The Omelette: Every Young Gentleman Should Know How

Before I left for university I was told an invaluable piece of advice: “Every young gentleman should be able to whip up an omelette for a young lady for breakfast.” Years later I still have not forgotten this and I always keep eggs and cheese on hand in case a big breakfast is necessary.

Omelettes in the bistro are actually quite famous. They’ve became a symbol in the same way beef bourguignon and crepes symbolize the bistro culture. They were not just for breakfast either, the bistro was open late and omelettes are good anytime. It is also one of my favorite types of dishes: a kitchen catch all. Meaning that just about anything you have around can go in. You have some braised pork shoulder from dinner a day or two ago? Throw it in. Some odds and ends of different types of cheese? Throw them in. Some sautéed vegetables? Throw them in. There are many competing ways on how to make omelettes, this is but one way that I enjoy.

Use fresh eggs. Use cheese. Those are my ground rules, the rest is technique: Don’t salt the eggs before they cook, it makes them tough. Scramble them with a whisk to inject air and keep them fluffy, plus you want them fully scrambled. Cook the omelettes on medium high, show no fear and understand that sometimes they look crappy. If that’s the case you call it a hash. No one will know and if they poke fun at it: no breakfast for them.

Ingredients:

3 eggs, scrambled with a pinch of pepper

Small knob of butter

Insides: whatever you want as long as it is ready to eat (nothing raw). In this omelette I used two sliced sausages from a previous breakfast, a handful of grated cheddar and some chives. Keep the ingredients chopped small so they reheat quickly in the pan.

Method:

• Preheat a wide frying pan on medium high. The wider the better. I used a special omelette pan once: it made no difference.
• Throw in the chunk of butter and swirl the pan around so it is fully coated. If there is extra butter hanging around after the pan is coated, flip it out.
• When the butter has stopped bubbling, pour in the eggs. Work quickly with a heat proof spatula to work around the edges. The secret is to move the cooked egg away from the edges and then tilt the pan a bit to bring liquid egg from the centre to the edge to fill the void from the egg you just scraped away. You’ll start to get little ruffles in the centre of the pan as the egg bunches up.
• When you have run out of egg to fill the voids on the side of the pan (the omelette should still be moist looking just with no running egg) add your ingredients down the middle.
• Here is the hard part: Using your spatula lift one end up and over the filling. Tilt the pan in that direction and fold the other end up and over. Using the tilt to help you out, roll the whole omelette over so the seam is down. Let it cook for 30 seconds longer to seal it up and then roll it onto a plate.
• Salt the omelette and serve with hot buttered toast.