Windy City’s Weed Chef

Born and raised in Chicago, acclaimed chef Manny Mendoza discovered his
love for cooking as a young boy watching his mom prepare dinner for the
family. Trailing her in the kitchen, Mendoza quickly learned that magic
lived in the alchemy of ingredients transforming from one state into
another. After years of helping his mother, he began working in kitchens as
a high schooler to earn his culinary stripes.

Mendoza soon learned that while he loved cooking, he had some big
questions—deeper than the kind one might expect from a 17-year-old. “Even
in high school, my curiosity about the grander system was sparked,” he
says. “I wanted to know why certain neighborhoods had limited access to
fresh and healthy food and others didn’t. I grew up in the South Side, a
neighborhood in Chicago that had limited access, and it made me question
why the people where I’m from are a lot different and seem to have more
stressful lives.”

Since then, Mendoza’s learned that a large part of the stress he picked up
on as a teenager is linked to what people are putting in their bodies. “It
stems from health disparities and preventable diseases that are more
prevalent in communities that are Black or Hispanic,” he says. “I realized
that a lot of that had to do with food; where our food was coming from and
who had access to it.”


Armed with his socio-political lens and culinary curiosity, Mendoza
graduated high school and attended the Culinary Institute of America in New
York City where his interests were further unlocked by the Big Apple. “I
got really exposed to the global culinary scene,” he says, citing memories
of evenings spent with classmates, trying every type of cuisine and style
of service they could. “I got to dive deep into what it means to have food,
to grow food, to eat food; how to eat food with other people,” he says
enthusiastically. “It really opened my eyes to see there was something a
lot bigger to the idea of food and where it comes from than what I was
previously exposed to. I was thinking about the dynamics between how food
is grown and the people who are growing it—and then the people selling and
eating it. I really wanted to understand that system.”

In addition to wondering about the systems and mechanisms around food,
Mendoza began questioning what he’d been told about cannabis, both as a
drug and as an ingredient. “My friends and I were a tight group of elite
cooks, but we’d have to smoke and practically hang off a cliff to not get
caught,” Mendoza recalls with a laugh. “And then we’d go back to class and
run through everybody; be extremely efficient, be top of our classes—we
didn’t just piss away our opportunity at the world’s best culinary school.”

After long days at the head of their class, Mendoza and his friends began
experimenting cooking with cannabis. He immediately realized there was a
stark difference between the high-end dishes he was making in class, and
what he’d heard about cooking with cannabis. “The only thing we knew was
brownies and peanut butter cups,” he says. “Right away I got bored by that.
We were being exposed to the global restaurant scene—Michelin restaurants,
James Beard award-winning chefs.”

Armed with the realization that the chefs he looked up to would never
simply bake a brownie, Mendoza began thinking about other ways culinary
cannabis might fit into his overall ethos and understanding of food. “It
piqued my intrigue about focusing on the experience,” he says. “I began to
think about packaging the lifestyle [my chef friends and I] were living,
going to wineries, going to farms, immersing ourselves in food and wine and
the source, smoking when doing all of it. I felt like we had some inside
knowledge that most people had no idea about.”

With his interest in learning and sharing about the origins of food and
cannabis, the ever-curious Mendoza moved to California where he made
cold-pressed juices for beverage startup Suja; attended a farm and
agriculture school in San Diego; and worked in cannabis grows and
dispensaries. “I wanted to keep learning, I wanted to tap into the real
source of where a lot of our food is coming from—and where our cannabis was
coming from, too.”

As he began learning more about both of these systems, Mendoza began
hosting a series of pop-up dinners across California, laying the foundation
for what would become Herbal Notes, the Chicago fine dining culinary
cannabis experience he founded in 2016 that would launch him to national
acclaim. There, Mendoza’s longtime curiosity sets fire through educating
his guests, immersing them in a culinary experience that explores three
pillars: the “cannatomy” of cannabis; the medicinal and wellness benefits
of cannabis; and social responsibility.

This first of these pillars, cannatomy, is designed to identify all parts
of the plant and destigmatize it. The second, Mendoza says, invites guests
to look at all the plant’s healthy aspects aside from just THC, such as the
oils and the seeds, which civilizations have been using for thousands of
years. And the third pillar is perhaps the most important to Mendoza. “I’ve
lived through the War on Drugs. I’ve been arrested, people around me have
been arrested,” he says. “Where I grew up, I saw how people were afflicted
by the War on Drugs and put in the washing machine of trauma, cycling
through generations. We must use this industry as a new tool, dig up all
the trauma; dig it up, till the soil and grow new communities, futures and
families.”

And that’s just what he’s working to do—not only through Herbal Notes, but
also by partnering with local communities to establish urban gardens and
working with Chicago schools in his neighborhood to teach kids about the
basics of food. “Cooking got me to cannabis, and now I’m using cannabis to
get to my even grander plans to educate and expose kids like me in the
inner city to what food really is, where it comes from and how they can use
it to their advantage in life,” he says. “To teach inner city youth so they
feel empowered to cook for themselves; to look at a potato and onion
differently when that’s all that’s left, and it’s after school and their
parents are working.”

In addition to that larger ongoing mission, Mendoza recently launched
Xocolat, a line of artisanal edibles available in Chicago. “We’re sourcing
direct trade cacao from México and Central America,” he says. “That’s where
I’m from, too; my roots come from what cacao’s roots are, and it’s also
where cannabis comes from. I want to tell the full story about chocolate
and where it comes from.” Mendoza and his team house-grind the cacao, which
is made into chocolate, infused and fortified with mushrooms and other
adaptogenic ingredients indigenous to Latin America.

Xocolat feels like a full-circle moment for Mendoza, whose never-wavering
curiosity and desire to both learn and teach have brought him to this
moment. “To be here now and have the recognition I have for it is something
I don’t take for granted,” he says. “Everything I do is with the intention
of helping people and teaching people. I want to keep pushing forward with
intentionality because *I am* those people.”

*Salvadoran-Style Pupusas*

*4 servings*

*Target Dose:* 5mg THC per salsa serving (using Infused Salsa
Jitomate—recipe in the book) or your preferred dose (using a commercially
made tincture of your choice; go low and slow).

*Equipment*

- Measuring cups and a scale
- Mixing bowl or KitchenAid mixer
- Wooden spoon
- Cheese grater
- Cast iron or any flat griddle
- Spatula for flipping

*Ingredients*

*Masa Dough*

- 1 lb corn flour aka masa harina (50% maseca 50% PAM harina)
- 4 tsp salt
- 1 T chicken or veggie bouillon powder
- 1/2 lb or 1 cup grated cheese
- 1/2 cup hard Salvadoran or cotija cheese
- 2 oz margarine or Crisco
- 2 cup water, simmering hot
- 1 1/4 cup warm water

*Filling: Camarones a la Diablo*

- 1/2 lb shrimp, cleaned and roughly chopped or food processed
- 1/4 c habanero purée or your favorite hot sauce
- 1 T rice vinegar (omit if using hot sauce)
- 1 tsp agave
- t.t. salt & pepper
- 1 T butter
- 1 bu cilantro

*Directions*

*Camarones a la Diablo*

1. Heat oil in a pan on high heat, sear shrimp, then quickly add all
ingredients Sauté for 2 minutes, then quickly chill on ice
2. Once the shrimp mixture is chilled, use your hands to blend the
mixture with the cheese until homogeneous

*Masa*

1. Combine flour, salt, bouillon and margarine in the mixing bowl
2. Add hot water to flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until
thoroughly combined
3. Once combined, add the cold water and begin to mix with your hands.
Work the dough for 10 minutes until you no longer feel any graininess from
the flour. If it feels too wet, add some corn flour until you feel a soft
dough that isn’t sticky but not dry. You may use a stand mixer for faster
results, although working doughs by hand is crucial to developing a feel
for consistency
4. Set aside a small bowl of water combined with 1 T of any cooking oil
5. Your next step should include the dough mixture in a bowl, the
shrimp/cheese filling, and the small bowl of water/oil
6. Before you start the pupusas, first preheat and grease your cast iron
pan to a medium heat
7. Now, take about a 3 oz ball of dough in your hands, compact it in a
circular motion, then slightly flatten it to a puck shape. At this point,
use your opposite hand to make a close fist and press into the dough to
make a cavity where you will insert the filling. Make as deep a cavity as
possible without breaking the dough
8. Once you have a cavity in your dough, add enough filling to not be
too stingy but also not overflowing. Find a happy medium of filling that
feels workable for you
9. Once filled, enclose your dough package using both hands in a
twisting/sealing motion. This will take a little bit of practice, but
you’ll be a pro at this in no time. Once sealed, if there’s any extra
dough, remove it so that your pupusa isn’t too doughy
10. Once your pupusa ball is filled and sealed, you’ll want to lightly
wet your hands in the water/oil mixture, which will help keep your pupusa
from sticking. Now, flatten your pupusa with both hands in a clapping
motion, making sure the edges are smooth and not cracking. Your pupusa
should be about 1/8 inch thick
11. Add the pupusa to the griddle. You should hear a gentle sizzle, not
an aggressive one that will be too hot. 4-5 minutes on each side. Continue
making pupusas while you are cooking them simultaneously

*Finishing Note:* Serve with lightly pickled cabbage, an infused salsa or a
condiment of your choice, and you can never go wrong with Salvadoran crema
from your local Latin grocery store.

If you’re feeling like fungi and want extra vegetarian deliciousness, add
chopped roasted mushrooms to your veggie mixture for extra umami.

*Originally published in Issue 50 of Cannabis Now.*

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