Cooking with flowers is not entirely a new concept. Truth be told, Indians have been biting blooms since time immemorial. I remember eating ghee-soaked temple sweets that came pressed with velvety petals of rose flower. There were summer afternoons when I spent drinking glasses of freshly brewed hibiscus sherbet. And occasionally, when my mother spotted white and pearly drumstick blossoms at Dadar’s vegetable market, Konkani flower and potato cutlets were a definite hors d’œuvre that evening.

Cold Chamomile Lemonade. Pic/Bipin Kokate