MB: I have always loved flowers. Even when I was a child, I married my "food" with flowers, making sure my mud pies were beautified by violets and my lemonade stands were festooned with wildflower bouquets. After college, I lived in Santa Cruz, California, and began studying herbal medicine, both Chinese and Western. It was then that I began realizing that the flowers I loved to grow had other uses. It wasn’t long before I was at a potluck dinner and presented with a salad studded with edible blossoms, and my eyes were opened to the idea of eating these beauty things.
Q: What gave you the idea to turn your knowledge and recipes into a cookbook?
MB: I was talking with Margaret McGuire, an editor at Quirk Books, about another book idea I was working on when she casually mentioned that she was intrigued by edible flowers. I immediately knew it was a project I wanted to work on and was perfect for. My knowledge of medicinal uses of flowers and my years of experience growing them, cooking with them, using them in my sweets, and putting them into savory dishes and beverages made me want to share that passion with people who may never have considered using flowers in their cooking. I also own or have read almost every edible flower book out there, and I knew I could make a cookbook that was beautiful and sensual but still accessible.
Q: Many readers will be new to cooking with flowers. What is your advice to ease beginners into incorporating flowers into their dishes?
MB: To people just beginning to use flowers I say, go boldly forward! First make sure you taste the flowers individually, to get a feel for their raw flavor, and then dive in to preparing recipes using the flowers whose tastes you love.
Q: You emphasize the importance of using quality ingredients like unsalted European butter to bring out the best taste in your cooking. Are there other ingredients you absolutely avoid
substituting?
MB: I like to use the best and freshest ingredients I can get my hands on. Often that means that I get my eggs and milk from someone I know. I have only a few hard-and-fast rules, but I certainly have ingredient preferences, such as organic sugar, European butter, free-range
organic eggs, and freshly harvested blossoms.
Q: Finding and choosing the right blossoms seems like a delicate task. Do you recommend that people buy their edible flowers or grow their own?
MB: I recommend that people grow their own flowers, but I know that is not always practical. Anyone who has room for at least a potted plant can grow pansies or force tulips or hang a basket of nasturtiums, which are all edible. If space is abundant, consider planting an edible flowerbed or a border in your garden. You might find a friend to “flower pool” with—they grow one variety, you grow another, and then you share with each other. If you can’t grow your own plants, local farmers’ markets or farm stands are good resources. If all else fails, there are several good sources for edible flowers on the Internet, which I list in the book.
Q: What are the most surprising flower and food pairings that you stumbled upon while creating recipes for Cooking with Flowers?
MB: What was surprising to me was that I could pull a lot of flavor from a bunch of dandelions. The dandelions were time-consuming to pick and clean, but their honey fragrance was well worth the effort. One of the most fun parts of making the book was experimenting with flower jams. I particularly enjoyed trying to use them in marinades for fish, fowl, and meat.
Q: In the book you mention your background in herbal medicine, which gave you an “appreciation for flowers as food and medicine for the body as well as the spirit.” Do you incorporate flowers into most of your meals?
MB: I live in a climate where I don’t have access to fresh flowers all year round, so I don’t have the opportunity to use them in every meal. But that makes me look forward to the seasons when they are available. When spring comes and the first blossoms are ready, I feel the excitement of a small child. Having said that, there are many times in winter that I find myself looking for a bite of beauty, so I will use flower sugars or jams I have “put up” in summer and turn to dried flowers.
Q: What are some of the medicinal benefits of cooking with flowers?
MB: Some flowers have anti-tumor or anti-carcinogenic properties, others are anti-viral. Pansy infusions are being used in HIV treatments. Daylilies have been used for centuries as an arsenic counterpoison. Elderflowers are used as an expectorant. Lilacs have anti-malarial properties. Those are just a few of the medicinal uses of flowers. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has a website dedicated to the research that has been and is being done with flowers. And flowers are high in nutrients, particularly vitamin C and antioxidants. A flower a day will keep the doctor at bay!
Q: You co-own the very popular confectionery studio Mali B Sweets. Do you use edible flowers in the cakes and candies that you create? Is there a flower that is most popular with your customers?
MB: At Mali B we switch up our offerings all the time, but we do have several flower-based offerings year round. We have a collection of edible flower chocolate bars, made with roses, elderflower, violet, hibiscus, and lavender. We use flowers in our chocolate lavender biscotti and several other cookies as well. Flowers find their way into some of our sweet offerings in the form of buttercream fillings or jam centers. Our most popular sweets made with flowers are the hibiscus raspberry chocolate bar, the violet almond chocolate bar, and the lavender and elderflower marshmallows.
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