3 Ingredients Anthony Bourdain Never Added To Scrambled Eggs

As Anthony Bourdain shared in his magnum opus "Kitchen Confidential," making scrambled eggs was part of his culinary career since its conception in his twenties. His ultimate scrambled egg tip comes from a 2016 interview with Insider Tech, when the chef-slash-writer was in his sixties and armed with a lifelong understanding of The Art of the Egg.

When he made scrambled eggs, Bourdain wanted the egg itself to shine. "I'm old school," Bourdain told the outlet. "I believe that a scrambled egg, or an omelet for that matter, is principally about the egg." When the chef-slash-writer was making breakfast for himself, Bourdain preferred his scrambled eggs "baveuse," aka with a wet finish. But, this has more to do with technique than with extra ingredients — and adding unnecessary weight to the pan was a practice Bourdain was very against. Water, milk, and cream were a trio never to be spotted in his scramble.

"I don't add water, I don't add cream," said Bourdain. "I just don't feel that milk or cream adds anything. Again, it's about the egg. You're not making a quiche here." He did, however, season his eggs with salt and pepper, and cook them in a pat of butter. In such a stripped-down preparation, ingredient quality matters. There's no milk or cream to hide behind. That's why Bourdain said opting for "good, fresh eggs" is crucial to a good scramble (we have a few tips for buying the highest quality eggs, for the record).

The first ingredient in making knockout scrambled eggs the "old school" way is a hot pan: "Not too terribly hot, but hot," Bourdain explained. From there, Bourdain cracked his eggs into a small cup and beat them with a fork, taking care not to over-beat. At this step, explained the chef, rely on visual cues. Those eggs should be rippled with yellow and white streaks; if they're sporting a solid monochrome yellow, you've over-beaten. After beating, the eggs get immediately transferred to the preheated hot pan, which should be loaded with "plenty of hot, foaming whole butter." Allow the eggs to cook and form into a soft puck, then push them around the pan in a gentle figure-8 pattern to fold without agitating them too much. "Very, very simple dish," said Bourdain. "But, like a lot of really good simple things, more often than not, people find a way to overcomplicate them and screw them up."

"Cooking breakfast and brunch professionally really kind of ruined breakfast service for me for a long time," Bourdain once admitted to USA Today. Yet, this over-exposure to breakfast-making didn't kill the chef's love for the humble egg. To rock the breakfast table, juxtapose that stripped-down scramble with breakfast potatoes and a stack of bold lemon ricotta pancakes.