Je cuisine les mauvaises graines

With extensive knowledge of plants and wild herbs, Bénédicte Gory founded Le Jardin est la recette, a project that explores ways of bringing familiar plants into the kitchen.

In this book, she turns her attention to plants that are often overlooked as weeds, as well as those growing naturally in forests, fields, and gardens, presenting 20 species that can be foraged in France and incorporated into cooking.

Featured plants include nettle (Ortie), meadowsweet (Reine-des-prés), sumac (Sumac), linden (Tilleul), fir (Sapin), wild carrot (Carotte sauvage), and juniper (Genévrier).

For each plant, the book explains the best season for harvesting, its characteristics and aromas, before exploring how they can be transformed into 20 different spices and condiments.

Ideas include a cocoa-like powder made from linden fruit, dry pesto, gomasio, and an exotic-style broth made entirely from locally available ingredients, demonstrating different ways of bringing the aromas and distinctive qualities of wild plants into cooking.

The book also features one of France's leading chefs, Thierry Marx. Using the spices and condiments developed by Bénédicte Gory, he presents 20 recipes that demonstrate how they can be incorporated into finished dishes.

Rather than simply introducing wild plants as ingredients, the book follows the entire process from responsible foraging and extracting their aromas to transforming them into spices and condiments and applying them in the kitchen.