High Holiday Dinner
Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the High Holiday Dinner it was a four-course infused menu that used OG Zonka Blue Dream kief-pressed rosin and Zonka Lemon Haze flower by Chefs Bri Bruce (@baked___bri) and Patrick Rusche (@chef_gingerkid). The meal opened with a charcuterie selection: meats, cheeses, breads and Sublime‘s infused honey paired with infused blueberry basil and raspberry jam. Then the meal began, the menu was fun and festive with winter flavors in the squash and radicchio salad. It had a light bite from the acidity of the apple cider vinegar, complimented by a sweet note from the Sublime infused honey. The local, hormone-free, grass-fed, farm-raised prime rib was a Christmas feast worth writing home about. It was cooked to perfection with a coarse salt & black pepper rub roasted with fresh aromatics of rosemary, marjoram, and sativa flower. The meat absolutely melted in your mouth and while it was without a doubt the golden nugget on the plate, the agave-chile beans and potato mash with RSO bacon and chives were certainly no afterthought. The beans were stewed perfectly and had a level of spice that got my attention, those flavors were ready to do a solo number on my pallet. Born and raised in the MidWest, I’d be remiss to have such a perfect cut of meat without potatoes and I was thrilled with Chef Patrick’s take on this one. Then came dessert…er, both desserts. A Texas-style cobbler whose thick, buttery crust was more of an ode to the classic Texas dump cake with whipped cream that paired perfectly as it slightly melted into the hot cobbler. Last, but certainly not least, was the Blue Dream Blue Velvet Cake. This was an original family recipe passed down to Chef Bri that she was kind enough to bless our taste buds with. The blue-purplish interior was mesmerizing and the frosting perfectly cushioned each decadent, moist layer of blue velvet cake. It was the perfect end to a perfect meal as we looked around the room and saw new friends made, after a delightful meal made with love shared together, and the purple teeth to prove it all.
I’m so thankful for this community and these great chefs who are providing this kind of quality to our local community. I wanted to find out more about why these Chefs love what they do so much, where their passion for food comes from and I was met with heartwarming and enlightening tales of their past.
Chef Bri:
Chef Bri Bruce | Photo by Jeff Willems | @fortheloveofsmoke
“I started cooking as a child with my grandmothers and remain inspired by their very different approaches in the kitchen: one precise and recipe’d and one intuitive and haphazard – both delicious, both Southern but different kinds of Southern. Then I spent my senior year of Italy abroad studying Classics and living with a host family, and I really fell in love with food in the kitchen every day with my then 61-year-old host mom. She taught me that simple can be best and to taste along the way.” – Bri Bruce | @baked___bri
Chef Patrick:
Chef Patrick Rusche | Photo by Jeff Willems | @fortheloveofsmoke
“Likes mean not a thing to a guy like me and follows are not what I’m here for. I’ve overdosed twice, almost all the way dead the last time…I just don’t have time for that stuff. What I’m here for is making an impact, like being told by a mother in her van, picking up her family member from my event that my help actually changed her WHOLE Family’s life. That is why I do this. To help stop the suffering. I plan on reaching everyone everywhere with my food, very soon. Happy gut, happy life. Remember that.” – Patrick Rusche | @chef_gingerkid
This event was truly fantastic and I hope to see more like it continue to pop up in Arizona. But that can’t happen without our support, I love getting free stuff at events as much as anyone, and I got free dabs all night! However, I care far more about seeing this community grow and mature with the ever-evolving cannabis industry. I urge you to support your friends and peers, get involved in what they’re doing if you can’t afford a ticket give a like or a share! Together, with our support, we can continue to empower people doing amazing things and blazing new trails with cannabis.
The High Holiday Dinner 2019 was sponsored by OG Zonka Farms, Hempful Farms and Sublime. Shout out to John Green and crew of Zonka for the Dab Bar, Chris Martin and company from Zonka for the Hempful Farms space and also Sublime, who provided infused honey.
The Menu:
First Course: Charcuterie spread with infused honey & jams.
Second Course: Roasted squash and radicchio salad with granny smith apple, winter wheat berries, asiago, and a toasted pine nut and white miso dressing.
Third Course: Locally sourced Angus beef rib roast, a full cut prime rib stuffed with rosemary, marjoram, and cannabis flower. Rubbed with a heavy crust and slow-roasted to perfection. With Chef Partick’s RSO bacon and potato mash and Chef Bri’s take on tepary beans with a chile-agave glaze intended as a respectful homage to the beautiful region in which these chefs cook.
Fourth Course: Texas gluten-free dump cake style cobbler (Patrick) and 4-layer peppermint purple velvet dream eggnog cake (Bri). The cake was a family recipe passed down from her grandmother June.
Click here to see more from Jeff Willems.
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