For 4/20, I got deliciously high on weed-infused truffles and pastries cooked by a Michelin-trained chef

The name "soma" comes from an ancient Indian ritual brew with psychoactive properties. While some scholars have guessed that the drink contained the juices of "magic" mushrooms, founder Mo Sahoo prefers the theories that point to the cannabis plant as a sacred ingredient.

Patisserie Soma began in 2020, at a time when many of the best classically trained chefs in the world were out of work. While Sahoo is not a chef himself, he quit his consulting job just before the COVID-19 pandemic started and was positioned to invest in something new.

Sahoo told Insider he spent the first pandemic summer helping a chef friend deliver baked goods and selling weed-infused edibles on the side. His edible operation went big after an influencer posted about it, and suddenly Patisserie Soma had a waitlist of almost 1,000 people.

As the legal status of marijuana has shifted, appetite has grown for infused dining experiences, from Delta-8-infused lattes to wine-paired tasting menus.

Opportunities to sample the higher end of this "movement" have been few and far between on the East Coast, where I live, as legalization has moved more slowly. But, according to Sahoo, the interest is there.

As he shifted his focus to selling high-end edibles, Sahoo said he became friendly with several of New York City's finest chefs by word of mouth, and they were excited to get involved.

"I happened to get really lucky — one of the best chocolatiers in the world was like, 'I love edibles, let's do it,'" Sahoo said. He started building a roster of chefs to cook with cannabis, and has worked with seven renowned professionals to date.

Soma also affords chefs the opportunity to experiment with weed in relative anonymity, even as many of them returned to mainstream restaurants. Adults can legally possess and use cannabis in New York, but it'll take months for the state to finalize regulations that will pave the way for dispensaries to open. In the meantime, a host of canna-businesses have been operating in a legal gray area.

While the chefs prefer to fly under the radar, Sahoo said the Soma brand has reached famous stoner circles and other well-off clients with their pickup orders and pop-up dinners.

Setting a standard dose for Soma's edibles required some trial and error. Sahoo told Insider that edibles actually don't work for him, so he's had to recruit friends to taste-test.

"I didn't know people's doses, so the first time I dosed the chef, I was like, 'I'm sure you smoke, so 90 mg should be fine.' I gave him a 92 milligram brownie and then he got stoned for two days," Sahoo recalled with a laugh.

Nowadays, Sahoo's business partner Paulina Kuo helps double-check his dosing before Soma's treats make it to customers. Most of Soma's patisserie and truffles contain 10 mg of THC infused into coconut oil, although some desserts can be dosed at 15 or 30 mg as requested.

For comparison, a standard edible serving contains 5 mg of THC (the cannabis compound that gets you high), according to Leafly. I've had much larger doses in the past, but first-timers shouldn't take more than one serving to start.

I usually hate white chocolate, so I shocked myself by going back for seconds of Soma's chai truffle. The spice cut the sweetness perfectly, and the texture was sensuously smooth.

For a confections like truffles, it's important to maintain a certain ratio of sugar and fat. Sahoo said he handles the math behind the recipes, and chefs point him towards high-quality ingredients, such as cardamom imported from India and Valrhona chocolate from France.

Choosing an infusion method without compromising technique was a challenge, especially when working with classically trained chefs, Sahoo said. He said he prefers coconut oil, which is a favored extractor among cannabis chefs because of its high smoke point and abundant healthy fatty acids.

Depending on the receipe, Soma's chefs might opt to mix the infused coconut oil with butter or cream for flavor or texture.

I wasn't sure if I should expect a certain herbal note in Soma's patisserie menu, but Sahoo assured me he uses several different cannabis infusions to control the taste.

He told me he's developed between four and seven different shades — from near-snow white to deep green — of infused oils and butters for his chefs to cook with. Each batch has been strained to taste; some butters are herbier than others.

When I sampled the mushroom and shallot-filled pithivier, all I tasted was umami. Sahoo told me that for delicate pastries like the hand pie, chefs prefer to work with "lily-filtered" materials: butter or oil that's been frozen and skimmed until it's lily-white. But for some of Soma's freezeable truffles and brownies, he opts for a slightly weedier taste.

"People said they weren't getting high if they couldn't taste it," he said.

Even after in-person dining returned to New York City, chefs have continued to come to Soma to experiment — not just with cannabis, but with a degree of creative freedom that's hard to come by in Michelin-starred kitchens.

"I literally told every chef, 'Hey, it's going to sell because there is marijuana in it. So just make it dope,'" Sahoo said. "As they got more confident, each chef started doing what they really wanted to be doing, and that's when we struck gold."

As the legal cannabis industry takes root in New York, Sahoo said he expects to see cannabis used as a "fine ingredient," like black truffles or caviar. People are willing to pay extra for the addition — especially if it comes with an air of luxury.

With private dinners ranging from $150 to $400 a head, the Soma experience is geared towards the upper crust. Tastings like this aren't a part of my usual budget (thanks, Insider), although I may splurge on a tin of Campfire blondies in the future.

Despite my own status as a foodie-adjacent weed aficionado with a journalist's salary, I felt surprisingly comfortable sitting down with the Soma team. You don't need to know much about the culinary scene — or cannabis, for that matter — to enjoy their inventive flavors and well-balanced high.

After half a mushroom pie, two profiteroles, and a few too many truffles, I left the apartment still feeling the good vibes, and all the more interested in food.