Recently we were talking about the very special character of Romanesco broccoli (or Roman cauliflower like it is also called). Not about the taste, but its patterns. The body consists of sprouts that consist of sprouts that consist of sprouts – all built up exactly the same way. It’s a true and magnificent fractal. Of course I couldn’t hold back to buy one – along with some lemons and a radiccio who both have their very own beautiful shape as well. I was thinking of an Asian style dish – kind of focused in taste and presentation. I do not usually cook this way, but I really loved the feeling.
If you like, enjoy a look at some insights to the beauty of nature – in food as well as in „urban nature“ as seen by Arne:
Here’s my Recipe:
Take a Romanesco broccoli and cut carefully into single sprouts (if you like the style of my plate make sure that the base is cut in a way that allows the sprouts to stand upright). Rasp a bit of (organic, non-treated) lemon zest, squeeze half a lemon and mix the juice and the zests. Cut a small radiccio into thin strips. Chip some garlic, ginger and pepperoni into fine pieces. Blanch the Romanesco sprouts in salted boiling water until they are still al dente. Heat some sunflower oil in a pan and stirr the spices. Add the radiccio and stirr until the radiccio is still a little bit crisp. Add some sesame oil, salt an pepper. Arrange the sprouts and the radiccio on plates, add a little bit of juice and zests on each sprout and serve with Shoyu or Tamari that you have mixed before with roasted sesame seeds. Eat with chopsticks, if you like.
Food with a View 
Great pics, great food! Thanks a lot – so I ‘ve an idea for creating my next week special dinner’s appetizer 😉
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Thank’s a lot! Great if you like to integrate the idea into your dinner – and of course special dinner sounds most interesting :-).
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I especially like the close-up pics 🙂 Recipe souds good. did you have some rice with it :-)?
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Thank you! No, we had it as an appetizer. But you are right, rice would perfectly fit if served as a main course.
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Did you make the romanesco broccoli pics yourself or did arne? what kind of light source did you use? just curious 😉
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It’s nice that you are asking! I did the Romanesco shots myself, but Arne advised me in that, He takes the urban shots and I’m his food shots trainee ;-). I used our film softbox as source of light which avoids over-sharp contrasts. It came from the side, not from the top, to get a nice bright-side-dark-side-effect.
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then i’d like to compliment you again for the brilliant shots! film softbox – interesting. bought or self-made? (we use flash and semi-permeable shaders but always have the contrast-shadow problem…)
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Thank you so much! That’s so very good to hear, as the food topic is new to us.
We bought the softboxes – although it is possible to build them yourself. We have not yet tried to shoot with flash as we are so used to set up steady light in our film work. But we have a flash unit and should give it a try soon. How are your experiences with flash?
As to shadows and contrast: What kind of luminary do you use in your shader? Is it normal bulb or daylight lamp (which has a colder light temperature what already can improve the light situation)? Maybe a higher luminosity might also help. It’s always a struggle with not enough light, too much light, light from the wrong side… ;-).
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Flash is tricky but as i saw on various y-videos can create fantastic pics if you know how to use it…We tried from different angles in slave-mode (side, on the right side behind the camera and so on). We use canvases to reflect the flash but all in all i think we have to try and learn a lot in order to get a decent pic (i hate those hard shadows and the light temperature is always too warm, red-orangy colours the result…i consider a daylightbulb useful…and the softbox. But i am not the photographer (Mister H. is) – i am the cook or at least i struggle to become 😉
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So than you and Mr. H. are good team-players as well, that’s great!
Yes, you won’t regret investing in dailight lamps. And I will take your remarks on flash units and canvases (you cold also try portable folding reflectors) as a reminder to make a start with that!
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beautiful. pure. what did you have for main course?
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Thank you!
We did not celebrate a whole set of meals as we were heading for a transmediale event after this. But of course this is a perfect starter and I will keep it in mind for the next dinner party.
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