NORTHWEST LEAF
WOMEN IN WEED ISSUE
“I WANT TO ELEVATE THE PERCEPTION OF CANNABIS BY PROVIDING GUESTS WITH A SAFE AND COMFORTABLE SPACE WHERE THE FOOD IS THE STAR AND CANNABIS ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE,”
STACY PRIMACK chef and consultant| tarukino LLC INTERVIEW BY WES ABNEY | PHOTO BY DANIEL BERMAN
50/aug. 2018 FACEBOOK.COM/NWLEAF
or sugar, and its easily Stacy Primack is a recipe development I think my first experience with food specialist and consultant who began dispersed into any liquids working with Cannabis a year and a would be when I was about 14. I or kind of food, sauces, half ago. She’s enjoyed working with babysat for my brother’s friends, dressing, and more. The food since a young age and finds and the mother of these kids would possibilities are all over inspiration in creating food that can make elaborate gingerbread the place! change people’s perceptions, especially house. I’m not talking about basic with Cannabis. She currently works for How do you like to use ones with gumdrops and box kits, Tarukino, the company behind Pearl 2o, Cannabis for cooking? but custom made with real icing a water-based Cannabis emulsion that I’ve been working with it and stained-glass windows made can be infused into any recipe! for a while and created out of sugar. It was the coolest three cookbooks to thing, and I remember saying, “oh highlight the ways it can my god that’s beautiful, but is that be used, a summer cooking series, a food?” She would auction them off for charity, and holiday recipe guide, and a Valentine’s one day she said how would you like to pull up day beverage book. That’s nice if you a chair. So, I’d stay longer and make houses and want to enjoy a beverage with your villages with her, and that’s when I knew food wasn’t honey, in lieu of alcohol for people who just food but that it was art, something beautiful we don’t drink, this gives an alternative. We can make and eat if we wanted to. That’s where it did an event in SODO where I made all started. a watermelon gazpacho, miso tahini avocado toast with shaved radish and How did you go from the idea into the professional world? sesame gomasio, which was delicious, When the time came with my parents to talk about and infused Butterfinger cupcakes. It was college and what I wanted to do, I said culinary is funny, to have a few hundred people what I want to do. It was difficult to get into culinary there, who knew I could make desserts school back then, and I had to write a big essay but had no idea we could make savory and get work in a real kitchen. A family friend items as well. was an owner of a kosher catering company, and I did a little work for her and at a grocery store An intersection between cooking and Cannabis? before getting accepted into the Culinary Institute People are really curious, especially the of America in New York, the number one school in home chefs. They like to do both, they the country for culinary. CIA is the place where all enjoy Cannabis and cooking and can these famous chefs had come from, and I was super marry them together. Just like how people stoked to get to go. serve food with alcohol, pairing wine or food with this, but you can get rid of the When did you get involved with Cannabis and cooking? wine altogether and enjoy amazing food. That was about a year and a half ago, I was brought on board by the CEO of Tarukino. He How do you keep people from getting too high? asked if I would like to do R&D for the company, Each course has at most, 2.5 to 5mg, that they had a great product, Pearl 2o, and that so that first mocktail hits you, and a little they needed to showcase it and show people how to more with the first course through to the use it. They invited me to come out and play with it last course, and if it’s too much we can and test it out. pull back, or keep going. That’s what’s nice about microdosing, if you put 40mg Were you nervous to come to Seattle for a Cannabis job? in the first course it could be too much. I was, because it is still a gray area in some parts of the country. But people are becoming more open to What are your hopes for the future of Cannabis? Cannabis, as it becomes more popular, and the fact Everybody wants to eat and has to eat. that people can use and eat Cannabis with foods It’s another way to introduce people to can open so many doors. From my standpoint it’s Cannabis who don’t want to be in the a way for Cannabis to be more accepted socially. alley smoking a joint. I want to elevate People aren’t so afraid to talk about Cannabis when the perception of Cannabis by providing it’s in your everyday food. guests with a safe and comfortable space Speaking of food, what can you tell us about Pearl 2o? where the food is the star and Cannabis Pearl 2o is a water-based emulsion that the enhances the experience and moving scientists at Tarukino came up with that’s forward I’ll be focusing on developing proprietary. The great thing is that there’s no dinners and experiences on my own. Cannabis taste or smell, so for people that might This is going to be mainstream, it’s just be deterred otherwise from consuming Cannabis a matter of time and legality for the edibly because they don’t like that herbaceous taste government, and it seems so stupid to that it sometimes gives you, this is an excellent have it be illegal. It’s safer for your body, way to enjoy it and feel what it does. Also, there’s mind and spirit than alcohol, it’s such a no oil, it’s made into a water, with zero calories no-brainer. How did you get started with food?