Chef Marco Pierre White's Passionate Fried Egg Opinion
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Celebrity chef Marco Pierre White is just as well known for his incredible dishes as he is for his intense personality. At just 33 years old, he became the youngest cook at the time to be awarded three Michelin stars, according to his website. He also helped to mentor a young Gordon Ramsay at his restaurant Harveys, but they've since had a falling out. White recounted that he was yelling at Ramsay for something he did at the restaurant and the "Hell's Kitchen" host lost it (via Express).
"The next thing I knew he was sobbing in the corner, holding his head in his hands with tears rolling down his cheeks," White said. "He was saying things like 'I don't care what you do to me. Hit me. I don't care.'"
Clearly not afraid to share his beliefs, White also received backlash when he said in an interview with the Irish Independent (via The Guardian) that women can't handle the pressure of working in kitchens. Knowing this history, it should come as no surprise that the stern restauranteur has strong opinions about the way food is made, especially when it comes to fried eggs.
White finds harshly cooked fried eggs 'disgusting'
Just like how he laid into Gordon Ramsay, Marco Pierre White didn't mince his words when it came to how he believed eggs should be cooked. In his book, "The Devil in the Kitchen," the restauranteur said they need to be cooked in a delicate way, per Serious Eats. "Visualize that fried egg on the plate," White writes. "Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to see craters on the egg white? ... The answer to [these] questions should be no."
The famous cook explained that despite many people agreeing with this sentiment, they still haphazardly drop their eggs into a screaming hot pan and cook them this way. "And the result ... is an inedible destruction of that great ingredient — the egg," Pierre lamented. "Maybe that's how you like it, in which case carry on serving your disgusting food." In order to create perfect fried eggs, he instead recommends cooking them over very low heat and using butter to grease the pan.
Taste of Home agrees with this method, adding that if you don't cook them low and slow they'll dry out and stick to the pan. Sounds like if you want to make your fried eggs even better, it's going to require some patience, but the payoff will be worth it.