Enter award-winning ayurvedic chef Louisa Rodriguez-Diaz. She is leading the way at Durga’s Om Cooking and Ayurveda Lifestyle and Nutrition Services, and she is ready to bring her upscale luncheons and dinner parties to LBI’s private beach houses and bungalows.
Thanks to New Jersey’s CREAMM (Cannabis Regulatory, Enforcement Assistance, and Marketplace Modernization) Act, the state law that legalized personal-use cannabis in 2021, “Generally, an adult 21 years of age or older can use cannabis on private property where property owners allow,” according to the state Cannabis Regulatory Commission.
Ayurveda is a yogic whole-body approach to nutrition, unique to every practitioner. Rodriguez-Diaz emphasizes feminine-form ayurveda and spiritual tantra, helping women to awaken their inner teachers and become “active forces in their own healing.”
The attitudes she encounters about cannabis are mixed, she said. Many are curious and eager to learn, while others are haunted by a past experience and need more reassurance. Often she is approached by older, long-closeted users who marvel at how times have changed and are still changing.
“All of my dinners and services that I offer through cannabis experiences are also educational,” she explained. “It’s not just ‘Hey, we’re getting together to smoke a joint and get high.’ It’s showing people how they can incorporate this into their own lives for wellness. You don’t have to ‘go smoke a joint’; you don’t have to smoke at all. Eating and smoking are two different species.”