About this variety
If parsley is the workhorse of the herb garden, chervil is its quieter and more refined cousin. One of the four French fines herbes, with soft lacy foliage and a flavour that sits somewhere between parsley and tarragon — sweetly aromatic with a gentle anise note.
It is a herb of finishing rather than cooking. The delicate aroma is destroyed by prolonged heat, so it goes on the plate at the last moment: over an omelette, into a spring soup, folded into butter for grilled fish, scattered through a green salad.
Unusually among culinary herbs, it actively prefers cool weather and a bit of shade, which makes it genuinely useful for the awkward corner where rosemary and lavender sulk. In July heat it bolts within days, so sow it in spring and again in late summer rather than fighting the season.
