired with Sol Spirit Farm’s Rise and Shine pre-roll.
The Main Course
The last meal participants cooked during the event was roasted lemon chicken and potatoes. Aloha Humboldt’s Chemdawg was infused with the ingredients for the main course.
Dessert
For the dessert, participants made Baklava infused with Kind Creations’ products and paired with Arcanna Flower’s pineapple cheesecake.
By the end of the class, the guests were joking, talking, and helping each other throughout the cooking process. One of Pechtes’s favorite parts of the dinners is watching people enjoy their time, with great company, and making new connections.
In the future, Pechtes plans on hosting more virtual events in addition to in-person dinners (once that is possible).
Additionally, Pechtes plans to expand her dinners across the globe, allowing a variety of people to attend Food Flower Future’s intimate dinner events.
Even though the pandemic has put in-person events on hold, Pechtes still found an innovative way for open-minded individuals to come together safely for a fun evening. Couples, friends, and family can get together in their own homes to cook delicious, infused meals. Whether it’s a girls’ night out, or a date night in, Food Flower Future’s event are warming, engaging, intimate and educational.
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