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Sorbet: Herb- and Flower-infused Ices
Plants & Gardens News Volume 13, Number 1 | Fall 1998
by Elizabeth McGowan
Ice Cream Oeuvre
When Michel Platz opened Out of a Flower, a gourmet ice cream and sorbet company, his mother was his toughest customer. "She couldn't understand why, with all my restaurant experience, I wanted to make ice cream," recalls the garden-loving entrepreneur. In 1990, the French-trained chef turned in his toque at the tony L'Entrecôte restaurant in Dallas to devote his energies full-time to creating frozen confections that star ingredients more often seen in bouquets than desserts. It wasn't until Platz supplied Pope John Paul II's entourage with his award-winning edible flower- and herb-infused sorbets during the pontiff's 1995 visit to the U.S. that he received his mother's blessing as well. After all, it had to be a special dessert to earn a papal audience.
Platz's mother needn't have worried that her son's culinary skills were going into deep freeze. With recipes combining unlikely elements (spiced cranberry with port, sage, and pecan; passion fruit and rose petal, for example), the Out of a Flower repertoire is clearly informed by a chef's instinct for flavor nuance. In fact, several of the company's 54 flavors, which are sold at specialty gourmet shops nationwide and directly by the company, evolved from recipes for soups and dressings Platz created while headlining at L'Entrecôte.
Of course, Platz needed to refine his technique to work with a frozen medium, and he's learned some tricks of the ice cream trade over the years. He's also added some innovations of his own. Wine, he discovered, prevents iciness in sorbet; pepper brings out the flavor of fruit. Some flowers and herbs work best when strained out of the preparatory mixture; others add zip when sprinkled throughout the finished product. "The flower must have a strong flavor and aroma or you'll be left with nothing after the process of marinating," Platz explains. He recommends nasturtiums, roses, snapdragons, and begonias. Rose geraniums are a particular favorite: "They give a nice color and you get a lovely fragrance in your mouth," says Platz. Then again, you don't want too much of a good thing. Marigold, for example, will overpower its fellow ingredients. "It works as a vinegar," Platz warns, "but in a sorbet it's too strong and bitter."
Though his business has mushroomed from the seminal days when all of his flowers and herbs came from his own Dallas kitchen garden and he hand-delivered his products, Platz still uses only fresh ingredients and creates all Out of a Flower recipes himself. Two of his sorbets (the best-selling peach and champagne with mint, and passion fruit and rose petal) have taken home top food-industry awards.
But even a master chef has a flop now and then. Platz's personal nemesis is the pansy. "No matter what color pansy we start out with, the finished product always ends up off-purple," Platz sighs. "It tastes wonderful, but customers just don't want to eat blue."
For information about where to buy Out of a Flower products, call (800) 743-5696.
Flower Power
The staff of Plants & Gardens News put a sampling of Out of a
Flower offerings to the taste test. The reaction to the five sorbets ranged
from the enthusiastic "killer" to the less-than-complimentary "must be an
acquired taste." Following are the results on a scale of 
(no competition for Cherry Garcia) to (I'll never eat Cherry Garcia again).
Peach and Champagne with Mint
"Wonderful aroma, good taste, very, very peachy!"
Passion Fruit with Red Rose
"Tart, very agreeable fragrance of rose."
Strawberry, Sweet Rosemary, and Black Peppercorn
"May be an award-contender, but tastes like bubblebath to me."
Red Cactus Pear
"Surprising banana flavor with a mild aftertaste of pear."
Rose Geranium Blossom
"Superb! Tastes like India!" or "Nasty"—P&G readers, take your pick.
Christopher's Green Tea
"Very intense, roasted flavor, stronger than you usually get in a Chinese restaurant."
Lavender
"Delicate creamy flavor; subtle, but nice."
Elizabeth McGowan is a former editor of P&G News.