Flowers are for eating too, as Hong Kong restaurants show

When one thinks of flowers in restaurants, it's easy to assume that the place to find them is inside vases as a decoration, but, increasingly, chefs have been putting petals on their plates.

"If some plants are edible, then flowers are too, with some exceptions, of course. It's up to the chef to evaluate its tastes," says Nurdin Topham, founder and chef at Nur, where edible flowers often feature on the menu.

Seasonal eating has become something of a buzzword in recent years, and it is a concept especially relevant to flowers, which can go from bud to bloom in a matter of days. Topham says, "adding flowers to dishes can connect us to nature".

At The Krug Room at the Mandarin Oriental, edible flowers are "locally sourced and the seasons reflect what varieties are available," says the hotel's executive chef, Uwe Opocensky. One of the dishes where flowers are showcased is the "Picnic", made of nine different smaller dishes. At least six types of flowers are used in the dish, including coriander bloom, cat whiskers, orange nasturtium, yellow mustard, as well as the various varieties of pansy and wood sorrel.

In Topham's dish of slow-roasted maitake mushroom, he also uses a number of flowers, including dill begonia, borage and nasturtium. He says flowers can add texture and phytonutrients to a dish, adding that borage flowers have a "cucumber, oyster and savoury" flavour.