Award-winning Chicago chef Mindy Segal, owner of renowned Mindy's HotChocolate restaurant, announced her plan of producing marijuana edibles for medical pot patients last Tuesday.
According to Chicago Tribune, Mindy Segal is the first James Beard Award-winning celebrity chef who agreed to bake for the medical marijuana industry. Segal, accordingly, will be producing a line of products for Cresco Labs, the largest cannabis cultivator in Illinois.
PR Newswire , in its report, said that Segal does not want to be called "celebrity chef," but through time, she has already made a lot of media appearances including Oprah, GQ and New York Times. She is considered to be on the top in her field and on 2012 was awarded the prestigious James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in the country.
The line of products Segal plans to produce include a line of chocolate brittle bars, granola bites, hot chocolate and a cookie batter mix. She will be using a similar recipe from her book, "Cookie Love." These lines of marijuana edibles are expected to be available on February.
Currently, Segal worked initially with salted toffee smoked almond brittle, peanut butter brittle and caramelized white chocolate with a note of butterscotch.
"We've all heard the expression 'it tastes like medicine' but there's no reason it has to," said Segal. "With my recipes and Cresco's technology, we're developing this line of products to be consistent every time and absolutely enjoyable to eat."
Cresco Labs founder Charles Bachtell, on the other hand, said, "Having someone with Mindy's name brand and credibility enter the cannabis industry says a lot about where this industry is headed.
Segal said she had already been given several offers in the past to work for the medical marijuana industry but she personally chose Cresco because she felt the company is led by businessmen who use a "heartfelt" approach and that one of the company's co-founder is a cancer survivor himself, Joe Caltabiano.
Working together, Segal will be experimenting with different cannabis strains, concentrations and recipes while Cresco will ensure that dosages are accurate for the patients.
