Every so often a good old British vegetable needs championing, and I reckon cauliflower’s time has come. Chefs have tried hard – Gordon Ramsay made cauliflower purée with scallops famous, and American star chef Charlie Trotter even went so far as to treat a whole head of cauliflower like a piece of meat: roasting, basting and carving it, and serving it with a luxurious sauce. But the fact is, cauliflower is just not cutting it in the fashion stakes. Last year, Robert Montgomery, Kent’s largest producer of cauliflower, gave up growing it. “Despite all the stuff that is talked and written about eating locally, people are more interested in organic peppers than cauliflowers and cabbages,” says Guy Watson of Riverford Organic, one of the largest vegetable-box delivery schemes in the UK.

Why have we lost interest in it? Part of cauliflower’s problem is that it suffers from girl-next-door syndrome: always around, familiar and nice enough, but nowhere near as exciting as the exotic new kid on the block. “We are so cosmopolitan in our eating habits that the comfortable staple of cauliflower cheese isn’t acceptable any more,” says Watson. “Also, cauliflower suffers from the fact that it can be grown pretty much all year round. The season for over-wintered ones ends around the beginning of May, then we are into June and the new season. Of course, the supermarkets love that continuity, and the Cornish producers [most English winter cauliflower is grown in Cornwall] have done well in organising themselves. They’ve shut the doors on imports and improved the varieties and quality, so the vegetables have a better curd shape, don’t discolour and have better disease resistance, all of which makes the job of harvesting easier. With cauliflower, you have to walk through the fields, cutting and trimming it by hand – pretty hardcore work in the middle of winter. You had to walk through a crop ten times to pick the old-fashioned varieties, but the uniformity of today’s cauliflower means you only have to do it three or four times, which reduces costs. However, in years when supply outstrips demand, everyone finds themselves squeezed.”

Can cauliflower be made sexier? Yes. I’d say get out the spices, and start treating cauliflower as the Asians do, as a fantastic carrier of flavours. However, a more dramatic rethink could be the answer, reckons Andrew Coker of Syngenta, which is aiming to bring orange, purple and green cauliflower to the mass market. “They have been in development for some years and are already in specialist shops throughout the EU,” says Coker. “Cauliflower has traditionally been thought of as a winter staple, a reliable but somewhat boring part of the plate. Although part of the fun of these is that they keep their bright colours during cooking, they are being aimed at the summer market for salads. Consumer tests have shown that the colour makes a difference, especially to children.”

Readers’ queries

Where can I buy seeds for the Italian beetroot chioggia, which slices into red and white rings?

Order from Nicky’s Nursery; around 300 seeds will cost £1.25 (01843 600972; www.nickys-nursery.co.uk).

If you have a food query, e-mail food.detective@thetimes.co.uk

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