Alfred Hitchcock's Favorite Breakfast Featured One Of His Worst Fears

For some, it may be hard to imagine being afraid of a certain kind of food. Phobias, though, come in all shapes and sizes, and there are tons of different kinds with varying explanations and backgrounds. Perhaps even tougher to fathom is actually eating a dish where the main ingredient is something that gives you the heebie-jeebies — not just eating it, in fact, but loving it enough to deem it one of your favorite meals. Maybe a little bit of fear-facing was just par for the everyday course for a horror legend like Alfred Hitchcock.

The filmmaker favored quiche Lorraine for breakfast. The reason that this is a little odd is that Hitchcock hated quiche Lorraine's main ingredient. In fact, he found them absolutely disgusting. As Hitchcock told journalist Oriana Fallaci in 1963 (via The Telegraph), "I'm frightened of eggs. ... That white round thing without any holes, and when you break it, inside there's that yellow thing, round, without any holes ... Brr!" the director shuddered. "Have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid? Blood is jolly, red ... but egg yolk is yellow, revolting. I've never tasted it." Maybe Hitchcock never tasted egg yolk in its raw state, but he was apparently able to overcome his fears to eat them whipped up into fluffy, buttery quiche Lorraine. That might have something to do with the fact that his quiche Lorraine was prepared by his wife, Alma Reville, whom Hitchcock considered a fantastic cook.

It's understandable that Hitchcock formed such a predilection for quiche Lorraine. To make a classic, straightforward quiche Lorraine, you need a pie crust, a mix of eggs, heavy cream, and milk, chopped bacon, and salt, pepper, and nutmeg for seasoning. Other go-to recipes for effortless quiche Lorraine include directions for adding cheese, too, and you can also work in any variety of veggies. Knowing how many eggs to use to make a perfect quiche is all about the egg-to-cream ratio, which is one egg per ½ cup. The result is a flaky, airy, slightly crisped crust with a creamy, buttery, fluffy filling bursting with salty, savory bacon. 

The quiche Lorraine that Alma Reville made and Hitchcock adored called for four eggs and was seasoned with cayenne, so the director's favorite meal had a bit of a kick. The cayenne seems like it would nicely balance the eggs' butteriness with just a little heat. However, due to the filmmaker's ovophobia, or fear of eggs, actually watching his wife make quiche Lorraine would have probably scared him as much as he had said in the past that viewing his own movies did. Being around Reville while she was cooking the dish would have required him to see those eggs in their natural form. Perhaps her quiche Lorraine was just so good, Hitchcock was able to forget that eggs were the star of the show.