romanesco broccoli was something i have seen before but i have never eaten it.  i cooked some the other day and i ended up researching it.


it’s an edible flower, a version of the cauliflower. i love its vivid chartreuse colour and the self-similar patterns of the natural fractals of its shape. each bud is made of alike smaller buds and together they form a logarithmic spiral. this is cool mathematics and it is widely found in nature although the shape is usually not as striking as this one!

wiki says that: “in computer graphics, its pattern has been modeled as a recursive helical arrangement of cones” and “the number of spirals on the head of romanesco broccoli is a fibonacci number“.

romanesco broccoli

romanesco broccoli

pretty cool, huh? it has the golden number so its symmetry is beautiful to our eyes. try it raw or use one of the thousands of recipes out there.

for extra brownie points: i’m pretty sure the shape will get your kids eating it! enjoy!

romanesco broccoli

photo credits: google search

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