Food stories

Scrambled Eggs 2.0: How Michelin Chefs Fry an Egg

Omelet or hard-boiled? There are dozens of ways to cook or fry an egg. Seven Michelin-starred chefs reveal how they like to eat their eggs best. Heston Blumenthal: ‘Always tap your eggs on a flat surface, otherwise you’ll get pieces of eggshell in the bowl.’

Foto van culinair journalist Sabina Posthumus

door Sabina Posthumus

Oeuf en cocotte

French-American television chef Jacques Pépin (a good friend of Julia Child) shows how he makes his oeuf en cocotte. The ramekins don’t go in the oven, but in a pan with a layer of water. Pépin encourages everyone to adapt his recipe to their own taste. ‘The first time, follow the recipe exactly; the second time, you only need to look at it briefly, and after that you start changing things. Add a little tomato, something else. See, that’s how cooking works.’

Truffle egg

More in the mood for an egg with truffle? Eneko Atxa of restaurant Azurmendi in Spain (three Michelin stars) reveals his secret. Perhaps not for a sleepily hungover Sunday-morning breakfast, because it involves an injection needle and truffle consommé heated to exactly 75 degrees.

Smoked egg

Truffle egg, easy. Time for something more complicated: smoked egg with wild mushrooms. And Michelin chef Marcus Wareing (Marcus, Knightsbridge, London) shows exactly how to do it. (Start watching at 2:10).

Cyber-eggs

Cyber-eggs? A raw egg yolk, a heaped spoonful of caviar, a little vodka and some shallot… all wrapped in a piece of transparent film. With ice. When Michelin chef Davide Scabin (Combal.Zero, Italy) explains it, it sounds completely logical.

Deep-fried egg

Wild garlic, potato and egg, with broccoli purée. The eggs are deep-fried with thinly sliced potato ribbons wrapped around them, and to finish it all off, Michelin chef Simon Hulstone (Torquey in Devon, Great Britain) adds a few wild garlic flowers (start watching at 1:20).

Perfect fried egg

‘Fry the perfect fried egg for me,’ Ron Blaauw asks people who have just started working in his kitchen. Not easy at all, he says. To begin with: don’t use ice-cold eggs straight from the refrigerator. And then fry them in butter, never oil. The chef prefers two yolks, because it looks cheerful, and leaves the yolks intact. A little sea salt, a little pepper. ‘That sensation of the soft yolk with the crunchy sea salt is delicious.’