To a brilliant chef like Anthony Bourdain, there is a whole science behind the simplest dishes, even the omelette!

How To Prepare

This recipe is from Appetites: A Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain (published in 2016), with photographs by Bobby Fisher.

Crack fresh eggs into a small bowl as you usually do. Then, season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste, and do not add milk or water.

Beat the eggs well (without overdoing it) using a fork just before cooking, not even a minute before.

Unlike what you aim for in scrambled eggs, you want a rippling texture between the white and yolk – not strips of runny egg white, but not a smooth, homogeneous consistency.

You know what? Just beat until it is uniformly yellow. And no more.

Heat a little bit of butter in a nonstick pan, and make sure not to brown it.

Once it's bubbling, quickly add the eggs and move them around slowly with a heat-resistant rubber spatula. You can also use a fork just like Jacques Pépin does.

Move the pan in a figure-eight pattern to draw the uncooked eggs to the pan's center and north, which will let the empty spaces in the pan become filled in with the uncooked egg.

You have to Incorporate the egg splatter from the edges, and do not allow any part to cook more than the other parts.

Never Flip the omelette!

You want the center of the omelette to keep its moisture when you turn off the heat – the French call it baveuse.

Plating the omelette is a crucial step, but it is not hard to do.

Protect your hand from the heat using a towel and grab the pan by the handle in a V grip from the bottom.

Then lift it up. Keeping the plate in the other hand, tilt the cooking pan onto the plate, flopping the cooked omelette onto the plate so that it folds shut on itself.

If you're feeling like filling your omelette, just cook the dry ingredients such as ham, onions, or peppers. You can do that by placing them in a pan with some butter before putting the eggs in, cooking them with the eggs as a part of the omelette.

You should gently lay any ingredient that oozes (like cheese) into the center of the eggs right before turning off the heat and plating.

Unless you're like Anthony Bourdain, you should try to cook no more than two omelettes at once. But let's face it, no one will ever be like the legendary chef!