Meet Zach Kaczanowski | Sous Chef of The Parish & Executive Chef of Black Lamb Culinary

We had the good fortune of connecting with Zach Kaczanowski and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Zach, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Zach Kaczanowski: ExecutiveChef/founder

Steven Parcenue: Sous Chef/Founder

We had been working in kitchens many years, and our aspirations felt isolated and lost in the monotony of working on someone else’s vision. We started asking ourselves what is our vision? Why aren’t we pushing our own agenda? Why are we working so hard to further someone else’s accomplishments? And that’s why we just decided to combine the two things we love most in life and that’s Cannabis & Cooking. The rest is history, although we are still small and starting out it’s very worthwhile to build something of your own!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

We called ourselves Black Lamb Culinary because what we were doing felt very different. We felt as if we didn’t fit in to the mold that professional kitchens had set, we felt like black lambs in the industry, as if we didn’t fit in or our ideas were too far fetched. “Black Lamb” specifically because we are still fairly young and still growing into the full sized Sheep we someday will be.

We started out by just doing a small dinners with friends here and there, but we surely did start to feel that we had something really awesome in the palms of our hands. Now here we are working with some big players in the Tucson Cannabis Industry.

Currently we do full coursed dinners that are curated on a guest to guest basis (no 2 menus are the same). Along with curating a menu we also give the options of normal dining, cannabis infused dining, or cannabis paired dining. We coordinate everything from location & decor to menus & execution. All you have to do is message us, set up a date, and agree to the details/budget/menu presented for the party.

It is very exciting to be doing this for the Cannabis Community. We are out here in Tucson, trying to break the bad stigma of cannabis and it’s consumers (Especially as consumers ourselves). We are here to show that cannabis has its place in the realms of high society and fine dining, we show it’s versatility ranging from using it as an ingredient for infusions & enhancing flavors of the food to using it in pairings/accompaniments for the food, think of a wine dinner with cannabis instead of wine.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.

Definitely would have to take the guest on a Mt Lemmon cruise to Summerhaven, just to show how Tucson has a climate for everyone, as well as just how close pine tree forests are for us out in the desert has always amazed us.

Also some must have stops on the list are food and drinks at The Parish for lunch, along with grabbing an eegees to cool off after. Later on go head downtown and grab a bite to eat at Agustin Kitchen, following that with drinks at Hotel Congress, and finishing the night at Cobra Arcade.

Another amazing thing to do if the season is right for them to be flowing, a beautiful hike to Seven Falls to see some desert waterfalls.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We definitely wouldn’t be where we are now if it wasn’t for Lunchbox Dispensary as well as Sunset Glass Gallery here in Tucson. We attribute a lot of the traction we have gained on social media to them always supporting us, they also provide us the means to be able to facilitate these kinds of events.

Instagram: @blacklambculinary

Other: blacklambculinary@gmail.com You can book dates for your cannabis infused/paired dinners through our Email or Instagram

Image Credits
Colton Blackmore/@coltonblackmore Photos: Personal Photo, #2, #3, #5 Eddie Fisher/@180snapshots Photos: #1, #4