DENVER, CO - Master Cannabis Chef Scott Durrah prepares a marijuana-infused Jamaican curry chicken dish at a Cooking with Cannabis seminar presented by his wife Wanda James's dispensary Simply Pure in Denver, CO on Saturday, August 6, 2016.. (Photo by Vince Chandler / The Denver Post)

Love cooking, eating and weed? You’re in luck, this chef’s cooking with cannabis classes are for you

When chef Scott Durrah is teaching a weekend class on cooking with cannabis, he knows how to read his audience.

“Do we all have our coffee and our sativa?” Durrah asked the students who assembled for his Simply Cooking class on Aug. 6. “Today we’re going to be using a little bit of Bruce Banner, so it’s a nice little sativa.”

Durrah, who owns restaurant Jezebel’s and marijuana shop Simply Pure in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood, peppered his inaugural class with general tips as he taught those in attendance to make a couple THC-infused Jamaican dishes. His advice was thoughtful, and often backed up with concrete examples from his own experience in the kitchen.

“The strain you use has a huge impact on the flavor of your oils,” Durrah said. “For instance, Sour Diesel’s a very tough strain to cook with, because it has a very heavy flavor that lingers … It’s a very hard flavor to mask.”

Once you’re cooking with the right strain, you also want to make sure you’re able to taste the cannabis, Durrah said.

“You always want to try and taste a little bit of the cannabis in your food,” Durrah said. “Why? Because it tastes good. You don’t put garlic in a meal and then try and run away from the flavor. Enhance the flavor, enjoy the flavor. I look at herb, weed or cannabis as like another herb.”

Treating marijuana as an herb seemed to make sense to Durrah’s students. And the chef-ganjapreneur also wasn’t afraid to drop some humor into the mix.

“My thing here’s not to teach you how to get high,” Durrah deadpanned. “That’s what we’ve always said. You wanna get high? Everybody here, raise your hand: They know how to get high, right? So that’s not the purpose of this class.”

Durrah’s cannabis cooking classes are open to the public and will continue from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays through early September. Tickets are $60. More info here: simplypure.com/events