Chef, Chocolatier and NOW Cannabis Escoffier

Chef Driven Cannabis

by Craig Kaminer, photos by Spencer Pernikoff

You may know Dave Owens from his times as a chef at Cardwell’s and Terrene, or as the Chief Chocolatier at Bissinger’s, but it may be his role as Director of Culinary at – of all places – Proper Cannabis, a locally owned and operated manufacturer and dispenser of medical and recreational cannabis products, that will forever change how your think of him and his expert confectionary skills.

On the surface, Owens is a passionate chef type with great tattoos and intense chef demeanor reminiscent of Gordon Ramsay. But it only takes a few minutes discussing cannabis gummies and chocolate bars to realize that he has plans to revolutionize the category with gourmet ingredients, luxury flavor profiles, and innovative tasting experiences that few consumers have experienced before. And he has the chops to do it.

Creating these products requires the ability to source unique flavors. It also requires the skills of a chef to combine them with THC and CBD to taste great and produce the desired result. “We source the finest European chocolates and the most flavorful real fruit purees from around the globe…no artificial flavors - just as the honey bee craves…and have our own premium cannabis distillate. At our state-of-the-art facility in St. Louis, we cultivate premium cannabis, process it into a pure, tasteless distillate in house, then pass it on to our culinary team for their creations,” explained Owens.

Owens continued, “I think what truly sets us apart is our quality ingredients. There's plenty of people who are using real fruit but the fruit purees we use are imported from all over the world. If you go into any fine pastry shop around the country, that's the kind of puree that they're using.  And our chocolate is all European chocolate. I think that's really the angle - that we source the best ingredients to make the best tasting products that we can. And it puts us in a bit of different position than some other folks.”

While Proper Cannabis produces a wide array of products from flower to extracts, it's their marijuana-infused edibles, sold under the Honeybee label, that caught my attention. Their website says, “Inspired by the Missouri state insect, Honeybee Edibles are made for those who know how to enjoy the sweetness that life brings them.” So I met with Dave, bought some of the products he recommended, and have sampled them over the last month or so.

The bottom line is Honeybee Edibles taste better than anything else available. If you hate the way cannabis gummies taste, you have to try Dave’s gumdrops. Just look at the flavors of the gumdrops and the chocolate bars. Nothing run-of-the mill here.  And better yet, they aren’t any more expensive than the products that aren’t as enjoyable. But don’t be tempted to eat more than the recommended dose.

No doubt someone reading this is thinking that the goal of ingesting is not the taste but the resulting sensation from the THC. True, but the Honeybee products are far more enjoyable and perfect for someone who wants to partake without gagging.

In the chocolate department, you may want to try any of these top sellers (many of which are available in standard 100 mg bars or the 300 mg high-potency variety including: milk chocolate salted brownie batter, milk chocolate sticky bun, milk chocolate peanut and pretzel bars, caramelized white chocolate strawberry crunch, milk chocolate toasted coconut and sea salt, dark chocolate espresso + caramel + toffee, white chocolate banana + candied black walnut, and 60% dark chocolate candy cane crunch. Where to start?

For gumdrops, the flavor profile and mouth feel are unlike any others I have tried. Flavors include grapefruit calamansi lime, passionfruit guava, sour watermelon passionfruit, blood orange strawberry, black cherry cola, sour raspberry lemonade, sour cherry lime, and mango chili with a mix of ripe mango with guajillo peppers and ghost chiles.

But back to the chef. You can’t make delicious confections without a chef, and Proper Cannabis has one of the best.  “The opportunity for me to get to do what I love while helping those who can benefit is really a treat,” he explained.

So how did Dave go from being a chef, to a chocolatier, to the consummate cannabis escoffier? “Once I knew Bissinger’s was going to sell, I mailed a resume to everyone in the metro area who was awarded the manufacturing license, not knowing who they were or what they were gonna do. I just used the address they had listed with the state. My cover letter clearly stated why I thought they should hire me,” Owens recalled. Of the 25 resumes he sent out, 23 came back to him as undeliverable. Except of course Proper Cannabis. “I wanted to continue making confections and it just happened that the owners liked that idea too. It's not the restaurant life - which some days I miss a great deal. Most days end at five o'clock and I go home. This affords me the opportunity have a good life, take care of my family, and provide a really great product for people here in the state of Missouri.”

Owens admits, “We're still trying to figure out who is our core customer. From my experience of going to our stores, it has changed since recreational use has been legalized. There's the cannabis aficionado, who's maybe really into concentrates. There's the flower aficionado and then there’s the people who really enjoy edibles. The edibles are a really good introduction for a lot of people who don't want to smoke.

What’s next? Dave thinks the cannabis beverage category is going to explode.” There's only a couple of players now, but it just makes a lot of sense. When someone picks up a beverage that has THC in it, they're looking for something to fill that space of alcohol. It needs to be balanced, not overwhelming with too much THC so that you can drink a few of them much like the gumdrops and the chocolates, where you can have a few cans of seltzer or mocktails.”

“Something else we make in the kitchen is a microdose mint. That was really out of my wheelhouse coming from Bissingers’s making chocolate and gummy confections.  Mints were a whole new thing to learn about. I understood how they were made, but I'd never made them. Once we figured it out we were able to make a great tasting, great selling product, particularly for people who are looking to just get an introduction to cannabis. They're only two and a half milligrams. Some are even lower with a higher ratio of CBD. It's great for folks who are new to cannabis and looking to try something to help them get through the day.” Owens added that Proper also has a low-dose Honeybee option in sour cherry lime as well as a regular dose gummy to help aid sleep called Goodnight.

Expect some brands to specialize in things like gourmet cannabis. Proper is currently the leader in this category, and with a chef like Owens at the helm of product development, he is working on other gourmet treats. “We have three upcoming flavors,” he teases. “Peaches and cream gumdrops, grape soda gumdrops, and a filled peanut butter and jelly chocolate bar. We’re also bringing mini-bags to the market, which will each have five gummies in them instead of 20.”

There will be a day when culinary cannabis is a featured item on restaurant menus, catering offerings, and dinner parties. Rumor has it that Dave is creating some cannabis-infused menus and various dishes which could be served at a dinner party for when it’s legal to consume cannabis in a public place. While he didn’t want to go into too much detail, Owens is working on this now and will introduce new products when the time is right and the supply catches up with the demand. Until then, there are many things to try which will keep you happy, pain free, and sleeping well.  Cheers.