Anna Montgomery’s dinners are not your typical four-course private affairs. When Montgomery is cooking, you can expect everything from the cocktails to crab Rangoon to be infused with a healthy dose of CBD (cannabidiol), the calming chemical compound in marijuana, and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive ingredient. Simply put, this food is going to get you high.
Everyone looks at edibles as brownies, cookies, chocolate bars and tinctures,” Montgomery said. “To create something that’s more of a food experience for foodies is what I’m looking for.”
Her dishes are well beyond the classic edible. They are no dorm-room pot brownies. Montgomery, a former pastry chef at Lemon Press, is cooking full-on meals: bay scallops with infused cannabis butter, cocktails with a THC tincture, and elaborate cakes, turnovers and cookies all baked with a certain amount of CBD and THC tailored to the tolerance level of whoever is eating it.
It is a philosophy of cooking that’s just getting its bearings around the country, popularized by shows like “Bong Appétit” on Viceland, but not something Montgomery had seen before on Nantucket.
“I want people to have a better understanding so they’re not just dumping in a whole jar of (THC-infused) olive oil and getting super-high, because they will,” she said.
Her dinner service is called ACK Supper Club. Montgomery said it’s an entirely new way to reimagine cooking.
“People who like having a culinary experience, having a few courses for dinner, talking about the food and having local vendors provide things, alongside cannabis – that is what drew me into it,” she said. “I’m trying to create something off the beaten path, having great food but also food that’s not too far out to discourage people from trying it.”
For the past seven years, Montgomery has been a pastry chef who made pot brownies and cookies on the side. She came to Nantucket in 2015 to take a job at the Nantucket Golf Club, after graduating from the Institute of Culinary Education in New York.
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