FOOD YOU'LL WANT TO INHALE

By Laura A. Locke

Aroma is the central ingredient at Frisson, San Francisco's newest culinary hot spot, where both dishes and drinks are infused with fragrance. Chef Daniel Patterson has created recipes that use essential oils derived from such ingredients as saffron, grapefruit and cilantro. Scented syrups, sugars and salts are melded into dishes like green tea-- scented chicken soup and pork chops with coffee fig sauce, as well as specialty cocktails like the Fountain of Youth, whose ingredients include lime vodka, fresh cucumber and honeydew puree and essence of spearmint. Peers say Patterson is breaking new ground in the way he employs scent to amplify flavor. "Aroma really is the most central part of how we experience food," says Patterson, who has co-written a new book on the subject aptly titled Aroma. --By Laura A. Locke