So there you are, a famous chef, Antony Worrall Thompson, writing in a magazine distributed all over the UK. You are talking about salads and you recommend the weed henbane, to be “great in salads”.
All well and good you might think.
Okay let’s just check the definition of henbane.
A coarse and poisonous plant of the nightshade family, with sticky hair leaves and an unpleasant smell.
Sorry.
Poisonous?
Nightshade (as in deadly nightshare)?
Unpleasant smell?
Methinks that Antony Worrall Thompson may have made a mistake!
From the BBC
In a magazine interview about watercress and other wild foods, Mr Worrall Thompson said the weed henbane was “great in salads”.
Healthy & Organic Living magazine’s website has now issued an urgent warning that “henbane is a very toxic plant and should never be eaten”.
The chef had meant to recommend fat hen, which is a wild herb.