Edible Flowers: How Famous Chefs Use Them

Crispy salads and floral mixes reminiscent of painters' palettes, fragrant geraniums in desserts and puddings, or begonia flowers hidden in sorbets, ice creams, and fresh summer desserts. These are just a few examples of the many culinary wonders you can create with edible flowers.

Classics like those of pumpkin or details such as the borage, dandelion, mauve, elder, lavender, rose, daisies, violets, i edible flowers enrich and embellish more and more the chefs' dishes. Use in salads, herbal teas, cocktails, risottos, but also fish and meat main courses: adding flowers to dishes can add color, flavor, and imagination.

From the design of the Table Setting to the centerpieces, Today, flowers leap onto the plate to create delicious delicacies for gourmets seeking beauty and goodness. Varied offerings that please the eye and the palate, and that never fail to amaze and whet even the most skeptical.

Among the proposals of the famous chefs there is certainly no shortage of original ideas in which edible flowers become the protagonists of an exciting flower tasting  or, to put it in Italian, of a "floral tasting”.

We start, for example, with the delicious mixed flower salad of Stefano Baiocco, a chef capable of conquering VIPs and others with his edible floral creations. Creations such as his simple, yet refined salad made with lettuce, lamb's lettuce, rocket, endive together with basil flowers, nasturtium And begonias. To name just a few, because in reality it is a dish where 130 different salad leaves, sprouts and aromatic herbs come together with 40 petals of various edible flowers, all atop a crispy mushroom crust drizzled with Garda extra virgin olive oil. A dish with a simple, fresh flavor, yet a feast for the eyes.

For those who are fond of first courses, there are countless options. One among them is the saffron risotto to the dried saffron flowers to be used instead of the pistils suggested by the chef Carlo Cracco. Cracco said he was “struck by their incredible flavour, a flower which is the jewel of a company in Caprino Bergamasco which dries them on grates near a wood stove and offers them as plate garnishes“.

Chef Cracco had no hesitation in offering us a traditional dish with an intense flavor and a reasonable price (much less than the traditional spice), but above all with an unexpected surprise effect: the bluish violet color instead of the yellow we are so accustomed to!

 

Those who cannot give up the flavour of meat, or alternatively fish, might be disappointed if we did not propose a second course prepared with the edible flowersAnd then starred chefs come to our aid to satisfy them!

If you have excellent culinary skills, you could try your hand at two unique recipes: that of Roast chicken “hidden” among mixed vegetables and edible flower petals in different colors of the chef Massimo Bottura of Modena and the prawns with flowers edible Of Enrico Crippa.

For the first one, it will be enough to cut the ginger, carrots, celery and the onions into very thin strips. flowers edible to then prepare a reduced cream based on roast chicken reduced to 90%. This will create small spheres to which the strips will be added. Among the edible flowers, there will be the viola, The lilac and the red spring onion flower in addition to theoyster grassThe reduction will be used as a base for the dish on which the spheres will be placed, all seasoned with Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI, of course..

For the second one, instead, you will take raw prawns seasoned simply with balsamic vinegar and edible violet petals.

If up to this point we have intrigued you with our kitchen with flowersStay glued to your screens because now we move on to dessert! Specifically, the chef's delicious dessert. Simone Bertaccini, or a  semifreddo with medlars with meringue biscuits and lavender flower sauce, prepared with a base of meringue, medlar puree and cream combined and placed in a mold to cool in the refrigerator for 1 day. The semifreddo is served on a lavender flower sauce it can then be garnished with violet petals scattered here and there for a WOW effect.

In short, at the restaurant as in your own garden, among aromas and suggestions that satisfy the senses.

What are you waiting for? Bring flowers to your table, too, by taking inspiration from Michelin-starred chefs!

 

 

 

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