Food fad: edible flowers

Edible flowers keep popping up (around London, obvs) – enough to make it a bit of a food fad at the moment.

Interesting piece on the Guardian’s website which looks at historical flower-eating. This is great starting point that helps put it all into context. Worth a read. It also mentions the Chelsea Flower Show, with the nearby Tom Aikens restaurant serving up “edible blooms”.

Next, there’s the Belgraves Hotels‘ Edible Garden (again, to tie in with the Chelsea Flower Show), featuring a ‘living wall of edible flowers’ and interactive cocktail station which will include petals among the ingredients. The daily ‘Edible Flower Cocktail Classes‘ and ‘Food & Flower Pairing Tutorials‘ sound good. Takes place 21-25 May, so hurry!

Something that has flown up to the top of my summer to-do list is the Bompas & Parr installation at Kew Gardens… the Tutti Frutti Boating Lake! It’s part of the IncrEdibles summer festival, celebrating edible plants. They’re creating a GIANT FRUIT SALAD BOATING LAKE AND FLOATING PINEAPPLE ISLAND AND BANANA GROTTO (edible banana cloud – similar idea in a previous post). 25 May – 1 September.

Finally, Corrigan’s Mayfair has launched an edible flower menu, which includes items like this: English asparagus with Cornish crab and apple blossom and English summer melon salad with wild Pennywort and roses.

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