吃过鲜花没? 来尝尝味道吧

They are normally found in gardens and in vases, but now it's fashionable to have flowers on your plate. Restaurant chefs and innovative home cooks are discovering that the plants' colorful petals add a touch of elegance to a dish. Producers of edible flowers are still hard to find. But there is one small company near Marseilles in France who is supplying petals for food to local markets.

Virginie Makeff started out growing organic wild flowers for floral arrangements. But Virginie's flowers not only look good, they taste good too. Her greenhouses may look a bit untamed, but she is determined to grow an organic product and control weeds without using chemicals.

Virginie Makeff, flower grower said, "The advantage is that we do not use pesticides or chemicals for our flowers, out of respect of the soil. So the fewer chemicals you use the better it is. And also the Earth gives back, it is very generous when you respect it and It gives you back a hundred times more, so there are no problems."

Her husband, Philippe Makeff, sells their edible flowers at the organic market in Marseilles. One of Philippe's regular clients is La Passarelle restaurant, situated in the old part of the city, near the docks.

The restaurant's owner, Patricia Castillo, likes to cook with the colorful flowers. Every day the menu changes according to what flowers and vegetables are available. The secret to a successful flower dish is to keep the recipe simple, in order not to overpower the delicate taste of the flower.

Restaurant owner Patricia Castillo said, "This is a nasturtium, this is a pansy, this is a dahlia, this is a courgette flower, that's all we have because it's early in the season, so these are pretty much all the edible flowers at the moment, but there are also roses but we don't have them yet."

It might seem like the latest culinary trend, but in fact flower cookery has been around for centuries. Edible flowers were especially popular during Queen Victoria's reign, and they have been found in Chinese, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures.