About Travis Petersen & Dan Kennedy
Travis Petersen, known as The Nomad Cook, is one of the pioneers of culinary cannabis in North America. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, he appeared on MasterChef Canada in 2016 before launching The Nomad Cook — a traveling pop-up dinner concept that has served more than 30,000 people their first infused dining experience across over 150 cities and seven countries. Petersen is the author of The Nomad Cook: Introduction to Culinary Cannabis, a cooking manual focused on safe and accurate cannabis dosing, and created the Culinary Cannabis Summit in partnership with the American Culinary Federation. His Instagram handle is @the_nomadcook.
Dan Kennedy is the Head Chef of Pasta Bar in Austin, Texas, the acclaimed Michelin-recognized concept from chef Phillip Frankland Lee. Kennedy brings over 20 years of experience working in Michelin-starred restaurants and is known for his precision-driven approach to pasta, his advocacy for supportive kitchen culture, and his work as a culinary content creator. His Instagram handle is @cocinero_dk.
Episode Overview
Andre Natera brings Travis Petersen and Dan Kennedy together for a three-way conversation that covers cannabis cuisine, kitchen culture, and the realities of the chef competition circuit. Travis breaks down what cooking with cannabis actually involves — terpenes, dosing accuracy, extraction methods, and the hospitality considerations that most chefs never think through — while Dan adds perspective from a career spent in Michelin-starred environments. The conversation also moves into chef etiquette, the unwritten rules of kitchen culture that define professional reputations, and what competing in organized culinary circuits actually demands from a working chef.
What You Will Learn
- What cannabis cuisine actually involves at a professional level — terpenes, the entourage effect, safe dosing, and extraction methods chefs need to understand
- What Travis Petersen learned from hosting over 1,000 cannabis pop-up dinners across seven countries and why responsible dosing is the foundation of the whole craft
- How Dan Kennedy’s experience in Michelin-starred kitchens shaped his approach to standards, culture, and what professionalism looks like in practice
- The unwritten rules of chef etiquette that define reputations in professional kitchens — what they are and why violating them has lasting consequences
- What the culinary competition circuit demands and what both cooking on it and judging it reveal about preparation, pressure, and skill
- How the relationship between cannabis and fine dining is evolving and where the legitimate culinary opportunities in that space actually are
Connect with Travis Petersen & Dan Kennedy
Travis Petersen Instagram: @the_nomadcook
Travis Petersen Website: thenomadcook.com
Dan Kennedy Instagram: @cocinero_dk
Listen and Watch
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