Vegan chef Stacey Dougan enters cannabis biz with AYÉ

“I feel so great,” Chef Stacey Dougan said, a huge smile on her face as we stood in front of Good Morning Kitchen on Rainbow Boulevard on Saturday evening (September 4).

“I feel amazing -- it’s finally come together."

The it she’s referencing is AYÉ: her new line of vegan, cannabis-infused edibles, and an accompanying “premiere cannabis experience events company.” To officially celebrate the company’s launch, the chef was hosting a cannabis-infused dinner party for a restaurant full of invited guests.

Dougan has long been one of Las Vegas’ most prominent vegan chefs. Her Downtown Container Park restaurant, Simply Pure, has served celebrities such as Usher, Senator Cory Booker and former President Bill Clinton, and been featured in People magazine. Yet earlier this year, she shuttered the pioneering Downtown eatery, telling her legion of fans that she was “ready to expand.”

When I spoke to the chef at the time, she mentioned her desire to take Simply Pure’s brand of plant-based dining to a wider audience -- through avenues such as vegan catering, meal prep, meal delivery and perhaps a new restaurant. There was no talk then, at least to me, about moving into the cannabis field. But as Dougan explained to the guests at the AYÉ launch party, she sees a connection between the two areas.

“I believe in the healing power of the cannabis plant,” she told the guests at Saturday’s party. “I also believe in the healing power of plant-based foods.”

To illustrate that connection, Dougan and her team presented the packed house of invited guests with a menu of 100-percent plant-based dishes, offered with or without cannabis infusions. In keeping with the evening’s Harlem Renaissance theme, there was an emphasis on soul food, and each dish was inspired by, and dedicated to, an African-American luminary of that period.

To honor author Zora Neale Hurston, the meal began with petite spoons of potato salad and pickled vegetables, offered with or without a drop of indica THC tincture. 

Louis Armstrong was the inspiration for sweet-and-spicy “meatballs” with optional THC barbecue sauce, accompanied by southern kale greens. A station honoring Langston Hughes offered faux crab cakes (made from a magical blend of jackfruit and hearts of palm) with the option of THC-infused dill remoulade. Duke Ellington was remembered with creole gumbo, available with a sativa-strain of THC infusion. 

And Bessie Smith’s peach cobbler incorporated some non-psychoactive CBD.

“We’re proud of our culture, our heritage, and we’re just wanting to bring something unique and different to Las Vegas,” Stacey said of the menu.

While Saturday’s party was a paid event (tickets were $125 a head, all-inclusive), it was limited to invited guests to cut down on some of the paperwork and red tape. In the future, Dougan hopes AYÉ will create similar private culinary events for all occasions – from a meal showcasing a dispensary’s newest strain, to cannabis-themed bridal showers and bachelor parties. But she also wants to host public events, of various sizes and in different price ranges.

“I really want to open up events to the public, and to tourists,” the chef explains.

“We plan on doing events of all kinds. We’ll do more high-end events, (but) we’ll also do some events that are a little less in price.”

In the meantime, AYÉ (which means “life” or “earth” in the Yorba language of West Africa) offers pre-packed kale chips, cookies and tinctures through their website, ayebrand.com.

“It’s not in dispensaries yet, but we do have a small product line,” says Dougan. “People can go and purchase from the website now, and it’ll be shipped to your home, or you can pick up locally.”

And if you’re wondering how those kale chips taste, tune in to Episode 13 of Food and Loathing, where I’ll review them with the episode’s guest host, celebrity chef Rick Moonen.