THE FRAGRANT PANTRY

For Frances Bissell cooking with flowers is not a fad or a fashion, but a natural way of cooking which reflects the seasons, and which owes much to English culinary traditions going back over centuries. In these pages you will find recipes for preserves as diverse as myrtle-scented figs, peach and lavender mostarda, rum and jasmine mincemeat, wild garlic flower pesto, mango, jasmine and lime kulfi, elderflower, cucumber and lemon gin and “gorgeous gillyflower grappa.” You will also discover how the delicate taste of rose petals can transform raspberry ice cream. And you will learn the way in which fresh edible flowers or floral extracts can be used to create exquisite preserves.

Frances Bissell is the author of many books and was The Times' food writer for thirteen years. Her articles have appeared in numerous publications in Britain, and she has been widely featured in the international press, including The New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, Boston Globe, Le Figaro, Bangkok Post and El Diario de Jerez, and magazines such as Taste, A la Carte, Victoria and Food Arts. She has written and presented two television series based in the West Country and appeared on a variety of TV shows in North America.

She has received the Glenfiddich Award for Cookery Writer of the Year in Britain, while her Book of Food won a James Beard Foundation Award in America. Frances Bissell has been guest chef in some of the world's leading hotels and restaurants, including the Café Royal Grill Room in London, the Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, the George V in Paris and The Mark in New York. She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts.