About Culinary Cannabis Company

David and Kate Nadolski are brother and sister.  Back in 2019, we learned that Governor Pritsker in Illinois planned to declare the legalization of recreational cannabis.  At that time, Kate and Dave had discussed creating a company based on Dave’s vast amount of sales experience and Kate’s vast amount of experience in the food space.  This remained an idea only, until the day that Governor Pritsker made his announcement official. This particular day also happened to be the same day that Dave (a professor) was assisting in an anime event his former student had asked for help with.  Dave mentioned the idea of the company to another former student of his named Ed.  Later that day, Ed told a THIRD former student of Dave’s named Victor who reached out to Dave that night!  “I hear you and your sister are starting a cannabis company!”, he said.  Dave confirmed this and Victor went on to say “For the last two years I have been working with a lawyer who wants to get not cannabis so I know a lot about the law.  In fact, I have a slideshow presentation about it and would like nothing more than to give a speech to my former speech professor about how he can start his new business”.  Victor came by that night, presented and Dave ended the evening saying, “It looks super, super hard… but you know what?  It’s not impossible”.  When Dave brought the idea back to Kate, she immediately jumped on board, and Mary Jane’s Incredible Edibles was formed. 

Fast forward to November 2019 when Kate, having just attended an investor’s conference, called Dave crying.  She explained to him that she had been befriended by a woman who later that conference pulled her into the restroom and told her “I don’t want to be a jerk but you just have such positive energy and optimism that I have to tell you… go home.  You don’t belong here.  Take a look at these investors around you- white men with a lot of money.  You just… don’t stand a chance and I would hate to see you put in all of this time and energy for nothing”.  We don’t fault her.  She was trying to be kind. And to be fair, this was the same evening we had learned about one investor group who had invested $750,000 and employed 15 people to fill out the application and submit it to the state.  There was also another man who spent $250,000 on a team of five which included two lawyers.  Frustrated, Dave said, “That just seems so unfair!  I mean if I had nothing to do all day but the application, MAYBE we could do it… and at that we’d probably need an extension!  We both have full time jobs, you have a new baby and this is hard but I think we absolutely should do our best.  When is it due?”.  “March 20th, 2020” Kate replied. 

Fast forward again to March 17th 2020- Gov. Pritsker Announces the St. Patrick’s Day Parade is cancelled due to this new disease called Covid-19.  March 18th 2020- Dave receives a call from his boss telling him to stay home and he will still be paid!  That same week, Kate found out she had been downsized amid Covid-19 concerns but was going to remain being paid for several months.  So we both were free to do the application! March 19th 2020- Gov. Pritsker Announces an extension to the application deadline!  We were unbelievably lucky. 

Seizing the opportunity, Dave and Kate worked night and day (this is before Ai), day in and day out until the day the application was due at 5pm.  Working to the last minute, Kate and Dave feverishly finished up our submission.  And with the application due to be postmarked by 5pm, Dave and Kate literally RAN OUT of Dave’s condo to the post office across the street.  Our submission was due by 5pm.  Our official submission took place at 4:57pm. 

And the rest is history!  Oh yeah!  A year after that, Dave was at a national speech competition with his collegiate team when he learned that Mary Jane’s Incredible Edibles was being served a cease and desist from Edible Arrangements who claimed to own the word Edibles.  Dave turned to his students as a fun exercise and asked them to consider new names for the company.  And it was Amon Holmes, Dave’s student who came up with Culinary Cannabis Company.  All he asked for was the credit for coming up with the name and here it is.  Thank you, Amon!  Finally, 1.5 years later, our lawyers advised us to create a DBA from our name and CulinaryCannaCo. was made.  That leads us to today!  Kate’s son is turning 5 years old and our launch is set for… you guessed it- St. Patrick’s Day 2024 (or there abouts).  Full circle.  Thanks for asking and for being our customers.  It means the world to us.     

No.  As fun as that sounds, at present we are only based in Illinois.  As you likely read in our profiles, the odds of us making it across the finish line in this highly regulated cannabis market have been astronomical.  Yet, we’ve done it! 

Originally a brother-sister team, we have doubled our organization in size and are fighting the good fight to make a dent in the cannabis marketplace.  Our company’s ethos is very family centered and full of love. 

That said, let there be no doubt; in supporting us through the purchase of our products, you are supporting the “underdog” . 

And the more you ask for our products to be carried, the more you will support our movement in making cannabis better. 

While social media is the best way to interact with our company, we can also be reached at (224) 331-0251.