Watch chef Brad Spence cooking with cannabis on Viceland

Highly decorated chef Brad Spence says he hopes to open a few eyes while doubtless raising a few eyebrows with his TV-cooking appearance Tuesday, April 9.

Spence is a competitor on Bong Appetit, Viceland’s series in which, in the network’s words, “B Real, Vanessa Lavorato, and Miguel Trinidad oversee a competition where high-end cuisine meets high-end cannabis.”

Spence goes up against The Sopranos’ Joe Gannascoli and New York grandmother Josephine Polito as they cook for the judges and guest Jarobi White.

Spence has a medical marijuana prescription and says the weed helps with his anxiety and depression.

“Cooking with it is no different from any other ingredient,” says Spence, a two-time James Beard nominee for best chef/Mid-Atlantic who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., and was chef de cuisine at Vetri Cucina before opening the first of the three Amis Trattorias in 2010.

During the taping, Viceland provided a cannabis expert schooled in the flavor profiles of some 50 varieties that were made available to the competitors. Presented with the challenge of creating a dish from ricotta, garlic, and canned sardines, he asked for a strain that tasted like wild fennel. “It was amazing,” he said.

(Here’s the recipe, which uses actual fennel and omits the cannabis.)

He also made eggplant Parm and, for dessert, zuppa Inglese.

At home in New Jersey, he hews to the culinary tradition of staying local -- buying his marijuana in Bellmawr. He uses it to make edibles, including gummies. One of his favorites is mixing the local cannabis with local honey to add to tea.

Spence said he urges caution and wants to destigmatize pot, which is a hot-button issue in his state. He said he would not use it before work or driving. “Like anything else, it’s a medicine -- no different from prescription pain-killers,” he said.

As for any potential backlash, he said: “Some people don’t understand it. I don’t care."