Put the petal to the mettle: appetite for floral flavours blossoms

With the hyacinth as its motif, this year's Hong Kong Flower Show features an irresistible array of landscape displays, intricate floral arrangements and a pretty profusion of potted plants from the mainland and overseas to mark the arrival of spring.

Chefs have long sought inspiration from blooms. In Chinese cuisine, you'll frequently find flowers - from lotus flower stir-fry to osmanthus jelly. In the West, courgette and squash flowers and wild flower salads featuring peppery nasturtiums and chrysanthemums crop up on menus, as do cakes topped with fresh or crystallised rose, pansy and violet petals.

Lavender is one of the most versatile edible flowers, imparting a flowery essence to everything from honey to creme br?lee. It's used as a herb in savoury dishes, it pairs well with fish and is an alternative to rosemary when roasting a chicken.

Chef Takeshi of Yagura Japanese restaurant at the Eaton Smart hotel believes edible flowers have become more accepted with the rise in popularity of Western-style afternoon tea in Hong Kong, where blooms such as lavender, rose and jasmine are often on the menu, perhaps in the form of lavender cookies or rose-tinged jam. 'To Hongkongers, afternoon tea represents a luxury style of living, so they are willing to explore the potential of edible flowers,' he says.

At Yagura, Takeshi is using hanaho, the flower from the perilla plant, to impart a sweet flavour to horsehair crab leg sashimi and grilled crab shell. The leaves are better known as the Japanese mint shiso. The chef is also using one of Japan's national emblems - a member of the chrysanthemum family, the slightly bitter, aromatic kogiku plant features in a dish of wagyu with kogiku vinegar jelly.

Chrysanthemums are also on the menu at Yat Tung Heen. Other Chinese favourites, osmanthus and jasmine, are used respectively in baked abalone puffs and steamed vegetarian dumplings. Roses bring a sweetness and spiciness to scallops.