Denis Cicero - The Galaxy Global Eatery Hemp Cookbook: More Than 200 Recipes Using Hemp Oil, Seeds, Nuts, and Flour

Copyright 2002, 2013 by Denis Cicero. Photographs 2002, 2013 by Michelle Hood. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by North Atlantic Books
P.O. Box 12327
Berkeley, California 94712

Cover photos by Michelle Hood
Cover design by Suzanne Albertson

The postcards printed throughout this book are reproduced courtesy of HempTrivia, manufacturer of postcards, posters, and notepads, www.hemptrivia.com.

The Galaxy Global Eatery Hemp Cookbook: More Than 200 Recipes Using Hemp Oil, Seeds, Nuts, and Flour is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394-563-6
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-58394-545-2

The Library of Congress has cataloged the 2002 hardcover edition as follows:
Cicero, Denis.
The galaxy global eatery hemp cookbook / by Denis Cicero.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Hardcover ISBN 978-1-58394-055-6
1. Cookery (Hemp) 2. Cookery, International. I. Title

TX814.5.H45 C53 2001
641.63dc21
2001040633

v3.1

To Julia Butterfly Hill

Modern American Hero

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
Only after the last river has been poisoned,
Only after the last fish has been caught,
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

Cree Indian proverb

The Galaxy Global Eatery Hemp Cookbook

A fter almost twenty years of tableside formal service in the restaurant industry, I hung up the tuxedo and suit for the last time. I was retiring from the business. I had dreams of traveling, writing romance novels, and becoming a barefoot poet in San Francisco. No longer would I be subjected to the capricious needs of a demanding clientele or the two-hundred-bottle wine cellar! Who needs it? Food critics? Get a life. Im going on the road.

This business is smoke and mirrors! I exclaimed. I dont care how much money you spend designing a room, or who you hire to be your publicist! All you need is a vibe and one unique ingredient that people remember. With the vibe you have their heart and soul. With the ingredient you have the pathway homethrough their stomach.

Give me a cardboard box and Ill give you a restaurant, I ranted to a friend and went traveling.

A month later, I picked up an email in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. It was from a dear friend and, unbeknownst to me, my future business partner.

Hey Denis. Guess what? I have a cardboard box and I want you to give me a restaurant. And guess what else? Since you say that you dont need money, we are only giving you seventy-five thousand dollars to open, fully licensed and insured!

And so the challenge began. Returning to New York, I visited the cardboard box. It was an old Greek diner located next to a rock-and-roll venue on Irving Place: one thousand square feet of bad Formica and crusty grease.

An old sign hanging on the side of the building read Galaxy Restaurant.

Well at least that leaves room for some interpretation, I surmised. A mission statement from Mars perhapsInnovative Foods for Progressive Palates.

Sounds great, my friend proclaimed. But what are you going to do in this dump that is innovative and progressive?

Ill get back to you, I said.

A fter six months of hard labor, the cardboard box was now a cobalt blue and stainless interior with 1,125 optic fibers in the ceiling enveloping hand-blown glass fixtures and a magical sound system.

The restaurant was fully licensed and insured and had ninety dollars remaining in the bank. There was no proper ventilation, air conditioning, or heating system. My mother had passed away the week prior. I assembled the best staff New York had to offer and proceeded to explain the challenge. As I spoke, you could see my breath from the fifteen-degree weather outside.

We will open this restaurant tonight regardless of the obstacles and will succeed based on two thingsthe vibe and one special ingredient. (I still didnt know what that was going to be.)

We fired up the stoves, and blue smoke filled the room. The Galaxy looked like it was giving birth to Satans son.

Y ou are only as good as the people you work with. I proved that over the winter of 199596. The new staff was full of hospitality and warmth, with a sense of humor that belied any of the nightmares we experienced together. Sexy, Hip, and Attentive all rolled up into one. In April of 1996 I was rummaging through some old papers and poems from 1978, when I lived on Marthas Vineyard working as cook in a small creperie. Lo and behold! The special ingredient was in a pancake recipe that I used to make for my bohemian friends. It was a cannabis seed. We called them cannacakes. Stashed next to the poems was a tiny cookbook entitled The Hempseed Cookbook, by Carol Miller and Don Wirtshafter, published years later, in 1991. It was as if I found the Holy Grail.

O pening the twenty-five-pound pail of hempseed from Don Wirtshafter of the Ohio Hempery, I asked the chef to make a special for the night. Do it with a sense of humor but take it seriously as a food ingredient, I asked of him. We prepared three dishes of clam bisque with hempseed and hemp oilone for the chef, one for me, and one to sell for customer response. That customer, it turned out, was Eric Asimov from The New York Times. He reviewed us the next week, and The Galaxy exploded into the Big Bang. And, as they say, the rest is history. Hemp food was here to stay.

F or the next four years, The Galaxy Global Eatery revolutionized hemp cuisine, being recognized in most major culinary magazines, the TV Food Network, EXTRA, CNN, CNBC, and Charles Osgoods radio show. The mission statement was fulfilled, at least temporarily. In the acclaimed restaurant guide Zagats Survey, we were reviewed favorably, but the last line of the review asked, What is hemp? Thus another mission was established: