As cauliflower steaks and tacos filled with cauliflower continue to populate our menus, how has this once-forgotten vegetable, previously left to discolour at the bottom of the fridge, become a hero ingredient at Sydney restaurants?

“When I was growing up there was cauliflower and white sauce, that was it. Now we’ve got cauliflower rice,” says Heath McInerney, who has charted cauliflower sales for decades as co-owner of Fresh Fellas at Sydney Markets.

The last few years have seen the rise and rise of cauliflower, as the unlikely vegetable star spread across menus and became a hit on social media cooking slots. McInerney credits cauliflowers’ health qualities, cooking versatility and now year-round availability as major factors behind the spike.

“It was [previously] only available for three to four months a year,” McInerney says. But with growers now located across the country, and improved transportation, there’s no shaking the ever-present cauliflower.

When Ouzo Bar & Dining launches in Darlinghurst in coming weeks the modern Mediterranean restaurant won’t miss the cauliflower craze, pairing the once-humble vegetable with Jerusalem artichoke on its opening menu.

Ouzo chef Ignacio Morales explains restaurant kitchens love cauliflower as a central ingredient because it has its own strong qualities while absorbing the flavours of whatever you cook it with.

“It makes it very easy to create a powerful, flavoursome dish. The texture is also quite filling, so it works well as a main vegetarian option … [it] is one of my favourite dishes and a little bit of a passion project. We marinate it in paprika oil and garlic to give it plenty of flavour and a beautiful colour. We then roast it in the oven and finish it over the wood fire to give it that element of smokiness,” Morales says.

How has the cauliflower reached this elevated position across menus? The cauliflower steak gained notice at The Duke of Enmore in 2019, in recent months we’ve spotted cauliflower steaks on the menu of a pub in Wollongong and a restaurant in the Southern Highlands. It’s difficult to pinpoint one moment for the veg, but hatted Chippendale restaurant Ester’s roasted cauliflower with almond sauce might be its seminal Sydney statement.

Where the mushroom was once the undisputed champion of vegetable mains, at Lilymu, in Parramatta, cauliflower is matched with spicy gochujang sesame sauce, while Leo restaurant in the Sydney CBD has dished it up with two cheeses, and the new Cancun Boat Club at Circular Quay offers tacos filled with cauliflower and fermented black beans.

Sydney even had a potential cauli-gate a few years back, when a cauliflower dish at the Art Gallery of NSW tipped over the $50 mark. The dish was evidently so well received, the pricetag barely caused a ripple with diners then used to paying about $7 at the supermarket.

Will the tide eventually turn for the once-humble cauliflower? At former Summer Hill restaurant One Penny Red, chef RJ Lines’ detour-worthy cauliflower with macadamia cream, pomegranate, mint and blood plum dressing, disappeared when the restaurant closed late last year.

Last week, Lines popped up as head chef at a new restaurant, Benny’s Cronulla, in Sydney’s south. “The easiest thing to do would be to put my signature cauliflower dish from One Penny Red on the menu,” Lines says. “I’ve noticed that cauliflower is the vegan vegetable of choice for most restaurants and pubs, so decided to do something fun and a little different.”

The cauliflower pioneer has skipped his signature for a panko-crumbed eggplant schnitty instead.