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\u201cThis is one of the few meetings where I can do this,\u201d begins Chef Laurent Dagenais as he lights up a joint approximately 20 seconds into our scheduled morning Zoom. \u201cI was like, you know what? Might as well for Cannabis Now<\/em>,\u201d he says, his face lighting up with the cheeky boyish grin that\u2019s been a key to his success as a rising social media star of the culinary world. As he puffs on the joint, an easy charm rolls off him and it\u2019s clear why Dagenais has amassed nearly four million followers across Instagram and TikTok: In addition to charm, he exudes a certain cheffy<\/em> confidence, without any pretense or stuffiness; the kind that\u2019s made legends out of celeb chefs David Chang and Anthony Bourdain and the kind that\u2019s earned him legions of adoring followers.<\/p>\n Dagenais\u2019 fun, lighthearted approach to fine dining ingredients and plated dishes turned the Montr\u00e9al-based chef into somewhat of a celebrity\u2014yet he clearly never takes himself too seriously. In his videos, Dagenais can be seen sabering champagne bottles with his kitchen knives, playfully tossing ingredients into sizzling pans or into the hands of his chef friends and, yes, exhaling heavy clouds of smoke in the kitchen. But despite an open and pronounced love of pot, he\u2019s not a \u201ccannabis chef;\u201d rather, he\u2019s a fine dining-trained chef who loves cannabis and isn\u2019t afraid to show its use as part of his authentic self and creative process.\u00a0<\/p>\n While many chefs credit childhood evenings spent in the kitchen with loved ones as the birthplace of their love of food, Dagenais is quick to admit that his culinary roots were planted elsewhere. \u201cThis didn\u2019t begin for me with the story of my Italian Nonna,\u201d he says. After graduating college, Dagenais tells me he wasn\u2019t sure what to do next, so he spent time working in a local skate shop. \u201cMy parents were going to start making me pay rent with a skate shop salary,\u201d he says, so he enrolled in culinary school to explore other professional opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when the passion kicked in for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIt opened up an unlimited world of knowledge and technique.\u201d That intrigue tempted Dagenais out of the skate shop and landed him on the line in a French bistro and then working under a famed French chef who commanded the kitchen with a military brigade style of cooking. \u201cI learned more about cleaning on that job than about cooking,\u201d Dagenais says. \u201cBut it helped with discipline and keeping clean and organized in the kitchen. Before that job, I was smoking weed and wanted to party more than work, but it was like I went into the army. I did a year there, which made me more disciplined in the kitchen and in life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n With a new, sharper focus, Dagenais worked in several fine dining kitchens across Canada before landing at Araxi Restaurant, a top culinary destination in the high-end resort town of Whistler, BC. \u201cI loved it there,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had the best ingredients and team, but then I broke my wrist snowboarding. When? You guessed it: on 4\/20! I blame the weed,\u201d he says, laughing while relighting his joint. \u201cBut that was a pivoting moment for me. I was injured, out of work and didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n As he recovered, Dagenais found his way back into the kitchen, but this time, in a very different casual dining environment at another ski resort. \u201cGoing from foie gras to nachos probably wasn\u2019t the move, but the season pass and the insurance got me,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cI took the job, but it destroyed my passion for cooking in a restaurant. No one was passionate about cooking or cared about organizing the place to make it more functional.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking to reignite the spark, he moved to front of house, experimented with bartending and eventually went on a trip to Thailand that he calls a \u201cculinary adventure,\u201d filled with exploration of every chili he could get his hands on. Upon returning to Canada, he secured a job on the corporate team of a restaurant group where he had great perks, a nice salary and a steady gig. \u201cI should\u2019ve been happy, but I wasn\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s always been about cooking\u2014but how can I be happy if I\u2019m not cooking?\u201d<\/p>\n When the pandemic shut down restaurants across the globe in 2020, it was a blessing in disguise Dagenais says. He began exploring content creation, first on YouTube focusing on culinary cannabis, then on Instagram with clips about cooking. \u201cI was having more hype on the straight cooking videos and realized, maybe there\u2019s something about cooking without<\/em> weed,\u201d he says. He and his girlfriend started working together, shooting and editing videos to post to Instagram and eventually TikTok. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure about TikTok at first,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut the first video we posted to the account was a salmon gravlax. I posted it and went to bed at 11pm. The next day, my phone started popping the fuck off. I went from 10 followers to 100,000 overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n Four million followers later, Dagenais has hit his stride on social media, creating content that gets views and gets him paid, all while doing it unabashedly in his own way. \u201cI\u2019m not playing a character,\u201d he insists. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to be a white jacketed chef\u2014I did that. It\u2019s not me. I\u2019m just trying to have a good time, drinking some wine, smoking some weed. Part of my success is that I keep it very approachable\u2014I\u2019m not a chef in a crazy restaurant; I\u2019m just a guy in a modest apartment using ingredients everyone can get their hands on.\u201d<\/p>\n And part of that authenticity for Dagenais remains rooted in cannabis, even if he\u2019s using it more as a creative spark than the centerpiece of his cooking. \u201cMe and Mary Jane have been close for a long time,\u201d he says. \u201cI never stopped, never quit, never took a break; for me, it\u2019s a lifestyle. It\u2019s always keeping me in good spirits, good vibes, making ideas flow\u2014and it makes me hungrier,\u201d he chuckles, with that signature grin spreading across his face as he inhales one final puff of his joint.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you love what Chef Laurent Dagenais does on social media, you\u2019ll love the newly released English version of his cookbook, Always Hungry!<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s my style in book version,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s got something for everyone.\u201d Featuring 70 recipes, Dagenais was inspired to offer everything from soups and salads to cocktails and desserts suited for home cooks of all skill levels. <\/p>\n \u201cI want it to be fun for people to cook, so this has a bit of my life, a bit of recipes and good vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was originally published in issue 49 of the\u00a0print edition<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now. Read it now on the Cannabis Now\u00a0iTunes app<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Meet Laurent Dagenais: TikTok\u2019s Favorite Stoner Chef<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is one of the few meetings where I can do this,\u201d begins Chef Laurent Dagenais as he lights up a joint approximately 20 seconds into our scheduled morning Zoom. \u201cI was like, you know what? Might as well for Cannabis Now,\u201d he says, his face lighting up with theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":351,"featured_media":71213,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,50,4071,5374,17546,3456,112,4725,111,17220,85,17221,17547],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71212"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71214,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71212\/revisions\/71214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Chef](\"https:\/\/cannabisnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Chef-Laurent-Dagenais-Cabin.jpg\")
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\nRead More: Meet Laurent Dagenais: TikTok\u2019s Favorite Stoner Chef<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"