Cauliflower Steaks Are an Unlikely Victim of the Climate Emergency

Pour one out for a vegetarian menu trendsetter

Ah, the cauliflower steak — the only long-roasted brassica responsible for price war, class war, and the phrase, “The Vegetable Most Likely to Be Mistaken for a Piece of Meat.” It’s been a steak, it’s been wings, it’s been rice. The world’s equivocation of vegetables and meat is normal and fine; your green old kale could never. But now, in a staggering volte-face, the environment turns on its trendy, beige champion: climate emergency has come for the cauliflower.

“Britain is in the grip of a cauliflower crisis,” says the Guardian, as a pincer movement from extreme rain in the U.K. and extreme heat in Europe ravages cauliflower crops in both regions and leaves restaurants looking at paying £3 per cauliflower wholesale. Lincolnshire, the main growing region, saw soil heavily damaged by heavy rain, which could also have knock-on effects when brussels sprouts come into season. Restaurants scrambling for an alternative to cauliflower would have been unthinkable but a decade ago; this is not just a sobering micro-example of the way the weather will break food systems, but also an insight into how food trends, and their volatility, can leave suppliers in the lurch. [Guardian]

And in other news...

• Jamie Oliver says “posh restaurants” would have outlasted Jamie’s Italian. Guess that’s why there are 25 River Cafes.
• In more Jamie news: all of his London restaurants now have new owners.
• The restaurants to revive a hangover in London.
• Maybe grouse is quite bad, actually?
• Labour is calling for a review into driven grouse shooting — the kind that ravages wildlife and the local ecosystem. Walk-up grouse shooting — which is more sustainable — is slowly gaining traction. [Big Hospitality; Guardian]
• Of course Twitter turned Chez Bruce chef Matt Christmas’ sensible point about pre-warning kitchens of broad-spectrum food sensitivities into a needless trash fire. [Mirror]
• Good tweet: