Anthony Bourdain's Simple Tips For Restaurant Quality-Scrambled Eggs

The late chef and beloved TV host Anthony Bourdain had a lot of strong opinions on just about everything. Whether it was hating any food trend with a passion or scoffing at Guy Fieri's haircut, the man felt deeply about a lot of topics. And when it came to creating the perfect scrambled eggs, Bourdain had a foolproof recipe and technique. In a 2016 interview with Insider Tech, Bourdain discussed in detail the best way to make creamy, tender eggs.

Bourdain's years of cooking brunch at Les Halles did nothing if not make him a master at eggs. First things first: focus on the egg. "I'm old school," Bourdain said in the interview. "I believe that a scrambled egg, or an omelet for that matter, is principally about the egg." Eggs and a healthy dose of butter are all the ingredients you really need. You'll want to first crack the eggs in a separate bowl, making sure no shells get in, then beat them with a fork — but don't overbeat them. You should still have "ripples of white and yellow," he noted. 

Not letting whipped eggs sit out should be amongst Anthony Bourdain's best cooking tips, along with oven-baking your bacon and having proper knife skills. It's notable that he didn't include any cream or water in his scrambled eggs, just salt and pepper. "I just don't feel that milk or cream adds anything. Again, it's about the egg," he told Insider. Bourdain argued that dairy dulls the flavor of scrambled eggs and can muddy the texture. Butter provides that richness without diluting the flavor of the egg.

"You want a good, fresh egg," Bourdain advised. That's because older eggs can break down and create a runny scramble. Bourdain elaborated that you shouldn't whip eggs until just before you cook them. If the eggs sit, there's a good chance they'll get an "odd greying, stippling effect that you probably recognize from greasy spoons," he said. As chef and food writer J. Kenji López-Alt revealed on Reddit, that's likely because the proteins in the egg are starting to denature. "They darken when raw because light passes through the denatured proteins more easily than the tightly wound ones," López-Alt wrote, though he also argued that "It doesn't change the color of the cooked eggs.

Bourdain wasn't above adding a little extra to scrambled eggs on occasion, however. On an episode of "No Reservations," he put together a scramble that included bacon, scallions, and sour cream (perhaps skirting that no-milk rule), while musing that one of his biggest claims to fame over his long and varied career was this recipe, which he'd first put on a menu back in the '70s. He had plenty of commonplace advice, too, including the tip to always crack an egg on a flat surface to avoid introducing bits of shell into the scramble. Upon tucking in, Bourdain reiterated his love for the meal, saying, "It ain't much, scrambled eggs," but that, after a bite or two, "I feel like a human being again."