Marijuana-based cuisine and wine mature - slowly

Diners seemed genuinely curious about how to properly pair marijuana and food without getting too intoxicated. [Photo/AP]

Pot may soon be on restaurant menu as legalization trend continues to spread in US

How to set a tone of woodsy chic at a four-course candlelight dinner served under the stars in the Colorado foothills:

Live musicians and flowers, check.

Award-winning cuisine, check.

Beer and wine pairings with each course, check.

Marijuana pairings? Oh, yes.

The 100 diners at this $200-a-plate dinner smoked a citrus-smelling marijuana strain to go with a fall salad with apples, dates and bacon, followed by a darker, sweeter strain of pot to accompany a main course of slow-roasted pork shoulder in a mole sauce with charred root vegetables and rice.

And with dessert? Marijuana-infused chocolate, of course, grated over salted caramel ice cream and paired with coffee infused with nonintoxicating hemp oil.

The diners received small glass pieces and lighters to smoke the pairings, or they could have their marijuana rolled into joints by professional rollers set up next to a bartender pouring wine.

Welcome to fine dining in Weed Country.

More flavor profile

The marijuana industry is trying to move away from its pizza-and-Doritos roots as folks explore how to safely serve marijuana and food. Chefs are working with marijuana growers to chart the still-very-unscientific world of pairing food and weed. And a proliferation of mass-market cheap pot is driving professional growers to develop distinctive flavors and aromas to distinguish themselves in a crowded market.

"We talk with the (marijuana) grower to understand what traits they saw in the marijuana ... whether it's earthy notes, citrus notes, herbal notes, things that we could play off," said Corey Buck, head of catering for Blackbelly Restaurant, a top-rated farm-to-table restaurant that provided the meal.

The grower of one of the pot strains served at the dinner, Alex Perry, said it won't be long until marijuana's flavors and effects are parsed as intently as wine profiles. But that's in the future, he conceded.

"It's still looked down upon as a not-very-sophisticated thing," said Perry, who grew a strain called Black Cherry Soda for his company, Headquarters Cannabis.

Holding his nose to a small jar of marijuana, Perry said, "If I asked my mom or my dad what they smell, they're going to say, 'skunk,' or, 'It smells like marijuana.' But it's like wine or anything else. There's more flavor profile there."