YouTube Star Babish Talks Cannabis: ‘If Alcohol Blurs The Hard Edges, Weed Rounds Them… It’s Not A Fixer—It’s An Augmenter’
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in July 2024. It has been updated in May 2025 to reflect current availability of the product and the evolving cultural context around cannabis.
“Weed is fun. Let’s face facts, it’s fun,” says Andrew Rea, the culinary maestro behind the wildly popular YouTube channel Binging with Babish, in an exclusive interview.
A Decade-Long Love Affair: From ‘Vapor Poo’ To ‘Digital’ Weed
Rea is not just a chef but a storyteller, seamlessly weaving narratives into recipes through his culinary recreations from movies, TV shows, and video games. His YouTube channel, Babish Culinary Universe, boasts more than 10 million subscribers and has become a beloved cornerstone of the online foodie community. His journey with cannabis, however, is a tale of personal discovery and therapeutic exploration.
“When I first started smoking weed, the only options were from shady characters and college kids on bikes in New York City,” Rea reflects with a smile. “If you had told me about the tech and availability now… If you had told me that weed would effectively become digital, that we’d have vaporizers that are disposable, that you would be able to walk around and smoke in a completely seamless and painless manner, and even get it delivered to your house above the letter of the law… I wouldn’t have believed it. But that’s the case now. It takes 45 minutes to order anything from my local dispensary.”
Rea’s journey with cannabis began about a decade ago, initially using it for both recreational and therapeutic purposes. “I’ve been roughly a daily user for about 10 years now, and it’s been incredible to see the cannabis landscape change in that time.” Battling anxiety and major depressive disorder, Rea finds solace and stability in cannabis. “It’s helped me manage my symptoms in some cases… and it’s also just fun,” he says.
Reminiscing about the early days, Rea talks about his first weed-infused culinary creations. “I bought a vaporizer called The Magic Flight Launch Box, which looked like something a Boy Scout made,” he laughs. “Back then, the only way I could make edibles was by using vaporized weed – …