Chef Buds Has Endlessly Hustled To Build His Cannabis-Infused Empire Of Food—Exclusive Interview

Chef Buds Has Endlessly Hustled To Build His Cannabis-Infused Empire Of Food—Exclusive Interview

Chef David Wais aka Chef Buds has been on an unstoppable culinary Odyssey since he was a kid in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. In the home of his Carpathian Jewish parents, he began a lifelong love affair with comfort food. This came from following and learning the crafts of the women in his family.

Amidst the clash of cultures present in Brooklyn, David came out proficient in several cuisines including Eastern European, Asian, Italian and more. With his natural cooking ability, Chef Buds is able to take any ordinary ingredients and make something one-of-a-kind.

In addition to his passion for cooking, Chef Wais has always been comfortable on-camera. When he began cooking at age ten, he was also creating funny mock cooking show videos. This decadent level of showmanship stuck with Wais, and by age 18 he was charging flat-rates to cook privately.

But by the time college came he initially went for pre-dental. He then made the switch to majoring in psychology with a theatre minor. Chef Buds was continually getting better known for catering and cooking for people. College just taught him how to market himself better, and meet important people.

At age 20 he was officially cooking private gigs, and by 21 also found his love for cannabis. Having never gotten high before turning 21, Wais fell in love with the herb and quit drinking in response. This is when he began experimenting with infusing cannabis into his cooking. First making edibles for friends and occasionally slanging a couple.

David Wais aka Chef Buds

This became essential to his private dining experience, and the referrals began coming in heavy. After encouragement to start an Instagram page for his cooking, it all grew organically. Someone reached out with an offer to come move to the Bay and take his infused cooking to the next level. Six years later and he’s still doing his thing.

Chef David Wais aka Chef Buds sat down to chat about his journey after moving to the Bay at age 24. And how he subsequently built his empire by any means necessary to do what he loves—cook! Conveniently slotting himself into the Prop 215 crowd towards the beginning, Wais has found a comfortable seat in LA’s cannabis culture and private dining community. Now cooking for celebrities and high-profile figures, he also went into detail on his plans for elevating his personal brand.

Becoming Chef Buds & Hustling

When Chef Buds came to the West Coast, he wasn’t just cooking. He had a strong desire to enter the cannabis industry, and in 2013 found his way into doing social media and marketing for a Bay Area dispensary. Buds said he “essentially learned how to run my own business.” During this time he was building crazy connections in the industry, brokering bulk products to companies and cooking. “I used to cook for a lot of cannabis farms in the grey area,” buds said.

“For six years I worked non-stop. I brokered tons of cannabis between companies. I’ve done biomass brokering, CBD-isolate brokering, I even did catering for commercial sets. Basically whatever I had to do to make sure I had bread so I could have cameras and make content,” Buds highlighted. He was even working in the pharmaceutical and nightlife industries before ultimately being able to do his own thing.

Pioneering Session Food Vending

Chef Buds found his way into all of the big seshes that were starting to happen all over California as the industry grew. Eventually, Buds saw the opportunity to come in and give the sesh denizens much needed nourishment. “I was going to seshes and asking if I could food vend. Just small bites, like kabobs and burgers and stuff,” Buds said. “People would always leave the seshes early because they were hungry, and I capitalized on that.”

@Elevatedining

“I just want a normal person to come and enjoy really good food,” Buds said. “I feel like your typical dinners now aren’t social,” Buds told me. He said he was considering having a no-cell phone policy at future dinners to further encourage meaningful human interaction.

Currently, Chef Buds and his partner Chef Layla Stone host private dinners of up to 30-40 people, with 7 courses and a cocktail aptly named “Elevated Dining.” “Usually we have a sponsor like Cievoo cannabis-infused extra virgin olive oil, or Magical Butter to make at-home infusions,” Buds said. In the past, he’s made delicious food for several UFC fighters, MMA fighters, Peter Dante, and high-profile cannabis industry members.

These dinners hosted by Illusions Collectives desire to educate people on how to dose correctly and offer advice on ingesting edibles. “People have this misconception of how weed affects you, we have to guide them through the different types of terpenes and effects.”

Buds said he truly enjoys getting to “educate people and get them to discover how cannabis can benefit them.” Buds said he prepares the food with the infused ingredient set beside it, to allow his patrons the option to infuse their food, and to what degree. “It’s a social experience that people are buying into,” Buds said.

YouTube Channel

More than anything, Chef Buds has been working towards creating his own content via YouTube with his partner Chris Carey to educate people about cooking with the herb, as well as his overall cooking journey. He said that him and Chris are just “trying to create a cool platform to educate people.” “The content is going to be a mix of lifestyle, critical topics, education, guest appearances, with me as the personality the bonds it all,” Buds said.

Buds told me he wants to be open about being a cannabis advocate, and have episodes about infused cooking. He said that “the original cannabis community was built off trust and medicinal need, and that’s what I think gets to the real community.”

“I’ve been working and pivoting to collabing with the right people,” Buds told me. “I’ve been blessed to be a gifted networker and it’s allowed me to be able to spend time doing what I want to do and create what I want to create,” Buds expressed. Chef Buds proudly gave the report that he’s “tapping into his creative side from now on.”

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