Magnolias Are in Bloom. It's Time to Eat Them.

New York Times

17-04-2025

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Stay Here
A Tranquil Hotel at the Edge of Joshua Tree National Park
By Jessie Schiewe
Just 15 minutes from Joshua Tree National Park, an arrow-shaped sign beckons drivers off historic Route 62 and down brush-lined roads to the Mojave Desert's newest accommodations, Hotel Wren. Initially built in the 1940s as a motor lodge, the 12-room hotel in Twentynine Palms, Calif., that opened in March offers kitchenettes and private patios that open onto the desert, along with access to a saltwater pool, hot tub and native plant garden. A two-and-a-half hour drive from Los Angeles and three-and-a-half hours from Las Vegas, the adults-only property was remodeled with an emphasis on tranquillity. The rooms, which feature pitched ceilings, vintage décor and furniture made in Joshua Tree, are absent of TVs. Though the original midcentury carport remains, the bones of the buildings were softened with hand-troweled plaster, corners were rounded and the floors were replaced with flagstones and tiles embedded with fossilized plant material and animal tracks. The on-site bodega, Windsong, is stocked with wine and provisions, including organic Italian pasta and tinned fish. There is also a community pantry with free herbs and seasonings, and the complimentary breakfast includes eggs and locally made bagels. The less-visited north entrance to Joshua Tree National Park is close by, but guests can just as easily take in the area's rugged beauty from their rooms. Rates from about $330 a night, hotelwren29.com.
Smell This
Marin Montagut's First Fragrance Channels Summer in Sicily
By Camille Freestone
The Parisian illustrator and designer Marin Montagut is known for his fanciful objects and romantic aesthetic. His work, whether it's a porcelain jug or a hand-drawn postcard, prioritizes craftsmanship and often references the past. Now he's releasing his first eau de parfum, L'Eau Douce. Four years ago, he began attempting to encapsulate his fond memories of Sicilian summers in a fragrance. Collaborating with the nose Maïa Lernout, who has worked with Dior, Kenzo and Burberry, among other fashion brands, Montagut began with the scent of orange blossoms. He then added white musk to evoke the smell of freshly washed linen strung out to dry in the sun. Notes of mint, lemon, fig and bergamot round out the perfume. For its packaging, Montagut used marbled paper, a signature of his brand, to create an illustrated box. Each bottle is decorated with a gold medallion featuring two hands that can be removed and worn as a necklace. 'I wanted to give a gift in a gift,' he says. Montagut's name, Marin, has Latin roots pertaining to the sea, and L'Eau Douce, fittingly, translates to 'freshwater.' From about $190, marinmontagut.com.
In Season
The New York Chefs Making Magnolia Blossoms Last
By Ella Riley-Adams
On a drizzly April afternoon in Brooklyn, the New Jersey-based forager Tama Matsuoka Wong pulled up to the Prospect Heights restaurant Cafe Mado with a bounty in the back of her van. One of her produce bins was filled with plastic clamshells that held dozens of pointy pink saucer magnolia buds. Her chef clients 'are always wanting flowers,' she says. And in the northeast, saucer magnolia is 'one of the earliest blooming,' a herald of spring that typically emerges in March and lasts about a month. The petals have a gingery taste and a texture similar to a squash blossom. Wong foraged the buds in Pennsylvania and Maryland at the start of the season, before making her way north to New Jersey. Cafe Mado's chef, Nico Russell, is preserving the flowers in sour honey. He plans to serve them in a dessert with buttermilk and local strawberries when the latter is in season around June. The restaurant's bar team is working on a nonalcoholic cocktail that combines amazake, a Japanese fermented rice drink, with magnolia tea. Wong also provides the buds to Flynn McGarry, the chef at Gem Home in NoLIta and the forthcoming Hudson Square restaurant Cove (scheduled to open this fall). He's been soaking the petals in vinegar and plans to serve them 'like pickled ginger,' he says, with crudo at Cove. The Brooklyn-based chef Hannah Musante collected her own flowers from a friend's backyard, then stuffed them with sourdough toast ice cream. She covered other buds in sugar to create a syrup, and used the leftover macerated flowers to fill a tart shell that she topped with crème fraîche and dried thyme flowers. 'The first products of spring are always so exciting,' she says.
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