Thanks to cooking reality shows such as Masterchef or The Great British Bake Off, (as well as, Instagram, of course) a new food trend has come to be well-established.
This time, we are talking about edible flowers. That’s right, what was once expected to be found in your backyard, is now making your food look like a beautiful flower garden. Instagram has been flooded with pictures of plates garnished with petals and edible flowers in recent months, making it one of the biggest food trends of the moment.
Just like growing your own plants, you can grow your own edible flowers. Whether it is in your yard, on an allotment, or even on the window ledge, you can get those pea shoots growing in no time. The trend, which first came to the scene at high-class restaurants, was predicted to become a foodie favorite since 2014.
Market research analysts, Mintel, noted how celebrity chefs were using edible flowers in their dishes and knew restaurant goers were soon to catch on. It seems as though their predictions were right since, now, it is set to be one of 2018’s biggest food trends.
Even the Royals have taken a liking to this new trend, with the big reveal of the upcoming royal wedding cake said to be a lemon elderflower cake decorated with fresh flowers. Michelle Bowley, who runs Dornoch-based Saladworx states, “It’s not dinosaur food any more. People would think it was just a decoration and leave it on the side of the plate at one time. But it’s completely different now.”
“The general public like them for weddings and wedding cakes, special occasion meals,” says Bowley. “Then, of course, you have the chefs, so we do lots of special orders for chefs when they’re doing functions. But edible flower are more widespread now and people are being much more creative with their uses”. She continues, “generally people are just looking for new ingredients, so flowers have been put on the menu.”