CANCELLED – Roses to Rosewater to Cakes

About This Event

April 18
1:30 – 3:30pm
Instructor: Judy Polinsky
$35 Arboretum members
$45 non-members (Includes Arboretum Admission)
*For Arboretum members, remember to create your Arboretum account to get the discount at checkout. For instructions on how to create an account click here. To create an account click here.

Roses don’t only smell good – they are good to eat, too! Join Judy Polinsky in a hands-on baking laboratory as she shows you how to select roses, make rosewater, and use roses and rose water in recipes you will make yourself!

Originally from New Jersey, a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from Temple University and a Master’s in Theatrical Management and Design from NYU allowed Judy Polinsky to follow her dreams to California where she ended up working at CBS, MGM, and SONY. After retiring, she began volunteering at the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino. There she met Clair Martin, Curator Emeritus of the Rose Garden. With his permission, and free range of one of the world’s premier rose gardens, Judy was encouraged to follow her twin passions of theater and history by interpreting historical foodways and the social and material culture of the American War for Independence.

Her extensive collection of original and reprint Colonial era cookbooks gave her the source material to develop accurate period menus for her historical presentations. Her curiosity piqued by the frequent use of rose as a flavoring led to her experimenting with roses – and a new passion for 18th Century rose flavored desserts was born! Her experiments were so successful she was invited to contribute 18th Century rose flavored desserts for the Great Rosarians of the World event several years running, for which she and her friend and assistant Myriam Hu were awarded the coveted “Friend of the Rose” award.

She is the author of “Delicious Rose-Flavored Desserts”; a book of historical period recipes interpreted for the modern kitchen. She now gives lectures on roses and rose desserts, 18th century foodways, and in her spare time continues to research and develop historical recipes. Judy is married and lives in Burbank, California.