Lavender Design + Cuisine: October 2023

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

The Art of Cooking & Baking with Culinary Lavender!

Culinary Lavender

Lavender is a popular culinary herb, celebrated for its unique aroma and delightful floral, slightly-minty taste, which can elevate your favorite dish with an unforgettable flavor profile. It's vital, however, to use organic culinary lavender that is hand-harvested and completely free of pesticides to ensure safety and quality.

Culinary Lavender Tips:

Cooking & Baking: A tiny amount goes a long way and dried lavender buds are significantly more potent, so reduce by half (e.g., 1/2 tsp fresh = 0.25 tsp dried). Always start with a small pinch to achieve a subtle, aromatic finish rather than a perfume-like taste.

Flavor Pairings with Lavender: Lavender's lovely fragrant flavor beautifully complements a range of sweet and savory culinary creations, including fruits such as strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, pear, peach, apricot, nectarine, apple, persimmon, lemon and orange.

Delicious Ways to Enjoy Lavender: Baked goods, chocolate, fruit syrups, and elixirs (perfect in sparkling wine and champagne aperitifs), salad dressings, beurre blanc, ice cream, gelato, tarts, galettes, compote, marmalade, confiture, sorbet, Provençal-style soups, cassoulets, stews, and much more, just let your culinary imagination fly!

Happy Cooking and Baking!

Chef Ellie Lavender
Plant-Based Mediterranean Chef
Culinary & Wine Pairing Instructor
Event Caterer
Lavender Design + Cuisine

Join my network on Facebook & Instagram to receive recipes and information

on upcoming cooking & wine pairing classes and special events!

A Chef's Delicious Journey!

Mediterranean Cuisine Vegetables & Herbs

My journey into the culinary world started with a single, surprising declaration. At just seven years old, I announced to my bewildered parents that I was a vegetarian and, from that day forward, would only eat vegetarian food. My mother, with a stroke of genius, didn't argue. Instead, she handed me a life lesson: ‘It’s time for you to learn how to cook so that you can make any kind of dish that you like.’

That moment set me on a path to a classic Provençal vegetable stew—Ratatouille. My first dish was a vibrant blend of seasonal vegetables, capers and olives, a meal that first originated in Nice, France. I still make that dish today, using organic produce and fresh herbes de Provence from my own garden. It's a taste that always feels like coming home.

That early passion has since evolved into a rich, culinary niche: plant-based Mediterranean cuisine.

My cooking is a celebration of organic, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients, which I transform into delicious, farm-to-table foods for my personal chef clients, catering events and, of course, my family and friends.

The joy of being in the kitchen and experimenting with new flavors and recipes hasn't faded. I know that the best dishes are only as good as the ingredients you start with and I'm still just as excited to create something new as I was all those years ago.

Happy Cooking!

Chef Ellie Lavender
Plant-based Mediterranean Chef
Culinary & Wine Pairing Instructor
Event Caterer

Plant-Based Mediterranean Culinary Services

Join my network on Facebook & Instagram to receive recipes and information
on upcoming chocolate, culinary & wine pairing classes, and special events!