13 Tips From Celebrity Chefs For All Your Egg Needs

There is no denying that the humble egg is the shining star of breakfast. Accessible, affordable, and packed with culinary potential, eggs are served at greasy diners, fine dining establishments, and probably at your own table. They're also packed with protein, and nutrients, and, contrary to popular belief, can help lower your "bad" cholesterol, according to WebMD.

With all the possibilities that abound, it's hard to be sure about the best way to prepare to get the most out of their seemingly boundless potential. According to The Incredible Egg, the average American eats 250 eggs per year, so it's worth doing a little homework to maximize your experience of this unassuming gastronomic wonder. Luckily, we have experts to tell you everything you've ever wondered about eggs so that you never have to suffer through a rubbery scramble again.

Cooking a perfect egg is what sets good chefs apart from great chefs, and in this list, we've condensed the knowledge of some of our favorite celebrity chefs, all of whom have a thing or two to say about how to prepare the best plate of eggs you possibly can. So if you're looking for an egg-celent reminder that you can serve up restaurant-quality eggs at your own table, read on.

Celebrity Chef Alton Brown is known for his use of clever tips and tricks to make ordinary food extraordinary. Not only is Brown the host of the Food Network Channel show "Good Eats," but he's the author of several books, including "Everyday Cook," released in 2016, which outlines his recipe for what he calls "Scrambled Eggs V3.0." What distinguishes this creamy scramble from the rest, Brown claims, is that he adds a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of mayonnaise to his egg mixture before it hits the pan.

Since mayonnaise is essentially just eggs and oil, you might be asking yourself why you would add eggs and oil to a recipe whose ingredients are already eggs and oil. "Since scrambled eggs are essentially an emulsion," he explains to the non-believers, "I figure why not enhance their texture with another emulsion?" And he's not wrong. You'll find yourself enjoying some of the creamiest eggs you've ever tasted. For those of us who are still skeptical about the prospect of a plate of eggs that tastes like mayo, Brown quells the fear, "You'll never know the mayo is in there until you go and leave it out," he says. If you're finding your traditional scrambles lackluster, mayo is the unexpected butter substitute you need to try.

If somebody knows what to do with eggs, it's Jacques Pépin. The famed French chef has a hefty list of accolades, including multiple James Beard Awards and two Daytime Emmys, so when he talks about cooking, we listen. Though you may lack the years of training that make this chef look so perfectly natural with a pan in his hand, anyone can improve their breakfast game by following Pépin's rules for eggs.

It's important to buy organic eggs, the chef stresses. "With eggs now, you can get organic eggs basically in any market," he explains, "and the price is relatively inexpensive. A dozen eggs is [$3 to $5]. The organic ones [are about $1 to $2] more, so it's nothing, in terms of eggs." (Obviously, this was written prior to the current egg crisis, but hopefully eggs will soon go back to those cheaper prices). The quality of organic eggs translates to a heartier, more delicious result. And Pépin would know: He wrote a book called "Art of the Chicken" in which he devotes a whole chapter to egg recipes. You can watch him put his skills to the test in this video, where he effortlessly makes an elegant French omelet and a country-style omelet.

A delicious plate of scrambled eggs isn't just about flavor, but texture. A perfectly seasoned scramble can still be rubbery, dry, crumbly, and hard, which is a travesty that you can avoid by using chef J. Kenji López-Alt's tips for creamy scrambled eggs. The first ingredient that the renowned chef uses for a perfectly fluffy scramble is a tried and tested standby for scrambled eggs: milk. Although some experts claim that you should think twice about putting milk in your scrambled eggs, López-Alt offers another more surprising ingredient that helps eggs retain that perfect texture that we're all after.

Starch, he claims, is the key. Combining starch with eggs before you put them in the pan prevents them from becoming watery because the starch binds with the protein in the egg, which is the easiest way to guarantee a mouthwatering custardy scramble. He learned the tip from food blogger Lady and Pups, who actually recommends using potato starch because it binds faster.

Martha Stewart has a well-deserved reputation as one of the premiere cooking and entertaining gurus in the U.S. For decades, she's offered tips that take culinary creations to the next level, so we felt we had to share her unorthodox method for making the perfect plate of scrambled eggs. The unlikely appliance that she uses for fluffy scrambled eggs is a cappuccino machine.

What Stewart calls the "scrambled eggs à la cappuccino machine" starts with mixing classic ingredients (eggs, salt, pepper, and a bit of butter) in a cup. But instead of transferring the mixture to a pan, she leaves them in the cup and uses the steam wand of her cappuccino machine to heat the eggs and create what she claims are the "softest, fluffiest" scrambled eggs that can be made "in a matter of seconds." You can watch her wow the audience in this video clip from an appearance on the Food Network Channel show "Chopped." It's not the only trick to making Martha Stewart's favorite eggs – she has others, like using clarified butter and using farm-fresh eggs, but it's certainly the most unexpected.

According to José Andrés, cooking eggs runs in his blood. The Michelin-starred chef hails from Spain, where eggs have a starring role in the national cuisine. In an appearance on "The Late Show" with Stephen Colbert, Andrés revealed how he makes fried eggs differently from most people.

After heating olive oil in a pan, he keeps it tilted so that the oil pools on one side of the pan. The eggs poach in the hot oil and then he uses a spoon to fold the egg white over the yolk, which gives them a puffy, crisp texture and a perfectly runny yolk in the center. According to an interview with Bon Appétit, he suggests that if you're looking to take your fried eggs one step further, char some red peppers, remove the skin and seeds, and serve them alongside your fried eggs. This recipe, which was handed down to him by his mother, Andrés calls "life-changing."

Southern celebrity chef Paula Deen isn't exactly known for her heart-healthy creations. So when she revealed the secret ingredient in her scrambled eggs that changes everything, we weren't exactly surprised. In an interview with PopSugar, Deen said that for the most flavorful scramble, you should use equal parts butter and bacon grease to cook the eggs, "so that you have the best of both worlds." The grease imparts a slightly salty umami flavor that takes a plate of scrambled eggs to the next level.

And she doesn't stop there. The other ingredient that Deen swears by to avoid a rubbery texture is sour cream, which gives makes the scramble fluffier. On her website, she recommends cooking them over very low heat (don't be impatient!) and stirring occasionally until the eggs assume the light, desirable texture that we're all looking for at breakfast time. Unsurprisingly, the queen of Southern cooking suggests serving the eggs hot with country ham and biscuits.

British culinary mastermind Gordon Ramsay has earned his reputation as a no-nonsense chef with strong opinions and an even stronger personality. In a now-famous video for The Daily, Ramsay explains that if a cook knows how to "make the perfect scrambled egg, you know they know how to cook properly." And, according to him, there is one ingredient that, when used properly, can help us all make a plate of scrambled eggs like the pros: crème fraîche.

But don't just go add your crème fraîche before you put the eggs in the pan. While the creamy texture and tanginess of crème fraîche help create a delicious plate of eggs, it also helps to cool the eggs, which is why Ramsay suggests adding a dollop right at the end of the cooking process. Use this simple tip to prevent overcooking scrambled eggs, which may be the most common way that amateur cooks ruin breakfast. If you can't get your hands on a tub of crème fraîche, you can substitute it with Greek yogurt or sour cream, but the high-fat content of crème fraîche makes it the best option for deliciously light and creamy eggs.

Poaching an egg is an intimidating task for the common household chef. When you put the egg in the hot water, the egg white can go everywhere and it ends up looking like egg drop soup that when you go to fish them out, there's almost nothing left to put on your eggs Benedict or top your avocado toast. But this need not be the case, as celebrity chef Adrienne Cheatham explains in an exclusive interview after being on the HBO Max show "Selena + Chef."

The secret, according to Cheatham, is to soak the eggs in a mixture of water and vinegar before they go into the pot. Before you heat the water to poach the eggs, use a dish to mix 50% water and 50% white vinegar, crack the eggs in it, and let them sit for 10 minutes. For most people, the idea of vinegar-flavored eggs is not exactly appetizing, but Cheatham says that you "don't have to worry about them picking up the vinegar flavor if you don't go past that 10-minute mark." The vinegar just helps to set the outer layer of protein in the egg white so that the doesn't splash all over the place when you place it in the simmering pot of water.

When it came to cooking, the late Anthony Bourdain was a big fan of simplicity. "Good food," Bourdain wrote in his famous book Kitchen Confidential, "is very often, even most often, simple food," and his approach to eggs reflects this philosophy. In a video for Insider Tech, Bourdain explained that the egg should be the star of scrambled eggs, so the freshness of the eggs is of the utmost importance.

Studies have also shown that farm-fresh eggs have lower levels of cholesterol and saturated fat compared to the store-bought variety, according to Backyard Boost. But the freshness that is the secret to perfect scrambled eggs according to Anthony Bourdain isn't about health, it's about flavor, and fresh eggs are known to have a richer, tastier flavor profile that will undoubtedly up the game of the scrambles at your breakfast table. A couple of other tips from Bourdain: Crack your eggs on a flat surface instead of on the edge of a bowl or pan to prevent shards of shell from getting into your meal, and beat the eggs right before you put them in the pan.

The fact that the latest book published by celebrity chef Molly Yeh is called "Home is Where the Eggs Are" is evidence of her expertise when it comes to the much-beloved breakfast staple. The Minnesota chef and host of the Food Network Channel show "Girl Meets Farm" says that one of her top tips for delicious scrambled eggs contains one surprising ingredient: matzo.

Yeh says that folding the crispy flatbread into a scramble is a perfect antidote to mushy eggs, of which she is not a fan. Crumble the matzo up into small pieces and mix it in with your eggs right before they hit the pan, but don't let the matzo sit in the egg mixture too long or it will get mushy. She recommends adding some salt and eating "out of a bowl in big sloppy bites" for the optimum breakfast experience. Yeh loves the recipe so much that she claims it has become one of her top five favorite foods ever.

TikTok star Bayashi, who was crowned TikTok Japan's Creator of the Year in 2022, has a simple rule for making eggs: Don't cook them. A former personal trainer, Bayashi focuses on foods that are friendly for a low-carb diet, and eggs are one of his favorite ingredients. Although raw eggs are not often on the menu at restaurants or at home in North America, in Bayashi's native Japan, eating raw eggs is so ubiquitous that the country's system for egg production and inspection follows stricter standards than those of many other parts of the world.

Bayashi owes his inspiration to simple dishes like raw eggs served on rice or udon which are commonly eaten in Japan. Not only are raw eggs delicious, but they have helped Bayashi's social media presence because "it is surprising for people overseas who are not used to them," leading to debates about the use of raw eggs in his TikTok videos, which helps generate buzz.

As the saying goes, "everything's better with butter." Whether you like your eggs scrambled, fried, runny, well-done, or turned into an omelet, brunch expert Nigel Kabvina says you can't skimp on one crucial ingredient: butter. While he is agnostic about the best style of eggs, he says that butter makes them all better. In an exclusive interview, the popular food TikToker claims that brunch is "about making sure you are going a bit over the top for yourself," and that includes copious amounts of butter in your eggs.

This method, Kabvina claims, applies to any style of eggs that are cooked in a pan. You may not want to be eating this much butter on a daily basis (or maybe you do), so this extra buttery mentality may be best reserved for special occasions, but when you do add that extra slab of heavenly golden butter, you can't go wrong. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself in the name of flavor.

Alvin Cailan, the founder of the famous Los Angeles breakfast restaurant Eggslut, has been cooking eggs for as long as he can remember. According to Las Vegas Weekly, his "first memory of cooking is eggs," and he's since become a master on the subject. Although Cailan says that "the best eggs are made slowly," he has one piece of advice that can't be ignored: Break the rules.

Cailan says that he cooks his breakfast based on how he feels, and you should, too. While many celebrity chefs swear by a particular ingredient or technique as the key to perfectly cooked eggs, Cailan busts the biggest myth about fried eggs, which is that there it's an exact science. "There are too many rules," he explains. Often, he likes a crispy white and a runny yolk, but other days he prefers a scramble. He usually uses vegetable oil, but sometimes he prefers butter. When it comes to making perfectly cooked eggs, don't forget that when you're doing the cooking, you're the most important chef in the kitchen.