Chef Zaddy | Interview
Age: 34
Location: Bergen County, New Jersey
What do you do for work?
I work for a corporate infertility treatment company. I process authorizations for infertility treatments for people trying to get pregnant. And I love cooking so I’ve been taking orders through my Chef Zaddy page. I’ve done some catering for parties. It’s kind of a hobby and a passion. Cooking is a huge thing on the side for me. I would love to have a food truck or something.
Tell me a little more about ChefZaddy:
Well, Zaddy is a handsome dad, and I’m a chef. I wanted a place to combine everything I like, and I like keeping it broad. One day I’m going to a local food spot and doing a review, and the next day posting a cooking tutorial and another day posting me flexing outside a place I like.
What’s your favorite thing to cook?
American style comfort food that doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. Chicken Wings, Chili, Cheese Steaks. I like to keep it simple, a lot of videos I watch have these obscure ingredients like who just has miso paste in their fridge?
What do you do for Fun?
Well I love cooking, also pickling, and hanging out with my son. I love to go out into nature, and fishing. I make beats and do video production and editing. I have wanderlust, so I’m always out and about finding new places. I love weird NJ and Weird NY where you can find weird abandoned places. Recently I found this abandoned safari that you can still go to that’s only 15 minutes from me in NJ. It was a Warner Bros. Looney Toons themed safari. You can see where the parking lot was and the cages, and it’s all overgrown.
What are you currently listening to:
Lately I’ve been listening to Blade, he’s a SoundCloud rap pioneer from Sweden or something. And a lot of shoegaze music. It’s very spacey, like ambient rock music. I think it was technically formed in England back in the 80s. They call it shoegaze because they would stare at their shoes, but really they’re hitting their guitar pedals.
I’m always listening to my friends’ projects too, like Age of Apocalypse and Soul Blind from Hudson Valley, NY and the heavyweight producers from Syracuse, NY like MaazKID and Cyrus Dunbar. I have so much love for the underground and friends who make art for their friends.
Favorite music that you listen to when you’re stoned?
You know, I don’t have a specific album or whatever, but there’s one song I love. Opus No. 1 by Tim Carleton. It’s this really obscure insurance company hold song and I sampled it in one of my beats. It’s so catchy, it’s got a cult following. I know it’s so random but I love that song especially when I’m high.
Joints, Blunts, Edibles, Glass, Wax? What’s your preferred way to consume Cannabis?
There’s just something about rolling it up and smoking it, and then passing it to friends. It’s way more communal of an experience as opposed to just hitting your vape pen or bowl. Nothing beats papers.
You don’t have to repack for a long time, you can go walking with it, and then you can clip it and put it out, go back to it later, so definitely smoking papers. It doesn’t matter if it’s blunt or a joint.
Do you roll your own?
I’m honestly very lazy and I tend to buy the raw cones. So I just pour it right in and twist… real easy. I finally got one of those little plastic rolling things. The little thing that I put the paper in with the tip and you can roll it like nothing.
Do you roll the blunts with the outer leaf?
I usually have someone else rolling the blunts. I haven’t rolled a blunt myself in a long time. When I do it, I do use the leaf. Usually a classic Dutch. The grape Dutch is tasty, and green apple is a good classic.
Do you have any cannabis rituals?
I’m an end of the day smoker for the most part. I’m fine with being sober throughout the day and then getting stoned at the end of the night. There’s something very rewarding and relaxing about it. If I have the day off, I’ll probably smoke in the morning and a few times throughout the day. If I have Landon, I have to do my daddy duties during the day. So when I put him to bed, and once he’s asleep, I smoke and it’s the most satisfying feeling at the end of the night. I’ll watch something on Netflix or whatever it’s a really chill ritual.
Do you have a favorite strain?
No favorite strains that I can think of. I had one that actually tasted really, really good. I don’t remember what it was, Birthday Cake or something like that. I’m not really picky with that stuff.
Favorite codeword for being high?
Chiefed, like, mad chiefed up right now or something like faded, man.
Best/strangest stoned food combo?
I’ll start with the weirdest because it wasn’t even me, but it was my best friend Will at the time. This was 2010 maybe and we were smoking at my apartment. Just me and him and I smoked him up for his first time. We both got the munchies like crazy and we went into the kitchen and I remember him making an onion bagel, toasting it, and then slapping peanut butter all over it and just going in on it. When I’m stoned off my ass, grilled cheese is one of my ultimate comfort foods. I’ll be making some mean grilled cheeses when I’m high. Sometimes I add bacon or Taylor ham. You know, pork roll, it’s very well known here in New Jersey and specific to New Jersey culture.
Favorite cotton mouth remedy?
Water and lemon is one of my most favorite refreshing things to have on deck.
Favorite Stoner Movie?
I’m not as obsessed with all the classic movies we grew up with that were strictly made for stoner stereotypes. I do like How High and Friday is hilarious, but I like some real obscure shit. I like this movie called The Holy Mountain. That’s some trippy shit. That movie is like a rite of passage into that whole realm because it came out in the 60s or 70s when the hippie drug era was in its prime. Back then when we had virgin minds, my roommates and I would literally get high off of a dub together (and make it last like a week or so) we would get ripped and watch the Holy Mountain and it was just that movie just takes you to another place. Also Koyaanisqatsi, that’s one of my favorite movies to watch high. That was another movie we used to always throw on, because it was so trippy and visually amazing with the music by Philip Glass.
Favorite cannabis accessory? (ex.do you have a favorite grinder, or roach clip?)
I like my little tightvac container. Those things are pretty dope. I got it on Amazon years ago. It’s smell proof. I think technically they were made for smelly herbs you might put in your cabinet, but clearly people caught on and were buying them for their weed.
Any funny stories trying to buy weed in the past?
I can’t think of anything too crazy, but it’s just kind of silly. It was back in the day when I was working at ShopRite in West Nyack. I gave a ride home to one of the girls I worked with and she got me some weed from her boyfriend. I just remember being very, very, very scared to drive two blocks back to my apartment. I was just this ignorant young kid thinking I’m gonna get pulled over with this little dime bag of weed. I’m gonna get arrested. I just remember being so paranoid. I drove so perfectly. It was literally two blocks and I was sweating bullets. I am pretty sure I put the dime bag in my trunk underneath the spare tire mat to be extra cautious.
What’s the strongest high you’ve experienced?
Damn, strongest honestly might have been from a dab. The first time I ever did one was absolutely insane. I was up near New Paltz, NY. I had a friend who lived out there who I knew from punk shows. He had a zoo in his house. Literally, he had a room that had heat lamps, an iguana. He had birds, and the most obscure animals. We were in his kitchen and he just whips out his dab rig. I remember doing my first dab in this house while animals were walking around, birds were flying around and there was an iguana crawling up in the living room.
Dead or Alive: Your Ultimate Smoke Sesh Guest List:
Tim and Eric. They’re my favorite comedians of all time. I would love to smoke with Action Bronson, Danny McBride, and Regina Hall. She’s so hilarious and sexy and has had me dying of laughter since I was a teenager.
Are you craving anything right now?
I’m always craving pancakes.
