Chef Ra

Chef Ra

Born	October 10, 1950(1950-10-10) Charleston, West Virginia
Died	December 26, 2006(2006-12-26) (aged 56) Urbana, Illinois
Cooking style	Ganja (marijuana)
Education	Urbana High School where he was class president his senior year. He attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Chef Ra (October 10, 1950 – December 26, 2006), born Jim Wilson, Jr.,^[1] was a long-time marijuana advocate and cannabis foods writer in the United States.^[2] After gaining notoriety as a ganja gourmet, he began writing his High Times column, "Chef Ra's Psychedelic Kitchen", in 1988 at the request of editor Steve Hager. Ra was a fixture of Ann Arbor's Hash Bash, speaking out about the benefits of cannabis for 19 consecutive years before his death.^[3]

Writings

"Chef Ra's Psychedelic Kitchen" column appeared in High Times off and on for 15 years.^[4] The articles would weave together Ra's insights on life together with a new ganja recipe. Ra would also report on travels to cannabis culture events.^[5] Selected columns from Chef Ra's Recipe Box remain available online.

Filmography

Chef Ra starred in a pair of videos produced by High Times, including Ganja Gourmet (2003) and Chef Ra Escapes Babylon (1980s). The latter features Ra’s visit to Jamaica, and had a rare public screening at the 1998 Freaky Film Festival in Champaign-Urbana.^[6] Ra was featured in the short film Bumbaclots in Negril (1999) alongside fellow High Times staffers.

References

1. ^ Wood, Paul (2006-12-28). "Chef Ra Enjoyed the High Life". The News-Gazette. http://hemp.net/news/?article=1167935878. Retrieved 2007-04-10. 
2. ^ Mercer, David (2006-12-29). "Urbana ganga chef, columnist dead at 56". Chicago Tribune. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/illinois/chi-ap-il-gangachef,1,299343.story?coll=chi-newsap_il-hed. Retrieved 2007-04-09. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "36th Annual Ann Arbor Hash Bash" (Press release). Michigan NORML. 2007. http://www.minorml.org/. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
4. ^ Hager, Steve (2006-12-26). "RIP James 'Chef Ra' Wilson". High Times. http://www.hightimes.com/ht/news/content.php?bid=1141&aid=24. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
5. ^ Chef Ra (2002-06-06). "Jah and the Hash Bash: walking the long road to herbal justice". High Times. http://hightimes.com/ht/entertainment/content.php?bid=29&aid=3. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
6. ^ Pankoke, Jason (2006-12-29). "Chef Ra, 1950-2006". C-U Blogfidential: all about the Movies of Micro-Film Country. http://www.micro-film-magazine.com/cublog/?p=115. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 

External links

• Chef Ra MySpace page
• Chef Ra speaking at 2006 Hash Bash
• Excerpt from Bumbaclots in Negril (1999), featuring Chef Ra
• Wood, Paul (2003-09-17). "Local Man's Recipes Give New Meaning to Potluck". The News-Gazette. http://www.thehempire.com/index.php/cannabis/news/local_mans_recipes_give_new_meaning_to_potluck. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
• Gorman, Kyle (2005-07-07). "High Times and Reggae Music with Chef Ra". Buzz magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20070927210426/http://media.www.readbuzz.com/media/storage/paper755/news/2005/07/07/ListenHear/High-Times.And.Reggae.Music.With.Chef.Ra-961325.shtml. Retrieved 2007-04-09. 
• In Memoriam: Chef Ra, including many photos from the WEFT archives.

Persondata
Name	Ra
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1950-10-10
Place of birth	Charleston, West Virginia
Date of death	2006-12-26
Place of death	Urbana, Illinois