Floral Flavors: Masters of Social Gastronomy - #BrooklynBotanicGarden
Last night I attended a “sold out” class at Brooklyn's Botanic Garden, a real treasure located in the center of this most amazing borough of New York. The class was a delight in that it began with a free drink, a choice of artisanal beer, rosé or white wine, a botanical base cocktail or lemon & mint flavored water. This you sipped while strolling through the garden near the lily pond while mingling with other participants. This part of the experience lasted about a hour. We were then ushered into the auditorium for the presentation and given a piece of orange water flavored meringue. The educational presentation was taught by Sarah Lohman and Jonathan Soma, two popular food bloggers.
Long before last night, participants were sent an email from BBG which read: “The same scents that fill our gardens and perk up our perfumes have a long and storied history as part of the human palate! We’ll explore the long tradition of floral foods, including medieval custards scented with jasmine, early ice cream flavored with violet, and American apple pie perfumed with rosewater. Unravel the science behind their unique tastes and find out what exactly makes those flavors blossom.”
We’ll also delve into the secrets of saffron, the world’s most expensive spice. A tiny part of a flower from the Middle East, saffron fetches hundreds of dollars per ounce. We’ll examine the labor-intensive harvesting process that contributes to the high prices and the cheap knockoffs that pollute the market, picking apart both old wives’ tales and scientific claims along the way.
And they delivered on this promise. We learned how very prolific rose water and orange water were used in cooking and in the flavoring of food, a practice invented and perfected by Persians. It seems Persians discovered distilling rose and orange waters adding them to every type of cuisine. They were excellent purveyors of tantalizing the palate; and all good food came from the Persia back then circa 1600’s. They perfected sweets by infusing them with rose and orange water.
Later in history, like a couple hundred years later, vanilla became the flavor that took the place of rosewater and orange water, particularly in the west. I was intrigued to learn that an African child named Edmond Albius was 12 years old in 1842 when he figured out what others could not, that was how to make the vanilla plant propagate. He did this as a slave of Féréol Bellier Beaumon in Réunion and nearby Mauritius. Later in life because Edmond was of African descent he was unable to find employment, despite his great knowledge in botany passed on to him by Mr. Beaumon and the huge impact he had on making vanilla affordable for the everyday person around the world.
Saffron we learned is so expensive because it takes 80,000 pounds of stigmas to make one pound of saffron. Not to mention the labor intensive process of removing the stamen by hand.
Many delicious tidbits about these flavors were shared and it was overall it was a wonderful evening, though a bit long, 6:30-9:00. That aside, I highly recommend treating yourself to some of the inspiring classes offered by the Brooklyn Botantic Garden. Your senses will be ignited. They didn't talk at all about collard greens.. but I couldn't resist sharing this wonderful edible that is planted here between these blossoms at the BBG.Photos from the BBG are from the slides at the presentation.