Sunnyside up? Well done? We all make our fried eggs a certain way, but how does this differ around the world? We gathered 10 chefs from across the globe to cook up their country’s version of fried eggs.
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00:00You're about to see, you're about to see, you're about to see, ten different chefs, from ten different countries, make fried eggs.
00:07A fried egg.
00:15A quintessential American breakfast is bacon and eggs.
00:18Frying eggs is all about time, control, heat, fat, how you make them, how you crack them.
00:24There's a system for everything.
00:26I'm putting it on medium heat, not too low, not too high.
00:30We're cracking them in here first so that the yolk doesn't break and that the shell doesn't get in the pan.
00:36And then you're going to melt your butter, but not brown your butter.
00:39And then you're going to gently pour the two eggs right in the pan.
00:42I like the ceramic pan because it doesn't stick.
00:45I want to bring this down a little bit because I see it's moving a little fast.
00:49Then I want to season my eggs. This is highly seasoned from high up.
00:53You can see that the edge is getting a little bit crispy.
00:56The ceramic pan makes them really nice and loose.
00:59And then I'm going to lower that heat a little bit more.
01:02The theory behind the heat is that I want to kind of start them off where I get the edges a little crispy and I get those whites moving.
01:08And then I want to lower the flame so the rest of the whites cook right around here.
01:13You want to kind of get that albumin all cooked.
01:16It's the white of the egg and the yolk is going to cook from underneath.
01:20I don't like basting it because then you take the yolk and you cover it and then it gets opaque.
01:25I like the egg to hit certain parts of the pan.
01:28I don't like them in one place.
01:30You see now that's really where I want this almost perfect.
01:34Now you could see how I got that little crispy edge on the bottom.
01:38I like really like seeing the yolk.
01:40Beautiful, fully cooked white, little crispy bottom, seasoned properly.
01:46Excellent. Egg-cellent.
01:48Two perfect fried eggs.
01:52So in Chinese cooking sometimes when we say you need a hot wok, generous oil,
01:56high heat cooking is actually a great way to prevent your eggs being overcooked.
02:01We only cook it for a few seconds.
02:04So the egg yolk will be really still running.
02:07I'm heating the wok and I'm going to add some oil.
02:09We want to wait until the oil is very hot.
02:12So I like to wait until the oil is hot enough that you just see one wisp of the smoke.
02:19Otherwise it'll become too hot.
02:21So you'll see the blister of the eggs because of the moisture and the protein in the eggs.
02:27When it meets the oil, the water in the egg white converts into steam.
02:32That's why it bubbles.
02:33The whole process takes about 10 to 20 seconds.
02:36Egg white has a really crispy texture.
02:40And then the taste will become a little bit kind of like a nutty,
02:43little nutty crispy flavor.
02:45The Chinese name of this egg actually means the eggs resemble the blooming lotus flower.
02:52A little bit of soy sauce, finely chopped scallions.
02:56Congee and then pickled mustard.
02:59Perfect crispy egg white with creamy egg yolk.
03:05So good.
03:08My fried eggs is called an oeuf miroir, egg mirror in English.
03:15A thin pellicule that is part of the egg white that's going to cover the yolk and make it shiny.
03:21It's going to look like a mirror.
03:23So clarified butter is a meltdown the butter to take away the white milk, we call it, inside the butter.
03:30That's what actually burn in the pan.
03:32So I take it away so my butter is clean. It won't burn.
03:35So here I choose a medium temperature.
03:38We don't want to rush because eggs cook fast.
03:41More temperature, more dry they get.
03:43It's going to cook in, I would say three minutes.
03:46I have some beautiful farm eggs.
03:48You can just crack the eggs in the pan.
03:50That works too.
03:51I'm just fancy.
03:52So I'm going to add my two rings.
03:54We crack one egg in each ring.
03:56You just want a little bit of salt.
03:58We don't want to cook the yolks with the salt and pepper right on top.
04:01So now I'm going to put the eggs in the oven.
04:04To finish cooking the egg white, having that shiny pellicule on top of the yolks.
04:10Nice, you can see on top of the yolk, this egg white, very shiny, thin pellicule.
04:16So the yolk is still very soft. It's not cooked.
04:19Two eggs for lunch is perfect for me. I got enough.
04:22Perfect. Delicious. Bon appétit.
04:28I'm going to make medamayaki.
04:30Japanese style fried egg.
04:32Medama is translated to English as eyeballs.
04:36Once you cook an egg, it's going to look like an eyeball.
04:38Medamayaki is a simple dish starting with the bacon.
04:41We're going to use the bacon fat.
04:43I started with a cold pan and I'll season it so that the fat will be lended.
04:47Using meat products is something that's not game meat.
04:51Is very new to a Japanese culture from 1920s.
04:55So this is what makes it youshoku.
04:57Youshoku is translated to English as Japanese Western food.
05:01Put the eggs on top.
05:03Now I'm going to pour some hot water.
05:05So steam is going to cook the entire egg from outside.
05:09So this one I'm looking for at the bottom little crispy.
05:12And the top very soft and as close to raw as possible.
05:16Japanese cooking is all about the vibrancy of a color.
05:19Every single dish has a certain color that's expected.
05:22Egg dish is going to be one of those things.
05:24It's going to have a hue of yellow, white, and brown.
05:27And you're going to have greens on the side.
05:29Salt, pepper.
05:30If you're going to eat Japanese fried egg, you should eat with soy sauce.
05:34This one is, to me, it's a perfect medamayaki.
05:37I like to eat the whole egg in one bite.
05:40This is the proper way.
05:41Delicious.
05:42Delicious.
05:43So the fried egg I'm making today, it's huevos en hojasanta.
05:47This is the hojasanta.
05:48It's a leaf endemic to Oaxaca.
05:51And I'm going to cook the eggs on top of the comal.
05:54They're going to be cooked on top of the leaf.
05:56The comal, it's one of the staples of Mexican cuisine.
06:00It's made of clay.
06:01It has like pores.
06:02And once you put it on a heat, it expands.
06:05So when you cure it and you put the cowl on top, it covers all the surface.
06:10It makes like a smooth surface for your comal.
06:12This is the original nonstick pan.
06:14It's a very healthy way because it doesn't have any fat or any oils.
06:17The leaf adds a lot of beautiful flavor to the dish.
06:20It has its own profile.
06:22I don't know how to compare it to the other leaf.
06:24A little bit of salt.
06:26The texture of this egg stays soft.
06:28The crispy part here is the leaf.
06:30I'm rotating also the leaf so it gets cooked evenly.
06:34When it's done, I want to see the white part of the egg being cooked like here.
06:38Our fresh tortilla.
06:40Hoja Santa with the eggs on top.
06:42Add some queso fresco.
06:44And some salsa with chile morita.
06:47You hear the crispiness of the hoja.
06:49It's very good.
06:53If you have a fried egg in Nigeria, you get it a little different from the fried egg in America.
06:58We don't do sunny-side hop egg anywhere in the country.
07:02Trust me, I can guarantee you that.
07:03Most Nigerians will tell you when you come to food, they want it well done.
07:06We don't go to a restaurant and order medium-real steak.
07:09It has to be well done or medium-well or something like that.
07:13Okay, the first thing I do when I'm frying my egg.
07:15I like to steam my vegetable first.
07:17Onions.
07:18Scotch bonnet.
07:19Very spicy.
07:20Grape tomatoes.
07:21When you broke your egg earlier, before you start frying your egg, and you leave it for like 10 minutes, 7 minutes, it allows the egg to be fluffy.
07:30Do you know why?
07:31I refuse to be a food scientist.
07:32I'm a chef.
07:33It's my techniques, which I learned from one of my ex-girlfriends.
07:38And one of the secrets, allow the oil to boil.
07:40Not too much so that the egg will not turn black.
07:43But boil very well.
07:45This is where the flavor comes from.
07:47From the vegetable.
07:48So if you know my technique, trust me, it's going to be fluffy.
07:51I don't even want it to be brown.
07:52I want it white.
07:53Some people like to use just a drop of oil.
07:55More oil will not kill you instantly.
07:57So this is it.
07:58Done.
08:01Lord almighty.
08:02It's really very good.
08:05Okay, so today I'm going to make a very simple egg dish called sujuklu yumurta in Turkish, which means eggs with sujuk.
08:14This is the sausage made of beef and then mutton fat or sheep fat.
08:18The sausage is so flavorful and it has lots of salt and lots of pepper in it.
08:23This is definitely the bacon and egg, but Turkish version.
08:26As you see, there's a lot of fat coming out of this delicious, delicious smelling sausage.
08:31Go a little higher.
08:32These eggs aren't going to get so crispy.
08:34It's not fried like Chinese people do in a wok or something.
08:37We're using the fat of the sausage.
08:39So we're not going to get so much texture.
08:41We just want a nice sunny side up egg.
08:44We love runny eggs in Turkey.
08:46I actually just lowered the temperature a little bit.
08:48Okay.
08:49I think our eggs are done.
08:50Everything stays kind of soft.
08:52I'm really not looking for anything crispy.
08:55The goal is for us to just make sure the whites are cooked, our sausage is cooked and the yolks are runny.
09:02As you might notice, there is no plates here.
09:04This dish always comes in the pot that it's cooked in.
09:07And this is how traditionally it's eaten in Turkish families.
09:10Everything comes to the middle of the table and shared family style.
09:14It's such a rich flavor.
09:16Really unbelievable.
09:17Delicious.
09:19The dish that I decided to do is called Kima Pau Anda.
09:22Kima means chicken mince. Anda means egg.
09:24Pau is bread.
09:25They're basically like little tiny buns.
09:27So this version has the bread and on top of it we put cooked minced chicken, kind of like a sloppy joe.
09:34Top it with a fried egg and it's a great breakfast.
09:36So I'm going to use ghee for my eggs.
09:39Ghee is basically clarified butter.
09:41All the milk solids are removed and it's basically pure fat.
09:44The ghee has to be white butter.
09:46So it's just like when you take heavy cream and like you start whipping it.
09:51The first white solid color that you get that is white butter.
09:54Eggs are not vegetarian in India.
09:56We can eat butter, be vegetarian.
09:59Milk, cheese, paneer, all vegetarian.
10:02But eggs are not vegetarian because they carry life according to us.
10:06One thing about doing great fried eggs for any Indian is that the oil or the ghee has to be like really nice and hot.
10:13And when I put the eggs in there, the white has to get like really, really nice and crunchy and brown in color.
10:20Lower the flame and let the whites kind of cook.
10:23I think he's great for cooking eggs.
10:25One, it smells delicious, has a higher burning point.
10:29Unlike butter where it starts burning and starts having that taste.
10:32So do you see how the white is done really well now?
10:35Not moving.
10:36That's it.
10:37Then I'm going to pop the egg on top.
10:39I like to break this and get a little bit of yolk on my bread.
10:42Multiple layers of textures and flavors.
10:45So good.
10:48The pat that I'm using is a tagine pat, which is the way that we back home cook everything.
10:54A giant people, we love butter.
10:56That's for sure.
10:57I can do butter all day.
10:58Start medium low.
11:00Keep it covered because it's clay pat so it gets warmer.
11:04Everything will be cooked at the same temperature.
11:06All right.
11:07So I'm going to start cracking some eggs.
11:09We don't want the butter to burn.
11:11So I'm adding some salt, some pepper, some secret spice.
11:16We have the cumin, which I love the cumin.
11:19And this is when the magic happen is I close this and I let it cook.
11:24For me, I like the clay pat because it just keep the whole flavor together.
11:29And even like usually like fried egg, like if you do it the French way, you have to flip it.
11:34And with this, you don't have to flip it.
11:36It just steam over.
11:37It cooks over.
11:38Once I see that the whole top is almost cooked, I just put it higher.
11:43The color with the spices.
11:45So good.
11:46You can hear it now.
11:47I think it's almost there.
11:49Some cilantro.
11:50Wow.
11:51No, but it's so good.
11:54This is so good.
11:55And look at the bottom.
11:56It's perfectly cooked.
11:58I also make my own harissa.
11:59It's red pepper.
12:00It's a spicy sauce.
12:02It's really smart to use a tagine pat because the food will stay warm.
12:07Once you turn it all off, it's been like still cooking for another like five or ten minutes.
12:11When I stopped the cooking, I was at over easy.
12:15And now I'm like completely over medium without any fire.
12:18Perfectly cooked around it.
12:20No plates.
12:21You don't need plates.
12:22So good.
12:23It was so delicious.
12:25This is the perfect fried eggs.
12:28Bologna is a dish that's very popular in Ecuador.
12:31You could have it for breakfast.
12:32You could have it for lunch or you could even have it for dinner.
12:35Bologna is a green plantain smashed with cheese, pork belly.
12:39It always comes with two fried eggs.
12:41I personally like the egg that the white is cooked.
12:44The yolk's still running.
12:45We're going to use a nonstick pan.
12:47We're going to cook with regular oil, but we're going to put a little bit of lard.
12:50Now lard is very common in Ecuador.
12:53The flavor is intense.
12:54And with the bologna, it goes perfect because we actually use pork belly.
12:58So this is using the lard from that pork.
13:00We're going to try to do like a medium, a little bit of oil.
13:03If you use only lard, it's going to burn.
13:06Oil gives it more resistance.
13:07So now I'm going to go ahead and put the egg.
13:09Once the white starts cooking around the edges, we're going to baste it with the lard and the oil.
13:13Some people prefer the crusted edges around the egg.
13:16I personally don't.
13:17And as you can see, it's almost done.
13:20And then you can lower the heat a little bit.
13:22You want to separate the eggs.
13:23And there you go.
13:24What we have here, we have bologna.
13:26We have chicharron and cheese.
13:28And we have extra cheese on top.
13:30We have two sunny side eggs, a little salt and pepper cooked in lard.
13:33And here we have some pickled onions, lime juice, salt, pepper, and a little bit of diced tomatoes.
13:38The way you eat this dish is you want to combine everything together.
13:42You're tasting the lard.
13:44You're tasting the chicharron, the creaminess of the cheese.
13:47You're getting everything.
13:48It's delicious.
13:49Oh my God, it's so good.
13:51Delicious.
13:53Perfect.
13:54That's a really good bite.
13:56It's very good.