The worlds of cuisine and cannabis often intermingle, whether through the wide world of infused edibles or food and plant pairings. The combination can often lead to the normalization of cannabis as well as an elevated dining experience.
Philip Wolf understands the intersection of food and weed more than most. As the CEO of Cultivating Spirits, Wolf curates cannabis pairing dinners and events nationwide. A visionary in the space, he seeks to open new doors for cannabis consumers and foodies alike.
Wolf answered GreenState’s Fast Five questions, shedding light on his multifaceted relationship with cannabis, how Cultivating Spirits is raising the bar for what’s possible with the plant, and the future of weed and hospitality.
GreenState: How did your journey with cannabis begin?
Philip Wolf: My journey with cannabis has had many phases, offering new beginnings, which I feel is more important to speak to than how I got started. This plant offers us an opportunity for her to grow with us as our life evolves, which inherently changes our journey with cannabis if you can see it like this.
My current relationship started when I figured out that cannabis is an amplifier of our psychology, allowing me to understand wherever I can bring my mind and thoughts. I can scour perspectives that I may never have thought of before through the lens of being high. This gives me an opportunity to see things through the mind that I may never have before and discern validity vs. fantasy.
GS: What is your favorite way to consume?
PW: I’m a flower guy through and through and typically take a hit or two at a time through a pipe to utilize the feeling of the terpenes. I don’t consume joints like I used to unless I’m at a concert or a venue where the convenience of something rolled up, or enhancement of mass consumption is desired.
I use cannabis as a tool, so I’ll set a space for, let’s say, deep conversation, meditation, or creative writing, take a hit or two, and dive deep into that connection, inner or outer work. Sometimes, that can be at a big dining space, an altar, or just as simple as some good music and my bed to journey for 20 minutes before I fall asleep.
GS: How can melding the culinary and cannabis worlds help shatter stigmas?
PW: So many people want to break the stigmas of cannabis not being high-end. Hence, an intellectual usage with exquisite tastes, flavors, and understanding of certain properties makes it better, somehow alleviating stereotypes…
To me, this falls under preference more so the de-stigmatization—I’m a culprit of helping drive this narrative with all the early media attention I received with Cultivating Spirits. But honestly, as I’ve grown and served thousands of people cannabis, the most important stigma to achieve is beyond opulence but human and spiritual development, getting in touch with yourself and the earth. While indulging in regenerative dining, my goal is to actually break the stigma of cannabis having limited potential more so than something for “alternative people.”
GS: How is your platform CashoM elevating the industry and the people most curious about cannabis?
PW: I’m on the third iteration of the CashoM project, a project that is a deep prayer for me. It’s held as a prayer as I believe it can shape people’s relationship with cannabis to be more reverent and to shift our consciousness with plants by giving people tools and perspectives through education and community.
I would say it’s elevating the industry by showing people a way to do business that’s in the right relationship with the ethos of cannabis—how does cannabis want to be beautified, presented, and serve the world? And I would say CashoM is not for people who are curious about cannabis but more curious about the expansion of consciousness.
GS: What do you foresee as the future of cannabis and hospitality?
PW: I think the further off future of cannabis and hospitality will be the integration of cannabis into a normality of venues like we see coffee or tea. A place may not be focused on cannabis but will have an option in which people can partake in just in case you have that consumer present. Just like the restaurant that only carries green tea for the ever so often time someone wants tea.
On the opposite side of that, I see restaurants with a heavy focus on cannabis that offer specialties of exotic strains for a limited time or a place that prides itself on the importance of connecting food and land with an offering of regenerative sun-grown cannabis. Another wrinkle in the cannabis hospitality industry will be the emergence of space holders for people who want to explore deeper parts of themselves, requiring a hybridized position of hospitality, therapy, and ceremonialism.
Philip is proud to have started the first company in the United States to offer legal cannabis dinners to the general public in Cultivating Spirits. He writes for Rolling Stone and has had partnerships around plant medicine work, including the Fairmont Hotel Group, MAPS, The Knot.com, Westfield Centers, VVP, The National Association of Catering and Events, Star Chefs, and more.
His work, which includes CashoM, CWE, Consulting, and Cultivating Spirits, comes from experiential dinners, ceremonies, events, education, writing, public speaking, and connecting. He’s grateful to have been featured on CBS, NBC, TIME, Forbes, Men’s Journal, Entrepreneur, and Vice, to name a few.
The answers given by Q&A subjects do not necessarily reflect the opinions of GreenState. The subject is solely responsible for the views stated in this piece.
