Cannabis Chef in Denver Post for Chopped 420
Denver Post April 20, 2021
That, and the recent, national embrace of cannabis has opened up more places to recruit chefs and filming locations. Denver, being the first major city (anywhere) to legalize recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2014, immediately offered a couple of prime candidates for producers to contact: Jarod Farina, a 38-year-old executive chef at Dine with Roilty, and Tiana Ramos, the 23-year-old co-owner of Fleur de Cuisine.
“Back in high school, we were making brownies and other small baked treats,” Farina wrote in an email this week. “And in 2012 we moved into making hash and decided to enter our product into a competition in Los Angeles called the Secret Cup. I ended up taking first place and got offered a job here in Colorado.”
Since then, the Florida native has embraced the cooking side of cannabis, starting with infused dinner for friends and continuing through Farina’s Top Cannabis Chef win for High Times magazine. At this point, he estimates he’s taught about 4,000 students how to cook with cannabis — all for private dinners, given the state’s restrictions on public consumption.