Break an egg

By JANN MALONE, Media General News Service
Published: March 27, 2008

Here’s the most important thing you need to know about making an omelet:

If you mess it up, don’t worry. “It’s just an egg,” Andrew Melton said. “Don’t cry. Keep trying.”

We already like this guy, and he hasn’t even started cooking.

Melton, assistant to the chef at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, agreed to break a few eggs last week to show us how to cook an omelet.

Readers have asked us for more stories on cooking techniques, and we’re obliging.

What’s there to learn about omelets? Well, Melton had a few tricks up the sleeve of his chef’s jacket.

Even though he was cooking in the museum’s kitchen, he approached the project as if he were cooking at home. He even brought his own pans: 8-inch, nonstick sauté pans from a restaurant supply store. “Find one in the phone book—they’ll lead you to the perfect omelet pan.”

Melton is all about technique, and he’s made enough omelets in his 16 years in food service to make fixing one look easy.

But he’s also encouraging: To master omelets, all you have to do is make a lot of them. “Practice makes permanent,” he said several times.

“If somebody tells you that you did a bad job, their priorities need reconsidering. Just that you’re in the kitchen trying counts.”

Besides, the resulting “bad job” may not look pretty, but it still tastes mighty good. Just call them scrambled eggs.

How to make an omelet:

Step One: Working in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts kitchen, Andrew Melton uses a table fork to lightly beat three eggs. They’ll become a one-serving omelet. Don’t forget to add salt and pepper—and hot sauce, if you wish—at this point. Why add anything now? “You’re building seasoning as you go through the preparation.”

Step Two: Over medium-high heat, it takes only about a minute to cook an omelet. “Keep the eggs moving in the pan,” Andrew Melton said. “Stay focused on what you’re doing. Do not walk away from the pan.” He constantly shakes the pan to redistribute the eggs, rolls the unset eggs around the edges. “You want the base to be fairly done before you add the fillings.”

Step Three: Don’t even think about heating that omelet pan until you’ve got your filling ingredients ready. In restaurant kitchens, this is called “mise en place.” It’s critical at home, too. You know this if you’ve ever reached the point in the recipe that calls for adding the cooked and crumbled bacon and realized you, um, haven’t cooked it yet. “Do the legwork first. It’s everything in cooking.”

Step Four: Once the omelet is ready for filling, you decide whether you’re making the classic French (folded in thirds) or the American (folded in half). For the French, put the filling down the middle. For the American, put the filling on one side. Use a spatula to fold, then slide the omelet onto the plate. Use the same spatula to fix ragged edges, if necessary.

Step Five: You want the omelet nice and light, not dark brown. Dark brown equals tough and overcooked. Just like the filling ingredients, garnishes and sides—bacon, buttered toast and asparagus—should be ready before you start to cook the omelet.

Send suggestions for other cooking techniques you’d like to learn to Jann Malone at (804) 649-6820 or .