35 25 MAY 2023 Weekending Now that spring is turning into summer, our hedgerows andmeadows are breaking out into a profusion of colourful wildflowers. As well as fortifying foraging bees and other pollinators, this natural bounty is appearing in an increasing number of restaurants, bakeries and cafés – as well as the social media feeds of home bakers and keen cooks. The ability of flowers to elevate food is the subject of a new book. Out today (25May), Eat Your Flowers by Californian chef Loria Stern features recipes such as a pansy-topped green savoury tart and a beetroot and goat’s cheese terrine studded withmarguerite daisies and cornflowers. For Loria, makingmeals with flowers “combines all the things I love – cooking and baking, art, eating, painting, and the natural botanical world.” Of course, you don’t need to go foraging to bring floral flavours to your food. You’ll find plenty of inspiration at waitrose.com, where Cooks’ Ingredients Rose Petals appear in everything frompistachio baklava and chocolate-dipped madeleines to former MasterChef champion Shelina Permalloo’s rose and pistachio cake. Meanwhile, the true taste of early June can be accessed through elderflower cordial, which brings the blooms’ sweet pear fragrance to soft fruit and elderflower posset, strawberry and elderflower sorbet and even elderflower bellinis. BOTANICAL BAKING What’s hot Photograph: Laurie Frankel
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