The Los Angeles-based perfumer Ezra Woods grew up in the 1990s surrounded by food and flowers. The florist business his parents ran — the Woods, which catered to celebrities and the Four Seasons Hotel — was across the street from Mezzaluna, the Brentwood trattoria that vaulted to notoriety during the O. J. Simpson trial. The family had an account at the restaurant, so it became the place where young Ezra developed his palate. Now 35 and the co-founder of the boutique fragrance brand Régime des Fleurs, Woods has found two new ways to combine his obsessions: He makes edible scents and he cooks with edible flowers. “I love nothing more than flowers,” he says. “There’s something magical about being able to eat something so beautiful.”
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Flowers inspire everything about Régime des Fleurs, from its name to its scents, and Woods isn’t picky about which ones he puts in his salad. While the flavor is generally mild, the visual impact is anything but.CreditJulia Stotz
To be clear, most of his fragrances — ones that conjure up palo santo and musk — are not meant to be digested. But his latest scent, Citri, a “citrus mélange,” available starting June 5, is the brand’s second edible product and a companion to the Los Angeles chef Lori Stern’s new cookbook of the same name. “You spray it on food or drink as a kind of finisher,” Woods says. “It’s very aromatic, obviously, but melds well with a lot of different flavors.” (He envisions it spritzed over pasta with bottarga, or even just oysters.)
When Woods cooks at home for himself and his boyfriend, he likes to make a big salad with edible flowers that he sources at the farmer’s market. “I’m all about using cool ingredients,” he says, “because I don’t have great cooking skills.” That said, he’s not too fussy about what kind of flowers go in the mix, and he’s open to tweaking the dressing with Dijon mustard, maple syrup or even Liquid Smoke. What’s essential is using whole-leaf lettuce and at least some floral component, for improving both taste and mood: “I find when I make edible-flower food that it has this crazy energy to it,” he says. “I know that’s woo-woo, but we’re in California, so it’s fine.”
Ezra’s Flower Salad
For the salad
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1 head of butter lettuce or red lettuce
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Any edible flowers (such as pea tendrils, hibiscus petals, rosemary flowers, nasturtium or calendula)
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Pink and/or black pepper to taste
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Zest of 1 citrus fruit (such as Meyer lemon, yuzu or bergamot)
For the dressing
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3 tablespoons infused olive oil or grapeseed oil (such as lemon or pumpkin)
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3 tablespoons vinegar (such as champagne or ume plum)
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3 tablespoons crème fraîche
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3 tablespoons torn fresh herbs (such as mint, chervil, chives, dill or tarragon)
1. Gently peel the leaves off the head of lettuce, being careful to keep full leaves intact. Rinse and pat dry. Arrange half the leaves in a loose ring around the edge of your serving bowl. Repeat this same method inside the existing ring of lettuce, and so on to the center of the bowl.
2. Make the dressing: Mix oil, vinegar, crème fraîche and herbs in a bowl. Drizzle mixture over the lettuce.
3. Using the same method as above, arrange the remaining leaves in rings inside the bowl. The finished product should loosely resemble a rose-petal pattern and hide the dressing. Sprinkle with pepper to taste and grate zest over the top. Garnish with edible flowers and serve immediately.
