The total lack of ability for some to be able to see the big picture, is what must allow them to see this as a sexist put down. The big picture: This is a simple and elemental ways to cook. Gets you close and makes you feel like you are part of the process. Good. This is what makes many people (mostly men) feel so good about grilling, smoking, BBQ'ing, etc. Glad Alice and others are finding this too.
The rest of the big picture. Open fire cooking done indoors leads to the worst kind of 2nd hand smoke, and lung illnesses. Health conscious inventors have been working for years to develop a less toxic and less environmentally damaging way for 3rd world countries to cook. Wood fired cooking is a very inefficient way to produce safe food, requiring far more wood and developing far more negative smoke byproducts, than other ways of cooking. Tastes great yes, but slow, and not very practical in the world that most people life. I don't believe that it is sexist to say that egg spoons,or any other kind of open fire cooking in America, is elitist.
11
What ridiculous nonsense. Is an egg spoon any more pretentious than a wok, a Cuisinart, a Ninja blender? Who cares? Let her cook in what she wants.
7
I’m just so tired of everybody in the US finding the NEED to voice an opinion about anything and everything. What ever happened to living your own life and not worrying quite so much about what everybody else is doing? Is an egg spoon elitist? Who cares?! Just do your own thing, and I’ll do mine. If I find I don’t like what you are doing, I’ll remind myself that it is none of my business, and I hope everybody else will do the same. Or, as a friend says, “you do you.”
12
checked the comments for anyone else bothered by the suggestion that an egg sppon debate is part of the #metoo movement about sexual harassment...Im not going to read through 599 comments but after several pages I want to make the point that groping soneobe, raping someone or holdibg a job hostage for sexual favors is worlds away from any gender bias of cooking on an egg spoon. The author of this article should be ashamed of their trivialization.
9
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=karandi+omelette&source=lnms&t...
using this forever and it gets done in 10 mins!
When you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
Oh please!
My grandmother in Puerto Rico used to cook our eggs the same freaking way pn a big steel ladel with a bent handle
Nothing new just another reapropriated discovery from the contry folk
But that ladle still costs less than ten bucks!
12
Tiny wok by any other name.
10
I can't get my eyes to stop rolling this is such a stupid idea. Also annoying is that she uses charity as a marketing tool. Buy an iron wok spoon for $30 or less and donate $220 to the "Edible Schoolyard Project", if you are so inclined.
12
While I have been a fan of Water's food philosophy for years,and I have utilized her Edible Schoolyard in a public school setting, nothing hits the nail on the head more than calling her out for being pompous and pretentious.
The first time I heard her in an interview I was horrified at how classist and over the top pretentious she was. I was sorry that I had encountered the person behind the book.
Regardless, Schoolyard Edibles stands on it's own merits and it reflects the best side of Water's. Bourdain's description of her as 'Pol Pot in a muumuu' is hilariously on point but must also be put in context with her larger role in making the salad sexy throughout middle America.
11
This method is not uncommon in Nepal, where I saw women use it in "chea pasal" (tea shops) over an open wood fire. They were always delicious with salt, kursani (red pepper) and cumin and fried in mustard oil.
1
Wow. They talk about getting back to nature, but they're so out of touch with it that they don't even recognize the basics.
It's just a personal campfire skillet. They've been around for centuries. In fact, the Roman Army used to issue something similar. You can buy a cast iron version of this for about $20. It's actually far superior to this version because the handle is significantly longer, and is actually bent at the correct angle for cooking over an open campfire. This $250 version would get your arm toasted unless you were cooking in your custom kitchen fireplace. Which is exactly the kind of sucker who this egg spoon is geared towards.
How can they say they're getting "back to basics" when they're using expensive customized and specialized equipment? You want to truly get back to basics, get yourself a 12" cast iron or carbon steel frying pan and use it to cook EVERYTHING...in the oven, camp fire, or any type of range - gas, electric, or induction. It'll blow your mind how versatile it is.
Or, if you're really sold on getting a silly "egg spoon" at least search for "Rome campfire skillet" and save yourself $225.
14
If you want a good laugh look at Fanny's Permanent Collection. Its like goop without the bad medical advice.
4
Here you go, $12 wok ladle would work just fine. I suppose if you already had a fire in your fireplace it might be reasonable to cook an egg that way. Or gee, how about using a really small cast iron pan.
https://www.amazon.com/Home-Stainless-Hand-Tooled-Hoak-Ladle/dp/B005C7QJ...
4
>“There is plenty of silliness out there to make fun of on both sides.”
So lets make fun of it on both sides? Including this?
3
We should all listen to Bourdain over Ms. Waters because he is the pioneer of our mass-marketed foodie culture. He alone is responsible for all the glorious food bloggers, amateur Instagram food photographers, and McDonalds offering Asian street-food inspired wraps!
And what of his award winning restaurant... I can't recall the name.... ??
2
And isn’t cooking over fire - grilling, barbecuing, or cooking over a campfire - considered by many the masculine way to cook? Men who never cook a meal on a stovetop want to be in charge of the production of an entire meal if a wood, gas, or charcoal fire is involved. Men who cook over fire are never attacked by male chefs claiming their culinary techniques are precious or impractical.
Just total sexism.
7
I'm not getting this- why is it sexist to criticize her for cooking an egg in a $250 wok ladle? I don't think people are critical of her just because she is a woman. I think a man who spent so much time, natural resources, and money to cook one egg and then went on about how "It's so elemental. It's really primative." would also be criticized.
6
Since the Slow Food movement has never mentioned the egg spoon, let alone taken a position on it, I am baffled by Severson's invoking of Slow Food--especially in such a gratuitous and mean-spirited way. The international movement is not part of any culture war, and welcomes all who care about traditional foods, and about farming that preserves and enhances human and ecological communities.
7
Take a piece of iron (not steel), bang it into whatever shape or depth you need, attach a safe handle and there you have it.
That wouldn't cost you $250 at any small fabrication shop.
7
When Anthony Bourdain called Alice Waters “Pol Pot in a mu muu” he wasn’t just offering random snark. He was referring to Waters’ directive that people of taste eat seasonal and local food. That’s fine for the California types like Alice, Tony says, but she’s condemning many of us northerners to six months a year of potatoes and cabbage. Does this even occur to her?
Alice Waters has the best publicist in the business. We are always reading about her in the food pages, though she never changes. Waters narcissistically Refuses to admit being influenced by anyone, though her food philosophy isn’t her creation. She a popularizer, a flak. She was never a chef, and doesn’t claim to be.
If you ate at Chez Panisse without knowing where you were, you’d think you were in a nice restaurant, but you wouldn’t rave. Tony is right about Alice. She’s more a creation of PR than anyone else in the business.
9
Schoolyard Edibles did have a positive impact on many school communities though. For me, that is her saving grace. Still, I have to agree with you, her lack of culinary talent is pretty shocking given her renown. Add to that her elitist snobbery and you have a pretty unsavory character!
3
250 for a small frying pan seems a bit steep. This should be available on Amazon for 6.50.
3
I cook eggs often in a tiny skillet over a gas flame. Not a new concept.
10
I take it these “elites” have never been camping in their life. This is how you cook over a campfire. I did enjoy the article though for humors sake.
7
Yeah I've cooked over a campfire before but didn't blog about how cool it was. It was just how you make food.
5
Determined to find out what all the fuss was about, I tried this the other day over red-hot embers with a miniature cast-iron frying pan, a couple of fresh eggs from a neighboring farm and plenty of good butter. It took almost no time at all for them to cook. I quickly slid them onto a mound of sautéed vegetables: they were excellent. If you're grilling anyway, why not give it a try?
7
It looks like a small frying pan to me. It's more expensive than All Clad, but it's handmade. I think it's a work of art, but then I am in three-dimensional design and love handmade things. I wouldn't light a fire to cook an egg, but if the fire were already burning I might.
6
Cooking over a charcoal fire pollutes the air. Would be a move forward in India and Africa to get rid of such practices. But in California....? The hippest of the hip love it. Yuk.
10
Yeah, and just think of all those elitists tailgating with charcoal grills (as well as those effete gas ones) outside football stadiums. I bet they're all California liberals!
3
Egg Spoon = No Nuclear Power Used.
NO NUKES!
3
Gaa! The argument is not about which gender made the spoon. It's about needing "six cords of wood" to cook the egg in the spoon. It's about having a kitchen fireplace and the exclusive nature of such an option.
14
This! Lady blacksmiths are great but do we really need to get so excited about our food? People are starving y'all how about you keep things in perspective.
3
There are 559 comments about egg spoons.
I feel that the end of civilization is at hand.
23
Seriously! I keep thinking this is a spoof or something. What a privilege, to argue about how to cook an egg. There are real issues to discuss, why is this even a topic of conversation?
3
Because we live in an age saturated with media for profit and for the interests of profit. That means a lot of things can't be talked about...at least not honestly and constructively.
2
Yep!
The Culture Wars are so much more entertaining in the Food Section than elsewhere in these pages! Best Food section piece in months--save Melissa Clark videos. But after the laughter and high-minded indignation subsides, serious cooks might note that Lodge makes a 3.5" cast iron skillet for $6.50, 6.5" for $12.75. Alas, no long handle, so improvise!
4
$12 wok spoon
2
Looks like a Chinese ladle....which costs around $10 or less.
12
Bravo to the blacksmiths, especially in that it is a dying art and that many of the smiths are women.
The rest is Much Ado About Nothing. Really. Many people can't afford eggs. Cook them simply, eat them gratefully and get over yourselves.
8
It's not a dying art at all.
1
I am a working blacksmith in Vermont and would like to address the question of craft and its value. Many folks have objected to the price tag for the forged egg spoon. As someone who has made them and know what is involved in their creation I think the price is exactly what is to be expected. I appreciate all of those who do care to own pieces that are not machine made and appreciate the time and craft required to make them. However, I understand why someone may not choose to make the that expense.
As to the question of whether the objections to this tool is sexist, I wonder if the uproar would be the same if the article was about the expensive handmade knife a chef might choose to use. They are both tools created to do a job and to enhance the experience of the user but one resides more regularly in the realm of men and the other of women. It makes me wonder why we honor knives but ridicule egg spoons.
13
@ Blackthorne Forge Marshfield, VT
I think the answer to your very good question lies in the atavistic aggressiveness of man, who would value a well-made knife, dagger or sword more than a finely-crafted spoon. A cook of old could slice in two a carcass of a wild boar with a strong knife, but he could do no more with a forged spoon than ladle out its innards.
2
Not true, a scrapper or spoon with a sharp edge was just as prized for its utility as any knife. Especially when carving up and processing an animal for storage and consumption.
A scrapper could process a hide, bones, and sinew.
This spoon is just the modern version of these tools. Sort of like the sous-vide machine.
3
I'm with Bourdain.
8
I collect antique hand forged kitchen utensils (including a 4 foot long iron fork). Unbeknownst to me, I thought the two "egg spoons " I own were shallow ladles!
The things one learns from NYT.
And Mr. Bourdain, leave us alone. We don't care what you think.
14
Alice Waters remade American restaurant cuisine. Anthony Bourdain? He's a self-promoting publicity hound. He has to pick stupid quarrels to stay alive. Clearly the sexist world of foodie journalism is happy to provide him with opportunities to shoot off his mouth.
11
Now that Waters is involved, it's also NYC vs California - a rivalry where no NY man would ever give an inch.
1
First world privileged problem, if I ever saw one. Don't Chinese cooks use something like this when they cook in a wok? I found something similar on Amazon for US$16. Apparently, it is called a hoak. It even has a wood part at the end of the handle!
10
In traditional Indian cooking, using a cast iron ladle, to season dals is as old as the hills! It was a common feature in kitchens, where one warmed a spoonful of ghee or oil, added the necessary lentils, cumin and mustard seeds, and when done added it to a bowlful of cooked dal — the finishing touches! The logic being cooking in cast iron was good for health.
250$ is a laugh! However there are people who can afford it, and buy they will. For others, there will still be “egg spoons” available for a fraction of the price, and still can have a perfectly cooked egg or whatever!
Power to Ms. Alice Waters if this is a free publicity for her egg spoon.
I respect her as a chef very much.
9
We have a gas stove in our apartment. Isn’t that real fire?
The egg spoon looks like a small cast iron wok.
I got lost reading this article. I don’t see where gender comes into cooking an egg.
If the egg spoon is hand made, then $250 sounds about right. If it becomes popular, then a mass produced one will probably become available for a lot less.
It seems like some people are adjusting to their children growing up and moving out of the house. There are a lot worse ways to spend one’s time.
Wood burning fires produce a lot of air pollution.
S’mores will always be the classic camp fire food.
14
For skillet cooked eggs, the underlying heat source makes little difference and is mostly window dressing; however, the quality of egg and experience in poaching may render an exquisite outcome: with yolk intact, presoak the cracked egg in a small dish with a half ounce of white vinegar. In a sauce pan, boil water, reduce heat, submerge the egg slowly into hot but not boiling water. Allow egg to cook for 4.5 to 5 minutes. Remove slowly with a slotted spoon and place on toast.
Enjoy and forget the nonsense of cooking in a fireplace with ridiculous spoon skillet.
Cooking all foods has more to do with quality of food, experience, and technique. . . not overpriced cookware.
7
Quite ironic that someone has chosen the comments section of this article as an opportunity to mansplain.
8
Julie: 1; Wade: 0
I just think its a beautiful object. But yes, $250 is a bit pricey.
1
Paying $250 for a spoon to cook egg - ridiculous! I might try cooking one in my very long-handled, heavy aluminum soup spoon over the side burner of my Weber (love to cook, do it every night and not afraid to try nutty things). Sexism? No, I don't think so.
During the 1970s I had a boss who delighted in pulling my bra strap. That's sexism/sexual harassment. I got even when he found his foot under the spike heel of my shoe (oops!).
The premise of this article is as silly as the outrage over Heineken's light beer ad (Lighter is Better) being called 'racist'.
5
This is all nonsense. It's not that Francis Mallman wouldn't get blowback bc he's a man, it's bc he's Mr. Outdoor-rugged guy cooking in some Patagonian desert and he's not starting a fire to cook just one egg. If Thomas Keller did it, trust me he'd be mocked just like Alice was.
9
If Jim Harrison did it, and had one of his manly-man friends in Traverse City forge the spoon, we'd never hear the end of it.
First there would be the New Yorker article, followed by a book and then, finally--a MOVIE!
People need to both 1) stop worshipping grizzled men, and 2) stop reflexively needling middle-aged women. Hillary should be president.
22
Yes, the fierce heat the egg is cooked over would be admired.
4
I do not look to the NYT food section for reasonable, easy cooking, or affordable restaurants. In fact i do not recall any review of new places in my Chelsea neighborhood because it is transitioning from "lower middle class" to higher middle class", which means most of old our beloved restaurants have closed and those that have opened are both expensive and pretentious. This article just proves my overall point: I'll keep frying my eggs in a $9.95 ceramic pan!
8
I was reading the print version of this article and couldn't wait to see if it had been opened for comments. Yes! And no surprise that there are already 500+ comments, but only two NYT picks. Everything I had to say has already been said...except, a fond memory: when we used to cook breakfast while camping, we would make eggs in a hole of fried bread on a cast iron skillet. Perfection!
9
Are people really arguing over how people like to cook their eggs? Reality check....
6
With all that is going on in our country and around the world, is this really what The NY Times wasn’t to waste precious editorial resources come discussing ? #fastbecomingirrelevant
1
Yes, and that is precisely why the NYT is so fantastic.
9
In the summer we live in the country in an old house heated by wood stoves and without running water. We go down in the mornings and relight the fire for warmth. Perfect time to make The Egg. And a hand made spoon with soul and history would be just the ticket.
Put me on the waiting list for the spoon.
ps: We are not rich people by any means, solid middle class.
9
Stop egging on these elitists!
9
This was an awful yolk and you should be ashamed of yourshellf.
2
We are a vainglorious and silly tribe and this highlights it in spades. The rest of the world can only shake their heads at us and laugh.
8
Kids go to bed hungry in this nation while others shell out big bucks to cook an egg. We are one messed up nation.
10
On the other hand, there's a blacksmith whose kids can not only NOT go to bed hungry but maybe go to college because someone can pay $250 for an iron ladle.
9
For a dose of reality, watch the re-runs of Jerome Rodale. ... He died of a heart attack on the couch of The Dick Cavett Show after saying that he'd probably live to be 100 years old. Then cook your egg over an open fire.
2
Waters contribution has been to get us thinking about what we put in our mouths, where it came from, how it was produced. I, for one, am eternally grateful for the role she has played (along with many others) in guiding me from the highly processed, overly salty/sugary diet I grew up on to where I am today. Along the way I learned to actually cook healthy, nutrious meals and really enjoy the process. Are egg spoons ridiculous? Of course, but no more self-indulgent than the peculiar habits many of us have.
8
I am glad that a local blacksmith is being contracted to produce these beautiful tools. If people want to spend $250 for an egg spoon, that is their business. They are also supporting a local craftsperson and the ancient trade of blacksmithing. These skills should be supported so they don't die out.
23
The local blacksmith is gut-laughing all the way to the bank.
1
I haven't read all 496 comments, so this may be a repeat. But I saw few comments about the much larger net carbon footprint of cooking over wood or charcoal, as compared to natural gas or electricity. Although these energy sources generate (roughly) the same amounts of CO2 per hour used (including that generated from fossil-fueled electricity generation), you can turn off a gas or electric stove when not using it. You can't turn off a wood fire. So, unless you are continuously cooking over the wood/charcoal fire, you're using wasting lots of energy and creating lots more CO2 per egg cooked. And, as others have pointed out, since most chimneys don't have flue gas scrubbers, it generates lots more soot and other smog-creating pollutants.
10
If you are fortunate enough to afford the silly spoon, fine. My eggs taste just as good and I don't increase my carbon footprint by buring 6 cords of wood for 60 minutes. LOL. And only Bourdain could also come up with "Pol Pot in a muumuu!"
18
If you think that a fire for a spoon takes six cords, you obviously know nothing about building a fire.
A cord measures 4ft x 4ft x 8ft, which if you are arithmetically challenged equals 128 cubic feet.
Even a critic of this method must realize that such a measure makes no sense. While I mostly admire Mr. Bourdain, his over-the-top hilarity is sometimes of no help.
6
Bourdain was exaggerating when he said 6 cords. One cord is 128 cubic feet. A lot of wood. Hey but whatever floats your boat. I agree it is stupid though.
4
I admire both Anthony and Alice but food writing is getting too "precious" and this is just silly.
12
Using an open fire for cooking can cause serious health damages and a huge amount of people around the world die because of that. Please consider the following "fact sheet" from the WHO (world health organisation): http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs292/en/
Besides that it is hard for me to understand this "spoon conflict". If you enjoy cooking an egg with open fire and an iron spoon - do it. If you do not enjoy cooking an egg with open fire and an iron spoon - do not do it. So what?
6
Here's my plan: I am going to buy a $10 frying pan, put an egg and butter in it, cook it on my range, and then donate $240 that otherwise would have been spent on a silly status symbol to a food pantry to feed hungry, poorly-nourished families. The 1%-ers need to stop making up stuff to buy. Give some of the money back to those far less fortunate.
26
You could just skip the frying pan and write that check for $250 to your favorite charity right now. Please post back if you do.
4
Are you really going to make a donation?
Everyone taking part in this discussion knows, or should know, that this is all sort of a waste of time. On the other hand, I often feel that most of life is a big waste of time.
If we believe in an afterlife, then wasting time talking about eggs and hand crafted iron tools seems reasonable, considering that we will have an eternity to occupy ourselves after we die. If we don’t believe in an afterlife, then every lost piece of time spent commenting on food section articles is precious time that could be spent doing something more rewarding, like watching television reruns of The Big Bang Theory.
5
I'll stick to marshmallows.
9
We just spent ten days in San Francisco. Frankly, it's not just Alice Waters, or her egg spoon, which are "precious." It's all of the Bay Area. From $15 burritos, to $2 million homes with old plumbing, it's all over-priced and elitist.
10
It's really not our fault. Throughout our long history San Francisco has been far from precious or elitist.
The problem is that whenever the newest new company gets successful enough (e.g. Twitter's IPO created 1,600 millionaires, to name one only) tons of money are concentrated into the hands of people who can afford to pay previously unbelievable prices for things. And to buy up existing housing so that only the wealthy can afford homes or rent.
I could go on, but will only point out that there are plenty of cheap and delicious burritos around.
4
A $250.00 iron spoon. Anyone who wishes to support the Edible Schoolyard project can probably do so by contributing directly to that project, rather than partaking in an elitist, self-indulgent commercial enterprise. This article reminds me why I let my food and cooking magazines lapse. Food snobs, one and all.
10
Cooking an egg over an open fire in your home with a $250 spoon is gender neutral stupidity. If you happen to do it on a camping trip with an appropriately priced utensil, more power to you.
13
Yah, those blacksmiths should charge the salvage price of the metal used.
Unless we're talking about a golf club or a Porsche, artisan goods, especially when used by women, are just frou frou status symbols.
Give me a break.
6
There is an Ikea child's play cooking set, Duktig, that includes a 3 3/4" diameter stainless wire handled frying pan. Isn't this an egg spoon? It costs $9.99, which also includes 2 other little pots and a colander.
12
I had a friend -- male -- who was an intern at a highly regarded Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurant recount to me, with unbridled admiration, about the restaurant's male chef who insisted on perfect four- hour cooked eggs, who would yell that a dish lacked one grain of salt, who was a perfectionist in every way. I thought, even at that time, that 1.it was a highly wasteful use of energy to cook an egg for four hours (probably in a sous vide machine using plastic bags) and 2. I doubted my friend would have respected a female chef who was so crazy/exacting. Alice Waters changed the way that a considerable portion of American food is grown, the food many of us eat, what food we even have as an option to buy (Even Walmart sells a whole lot of organic food). So if she wants to make her egg in a spoon, let her be.
13
$250 is a steal but you won't steal it from me.
8
I'm with Bourdain. $250 for an implement to cook an egg? And over an open fire no less. Give me a break! Let's all go out and have a fire pit built in our kitchens.
Does the egg look any different? Does it taste any different?
Boy, we've reached the pinnacle of elitism!
13
Instead of fretting over such things, instead of writing about such things, go spend an hour with a friend listening to their heart. Somehow the Kansas song, Dust in the Wind, comes to mind.
4
whoa!
from here, in a kitchen that still uses the humble spoon that held thousands of eggs over the (necessary) coals in grandma's stove and later over those in a parents' waist-high fireplace built to make the egg and lots of other cooking, baking and roasting, done on that stove possible in a modern (still humble) home, all this stuff is past "duh."
where the fire is constant the cooking is a matter of course but still, the egg, whether it comes from the live poultry shop around the corner (then) or the market (now) is not so "slow" or simple, and as for really being "in charge," attentive and responsive is more like it...the fire is in charge, the chef is in its thrall, or else.
the coals, btw, are also good for crisping or toasting the levain (which, it is assumed here, is home-baked over the waning coals of the previous day's fire).
c'mon nyt, the egg spoon is rather a symbol of practical means long before we had "unhealthy.
overly processed food"...what's "unthinking" is all the fuss, as if finding coal in a coal mine is a wonder.
3
This is over the top, even by Portlandia standards.
11
Without Alice Waters to criticize, Anthony Bourdain would not have anything to say. On the other hand, Alice Waters does not need Anthony Bourdain.
13
Sorry, but I am actually the inventor of this way of cooking an egg, which I called the Ladle Egg, invented when I was 13 years old, spending the summer with my family and another family on the Costa Brava, Spain.
As the (correct!) name suggests, the egg was cooked in a ladle in which some butter had been melted, held over the stove's gas burner, and eaten with a crusty bread delivered to us each morning by a boy on a bicycle, who held the loaf under his arm. I cooked the eggs one at a time for the family members.
I've never liked eggs and never eaten a Ladle Egg, but I've always enjoyed cooking and coming up with innovations.
You're welcome!
11
"... a crusty bread delivered to us each morning by a boy on a bicycle, who held the loaf under his arm."
Could you say more about how that worked? Did the boy deliver only one loaf at a time or did his bicycle have a basket? When did you pay for it -- at the time of delivery or were you billed?
1
Pretty sure people were doing this long before you were born.
5
I made one of these in junior high shop in 1971. I still have it and use it camping. Who knew my shop teacher with his huge hands and sausage fingers was so hip. He taught us to be detailed and proud of our metal projects. RIP Zub.
11
If there is any soul in a skillet, it comes from the cook!
4
In any match between Alice Waters and Anthony Bourdain, I'm with Alice every time. She's changed the way we eat, and how we think about food. He's merely commented on it. No contest.
26
I think you should do some research on Jeremiah Tower if you want to know who really changed the way we eat. Regarding Anthony Bourdain, over the past decades he’s brought the world’s food cultures to the screen and opened the minds of many regarding how the world eats-not just the United States. To me, that’s a huge contribution to how we eat and see food.
12
Sorta cool idea actually. The spoons are quite beautiful. But $250? I have a ladle that looks sort of similar in a drawer already. I’ll give it a try next time I make a fire.
4
I much prefer the spoon-cooked sausage with egg McMuffin to one off the grill.
5
i own several "egg spoons"... but they look a whole lot like well seasoned cast iron... good grief.
8
Another ode to the joy of consumerism
20
With all due respect for Alice Waters's organic, sustainable food movement, a $250 hand forged spoon to cook an egg over a kitchen open fire is what is wrong with the world today!
22
Amen to that!
Today, as in you believe income inequality is a new development?
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16659349
Hey, The craftswoman is doing her thing and making a living. If people want to pay that much for such an item, great! I hope rich people that purchase this kind of stuff also give to the poor that's all. Peace out!
2
Reading about the egg spoon and the fuss about it caused me to recall when I was a boy growing up in rural East Tennessee, one of 10 kids. The power company sometimes turned off our electricity, and until we could scrape together the money to pay our bill, my mother--a genius and a magician--would cook our food on a coal-burning stove (in the winter) or over a fire in the backyard (in summer). She used pots, pans, skillets, lids, forks, spoons, egg turners and seemingly every kitchen tool she had in efforts that were alternatively frantic and graceful. (My siblings and I today agree that the cornbread she made atop the red-hot coal stove was the best she ever made.)
But my mother did not enjoy cooking meals that way. She hated it. All of us kids hated it, too; we were ashamed that we were so poor.
So something deep inside me reacted very negatively to the idea that persons use a hand-forged $250 egg spoon and a wood fire in their kitchen to cook an egg. Though I am sure the egg is delicious, the overwhelming image is of folks staining for coolness and faking authenticity.
I guess I am over-reacting to what was meant as a frivolous and fun article, but in some ways, I found the subject matter obscene. Truly obscene.
65
You actually had electricity part of the time, though. My own parents, in south Georgia, grew up without. They didn’t have running water, either. So cooking over a wood stove was nothing new at any point. I guess it is all in one’s perspective, though. My personal opinion is to let this woman do what ever she will, and don’t let it bother you too much. It isn’t worth the time spent stewing over it.
That forged-iron spoon reminded me of my grandfather's dipper in rural Georgia. (This was over fifty years ago.) It was a long-handled spoon with a large bowl; you'dip it into a pan of water--water pumped by hand--when you were thirsty. As there was no plumbing you made do with an outhouse.
3
I admit that the egg spoon looked intriguing for about 5 seconds, then my utilitarian minimalist side sprang to reason. Where would I store it, and why would I buy a kitchen gadget that has a single use since space is at a premium? If Alice Waters can kindly inform us how to make the Spoon multipurpose, then I’d gladly buy one. Until then, I’m happy with my skillet.
13
The wood fire is not good for air quality. Why put more particulate matter into the air? What about Spare-the-Air days, Alice?
14
Wood is a renewable resource. The natural gas used in a gas stove, or the coal used to fuel the electric power plant for your electric stove, is not. Which is more environmentally friendly? I leave that as a question for the reader.
6
To Mikecody, and all those who posted pretty much the same thing: in the Bay Area, where AW lives, wood burning fireplaces are a major source of localized pollution. Wood smoke and associated, acrid particulate matter can get bad enough in these affluent neighborhoods that people with asthma or other breathing issues are actually In danger, just so someone with perfectly good central heating can look,at blazing coals in an ornamental fireplace. This is why we have Spare the Air days, when fireplace use is forbidden. Fireplaces are incredibly inefficient heat sources, since most of the heat goes right up the chimney. I have a fireplace in my kitchen, but I don’t even use it because it is too polluting. I cook on the stove.
24
Wood-burning fireplaces all over the country are being banned. Certainly the reason is not to save trees. It is for what is emitted into the air.
2
As a member of Slow Food's Russian River, the same affect can be had by a cast iron skillet over a Weber BBQ! In the same boat as Alice Waters and a devoted follower except when it comes to the pocket book.
4
"... the same affect can be had by a cast iron skillet over a Weber BBQ!"
You could be right about the "effect", but the animated GIF appears to show the egg pan sitting on the coals. Can you do that with a Weber BBQ?
Yes. Over a full Weber chimney starter sitting on your Weber kettle. It's so convenient you can call the creation the "going back to bed breeakfast egg."
3
Yes, you can.
5
Cooking an egg with a $300 sous-vide gadget? Can't you achieve the same results by soft-boiling it in its own shell?
7
If Veblen was still alive, he'd love this. For anthropological reasons. I'm sure he'd otherwise deplore it every bit as much as Mr. Bourdain.
6
Have no clue how I missed the egg spoon dust up. But we just used to call it campfire cooking.
22
I remember watching that televised moment in Ms. Water's kitchen and getting really hungry for an egg cooked over a fire and served with a slice of hearty whole grain toast. It made my mouth water. Sadly, I knew I would never have a kitchen with functioning hearth but the idea of cooking a simple egg in the most minimalist way on a long metal utensil with olive oil over a fire was fascinating in it's simplicity. It was something I could replicate around a campfire sometime, I told myself using a large metal spoon or ladle.
Turn on many television cooking shows and one can see many gadgets and ingredients that are both foreign and priced out of daily household budgets for most of us who cook to eat, not for profit. So much of the latest cooking trends are indeed drowning in pretense and priced accordingly but who doesn't love to eat and escape into our dreams. It's hard not to be at least a little inspired, if only to imagine for a moment what it would be like to be an adventurous and highly skilled chef with unlimited resources, cooking in a top of the line kitchen for a devoted base of fans.
Ms. Waters, like Mr Bourdain, loves what she does and both are obviously highly talented and creative cooks. Both can inspire those of us who cook or just eat, to be better at both, with our without a $250 hand forged egg spoon.
12
I once worked at a fancy cooking shop and spent most of my paychecks on kitchen gadgets. I love cooking, I love the shopping and the prep, but as the years went by I realized all that stuff wasn’t necessary to be a good cook. Several years ago my son and I were in a fancy cooking store and he remarked “didn’t you used to own almost everything in this store? I remember that.” I told him yes, but I had gotten rid of pretty much everything. What is essential are good knives, good pots and pans, cast iron and a good mixer for pleasure and some top notch cook books. The rest is unnecessary.
33
Fake news on a slow news day! There is no way the egg spoon has moved into the "mainstream." As for a device that's "stirred conflict" or is "steeped in history" or is "a smoldering war" or is a gender specific argument - horse pockey. It's a curiosity that some people think is fun or interesting or a why-not-try-it device or because they like hand forged iron and certainly it's not "mainstream" or ever will it be to buy a $250 hand crafted hand forged egg spoon.
10
This is insane. I can not tell you how many people who have acquired all the latest and live with the ultimate kitchen actually can't cook steam.
21
Much ado about nothing.
8
So unless you are proficient at one handed egg cracking which few people outside of highly skilled cooks are, this is definitely not the way to go as the egg will spill over the side otherwise. No, an egg spoon stand is cheating. So this is not about paying $250 for the wok spatula with a few ball peen hammer dimples, it is all about saying, “Look at me, I can crack an egg with one hand!”.
3
Nn-nn. Here's how to do it: crack the egg into a small bowl first. Then the ladle can be held in one hand while the egg is poured from the bowl into the ladle with the other. You don't have to be a highly skilled cook to do it, just a smart one.
6
I was in E. Dehillerin in Paris when Bourdain came in to film his show. He insisted he had to buy the exorbitantly priced duck press (I seem to remember 1500 euros) b/c it would be the perfect item around which to plan a dinner party. Seemed kind of silly to me.
20
So wasteful.
7
Lodge Miniature Skillet available for $5 right now at Amazon.
16
Bingo! I own one and I love it!
3
I didn’t see anything in the article about what the egg tasted like!
7
Wow, amazing! Here in the rest of the world we've been apparently been using egg spoons to cook over fire for centuries. Except ours is quite a bit bigger and we call them frying pans.
126
Thanks for the perspective! Obviously, most of my fellow Americans will be too busy going to war over their feelings about this issue to notice, but I appreciate your effort!
1
a well cooked egg is Haven
If I had $250 to spend there are about 1,000 things on my list way before I would buy an egg spoon.....and yet...
it's simple. it's hand made. it looks beautiful. it has 0 working parts (so no breaking down and getting tossed out as a piece of junk.) it supports a craft. it looks kinda fun to use.
there are tons of consumer items that rich people buy and promote that I find disgusting and/or that support abhorrent industries and/or that pollute the earth and/or that smack of conspicuous consumerism. how many of those sniffing at egg spoons paid $250 for an article of clothing? a dress? a suit? a handbag? a pair of shoes? a dinner out? a night on the town? a hotel room? tickets to a concert? if so, then get over it.
i don't really see a down side to the egg spoon. it's hardly being forced down anyone's throat and, as another commenter mentions, you could probably figure out how to make something like it, if you so desired. if it's not your thing, don't buy it. so in the end, who cares?
Alice Waters is rich and people seem to have a problem with her because of it. Yet she has done more good with her edible school yard than most people will do in their lifetimes. it's good to question what we eat and to give children a chance to be closer to food production and gardening. I'm sure Bourdain is rich, too. what has he done that's so great that he passes judgement with such assuredness?
14
This is as amusing as it is dumb—no, it's amusing BECAUSE it's dumb. I get Ms. Waters' appreciation of elemental cooking (fire! iron! egg!). But $250 for a spoon isn't simplicity, the blacksmith's skilled effort notwithstanding. At very least, the share to the Edible Schoolyard Project should be 10%.
11
This article is ridiculous. I fail to see the sexist angle. Ms. Waters was introduced to the idea by a man, Mr. Rubel, whose book I became enamored with in 2004 when I had a fireplace included in my kitchen design. I am not a very rich man. People spend their time and money on what ever pleases them and feeds their soul whether it be fishing gear, ATVs, cooking utensils or pigeons on the roof. I rise at dawn, start a fire in the kitchen and clip some rosemary from the bush outside my door. I butter my egg spoon ($60.00 from a local artisan), add an egg, salt, pepper and herb and enjoy it, sunny side up, on a slab of crusty bread. I then read or knit fireside until the sun streams through my windows and the pups whine for their walk. If this makes me an effete, elite, I am a thoroughly content one.
72
This is lovely.
4
That sounds like a perfect day!
4
The sexism comes in the hyperbole chefs like Anthony Bourdain use to describe what Ms. Waters is doing - six cords of wood to cook an egg for one person - and the implicit suggestion that she was doing it for self-aggrandizement - that Leslie Stahl was only worth it because she was doing the 60 Minutes interview. The accusation that the egg spoon and hearth are tools of the rich and elite - yet ignoring the elitism of other food movements, such as the sous vide movement (which has only recently developed instruments that the middle class can afford).
Cooking eggs one in separate pans/containers is nothing new - most chefs prefer to do it this way so they can ensure each egg turns out correctly (when they are not cooked in their shells or scrambled). It's the reaction to Ms. Waters' advancement of this methodology that is sexist. But that is nothing new in the kitchen.
3
Kitchen utensils as art, or art as a kitchen utensil? The Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis is worth the trip in and of itself, much less the view of the Mississippi River. I checked to see if they have an Egg Spoon. They do not. They should add it to their inventory. There's a forged suopspoon that would do in a pinch, but I the handle would be on the short side.
https://www.metalmuseum.org/product-page/forged-soup-spoon
9
Ornamental Metal Museum!
I am so delighted to find out about this. Thank you!
1
Six cords of wood is a lot of wood considering one cord
equals between 220 and 240 logs, so Mr. Bourdain obviously
doesn't anything about building a fire.
Secondly, Ms. Waters is a professional cook, food is
her passion and lifelong obsession, so consider the
egg spoon a work tool that "speaks to her".
People of many professions and trades, or even hobbyists,
have special tools that they feel a connection with. What's wrong with
that?
17
The six cords of wood to cook an egg thing was what’s known as hyperbolic overstatement. What he probably meant was that whenever a restaurant has a wood burning oven, you invariably see six cords of wood stacked outside. He does have a point from an environmental vantage. As much as I love a wood fire, smoke is an issue as well as the harvesting of hardwoods for cordwood. NYC restricts the use of wood burning ovens in restaurants, for example, like for BBQ or pizza, unless it had been pre-existing or otherwise grandfathered in.
8
Re: the six cords of wood, are you familiar with hyperbole at all? :)
8
Immersion circulators are available for as little as $90. How much does a KitchenAid stand mixer cost?
1
I thought this might be entertaining. I was wrong.
14
I just checked Singer’s website, the egg spoon is out of stock.
I wish I'd had an egg spoon in Zimbabwe when the electricity was out for two weeks and we we cooking over a fire in the yard.
7
$250 will get you an entire kitchen-full of fine, heavy, multi-clad stainless cookware, or cast iron if you prefer it. If you really, really need a hand forged spoon to feel adequate, knock yourself out.
11
Doing things like cooking eggs on an open fire for me falls in the category of "things I do when I'm drunk".
27
I call to mind, absolutely nothing beats cooking over the open camp fire!
May I suggest, if you get a $250 Egg Spoon, just skip the purchase of the customary KitchenAid mixer. If not in use you can hang it over the infrared quartz fireplace mantel for increased coziness.
6
Thank you - Well said.
Anthony Bourdain needs a dose of reality. For starters, regarding the "egg spoon," has he never heard of outdoor grills and backyard ovens, as well as ordinary houses by the millions in the United States with fireplaces, especially in scores of states in colder climates?
Additionally, Bourdain has been attacking Waters for years in an endless bitter, jealous rant that would rival anything obsessed over by Donald Trump.
Just do a simple online search for "Bourdain Waters" and you'll come up with many references to his annoying, sexist behavior. The guy also slams vegetarians every chance he gets.
In yet another one of his whining books, "Medium Raw," he wastes space in an entire chapter viciously slamming Waters, who has done a great service for quality food agriculture and healthy eating.
Waters's remarkable philosophy about food, the importance of where it comes from, and why we should respect boutique farmers, has filtered down from her Berkeley restaurant to typical American supermarkets.
I guess Bourdain forgets when supermarkets carried only iceberg lettuce, white mushrooms, and chemical-laden apples. He certainly contributed nothing to changing that. It was Alice Waters who rescued American food.
30
Bourdain has gone from raw and salty to self absorbed pontificator. I.e. interesting to boring. Stick that in his egg spoon!
9
Well said. I find Bourdain to be entertaining at times. Although lately his snide attitude and preposterous new show that presents him as a cultural guide is too much to take. On the other hand many of the finest meals of my life have been at Chez Panisse. And, as you say, Water's has revolutionized how Americans think of food. I think Bourdain is aware that his contribution will fade away as Water's contributions become even more celebrated.
1
Looks like an overpriced spoon for the wealthy or a wok spatula for everyone else.
9
Oh please, everyone gets so offended.
If you're into cooking eggs that way, you don't need a fireplace in the kitchen -- you can do on a gas stove top.
That's how I've always liked tortillas - I place and flip them right on the fire on my cooktop.
8
Works for pita bread, too!
I’m embarrassed for our culture. It this not an elitist discussion, what is it...as a middle class American, who had actually had to deal with the financial impacts of our big business arrogance the last 20 years, I find this discussion so Marie Antoinette’ish.
Great Real People
15
Definitely a sign of a decadent society. This reminds me of when people talk about how all the criminals should just fight it out and kill each other off and let the rest of us live in peace. This story is not too far from that thought. Let them them fight it out, eliminate each other so the rest of us can live a happy, healthy life. We don't need your petty fighting. There are far more important things to deal with.
6
The most “elitist” egg frying I've seen was a steam train crew cooking eggs and bacon on the fireman's shovel held in the locomotive's firebox. Imagine how expensive it would be to replicate that in your kitchen! (BTW, dudes have been frying eggs in cast iron skillets over campfires for generations)
4
Nice picture of a lot of co2 being created for someones pleasure.
3
Oh, for Heaven's Sake. It's just a small pan with a rounded bottom. Move along....
12
I agree. It's wasteful.
4
Somebody mention using a simple cheap replacement for the hand crafted egg-spoon? An ordinary Chinese Wok ladle might work.
5
I can't imagine what it's like to live in a rarefied world where egg spoons are fraught with cultural significance. Until five minutes ago, I'd never even heard of egg spoons. My suggestion for anybody who has a dog in this fight: Get a life.
14
Well first they came for my salad spinner, then they came for my wood rasp zoster and truffle slicer, now they are coming for my egg spoon.Time to make a stand.
9
Think of all the hype lavished on the "artists" of molecular gastronomy. Next to them, with their olive oil caviar and crayfish foam, their kitchens full of expensive doohickeys, and their ridiculous intellectual exercises that they try to pass off as meals, an egg roasted over a fire looks pretty good.
13
There’s something so simple and pure in the way Alice Waters elevated a most common ingredient, the egg, into something she obviously takes great pleasure in. She’s creating a very luxurious food moment with the kitchen fire and the farm egg and the expensive spoon but it’s her right and the level of hypocrisy around here is astounding. The forging of the handcrafted spoon supported a blacksmith so why all the haters? I can only guess how many of the commentators on here have spent $250 on Chinese junk off Amazon or in Walmart that will sooner rather than later need to be replaced. I enjoyed reading about that egg and trying to take myself through her experience cooking it. As for Anthony Bourdain, he’ll be remembered as the guy who toured the world on someone else’s dime, eating someone else’s food, while smoking a lot of pot. You’ve got it all so get the chip off your shoulder, dude.
11
Some things are more important than "art." Donating money to feed the hungry is one thing I can think $250.00 would be much better spent on.
And I will always remember Anthony Bourdain as the guy who reiterated for the post-Julia Child generation that good cooking can be done at home, and that there's no magic, just hard work, in making a good meal.
6
I guess most Americans never read Elizabeth David!
4
'Ms. Waters had acquired the spoon after she saw one in William Rubel’s book “The Magic of Fire: Hearth Cooking: One Hundred Recipes for the Fireplace or Campfire,” ...'
Rubel never mentions the air pollution generated by fires, although he uses the word "smoke" repeatedly. Indeed, Rubel romanticizes smoke:
"It was the smoke coming through the thatch, more than anything else, that gave the day a romantic gloss." (p. 242)
4
I have never understood why anyone can stomach more than a minute of Bourdain's show. He just oozes contempt for others.
11
I cook my eggs before they're born - inside the chicken. :-)
3
I am in the market for a new skillet, like a nice one because we don't really own a nice one. And you know what? Nice kitchen stuff is expensive!! Incredibly expensive. To single out this egg spoon is ridiculous, when frankly people are buying much more expensive gadgets than this, some of it hardly less specific. In a way, this is one of the least elite and most basic tools. It seems elite to Americans because we have electric stoves. I would absolutely cook an egg that way. I just don't have a place to make a fire. You know when it would be great? Camping, or staying somewhere with a fire pit. If someone wants to get me an egg spoon for my birthday, go for it.
5
Try the $40 12" carbon steel fry pan from Amazon. Works better than cast iron, is lighter, has fewer hot spots, cleans up easier, and develops a better coating that is virtually non-stick.
In the age of climate change, it seems so irresponsible to cook an egg over a wood fire.
6
I don't know about cooking eggs with it, but it sure looks like you could give someone a whopin' with it.
8
This is hilarious. Thanks for the break from all things Trump.
8
1. A "few cords of wood" indeed, Mr. Bourdain... I could cook that egg using 1 piece of wood and some kindling, with most of the wood left over to add heat in the house and look pretty burning.
2. that spoon is gonna last for generations and is perfect for cooking other things too... More like it will cost less than 2 cents each egg when all is said and done
3. what have you spent your money on lately that was not needed? Do you really need that big a house, car, room, that fancy wash machine, those paper towels you use like they were nothing, that game, that gambling habit, those potato chips with empty calories?
4. Typical human type reactions, everyone has negative opinions and few have tasted the egg. If she likes it, it is worth it to her, people! Is everybody so jealous they cannot be a little gracious? Why can't she just have given you a good idea to aspire to trying out, and you can figure out how to try something like it if you feel like it? Why do YOU have to have the $250 version? Why is it always some test or keeping up with the Joneses thing?
5. Everybody gets to choose what they want to do with their money, and a lot of it is superficial and destructive of the environment.
Throwing the word privilege around is just getting people riled up and there is no point to it. I don't think she is too elite or whatever because she is sharing her egg joy. Big whoop.
8
Rampage courtesy of my frustration over the current administration! Admittedly it was a bit much to put out there! LOL!
1
Good grief! This is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read.
Or is it?
“Bitcoin transactions use so much energy that the electricity used for a single trade could power a home for almost a whole month, according to a paper from Dutch bank ING.”
Actually I guess we live in an age of particularly acute ridiculousness. Thank you technology!
7
A few years back, I attended a Bourdain talk at BAM. Other than a brief swipe at the silliness of Guy Fieri, his session focused on criticism of:
1. The awfulness of Paula Deen (whose bigotry had just been exposed). Have at it, Mr. Bourdain.
2. The day-time talk show cheeriness of Rachel Ray and her decidedly non-foodie recipes. Uh, okay. Not everyone has more than 30-45 minutes to cook a meal, or access to gourmet ingredients on a regular basis.
3. Alice Walker, whom he took to task for being the exact opposite of Rachel Ray! Too foodie, too elitist, etc.
At that point I realized that there were no female "celebrity" chefs who WEREN'T on his list of targets. The pushback against his accusation of elitism re: the egg spoon is happening because this sort of attack is Bourdain's m.o. when it comes to female chefs, and he's finally being called out on it.
8
I have no idea if an egg spoon is pretentious, but I know for a fact that if you didn't attend boarding school, prep school, an Ivy League college and graduate with a liberal arts degree, there's no way you'd understand any of the people, publications or articles referenced in this piece. I know I didn't. Sounds like elitist white people fighting over who can waste the most time and money making breakfast.
11
I am offended for the sous vide. It’s an incredibly practical tool and shouldn’t take the brunt of these attack’s.
Do you suppose sous vide machines are feeling wounded?
1
In many states, it is against the law to not have an open fire (with just a screen) in a fireplace - must have glass doors - all about the environment. And Alice Waters used SIX CORDS of wood to cook one egg?
Pretentiousness at its best...
3
A cord of wood is 8' x 4' x 4'. Here's a photo for reference. You might be a wee bit credulous, India.
http://www.chainsawjournal.com/how-much-is-a-cord-of-wood-and-more-firew...
1
Anthony Bourdain, like so many men who see themselves as spokespeople for the #metoo movement love women who are victims. They love women who have one dimension that they understand and can control. They HATE women who aren't victims, who are complicated and powerful. That's the dirty little secret no one wants to talk about: men actually prefer the #metoo movement to moving aside and letting women have a little power to influence a real movement.
2
Alice,
It's time for you to buy lots of eggs for people who don't have enough to eat. Cook for them with your spoon....or just let them do it their own way. They will manage, one way or another. Try 3 dozen eggs/month for 10,000 hungry people, for 10 years.
8
Amen.
2
The egg spoon is Goop-y.
16
Waters: "It’s really primitive, in a way."
Cooking over a fire is "primitive". Using an iron pan is not -- the Iron Age began about 1200 BCE. In contrast, pit fired pottery has been dated to 29,000–25,000 BCE.
Source: Wikipedia articles on "Iron Age" and "Pit fired pottery".
See also: "Prehistoric Cooking" by Jacqui Wood.
2
How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Just another minor argument among the elite class.
7
People spend obnoxious amounts of money on way more absurd things: Gold Apple Watches, Canada Goose Coats, Le Creuset Skillets, Baby Strollers, Pocketbooks, Manhattan Real Estate....you know who you are.
In the world of conspicuous consumption, and in the paper that often celebrates this culture, I think 250 bucks for a hand made tool pales in comparison.
Sure, a hand forged tool will be expensive, because blacksmiths are a relative rarity.
I laughed at the Bourdain comment, but his flitting around the globe to eat dog meat in Korea is not the epitome of thrift.
9
Really unfortunate to see the NYTimes give space to Anthony Bourdain's sneering at Alice Waters over the egg spoon. This is a woman who lives modestly and who has created a restaurant that has consistently been one of the best in the world for decades. While Bourdain was gadding around the world with a tv show of questionable interest and a huge carbon footprint, Waters was planting gardens in schools.
Something is very wrong here.
7
Seems like it would be great for camping
3
How well does it do an Egg McMuffin?
7
Ok, maybe only the very rich or very poor have fireplaces in their kitchens, but plenty of Americans have a fireplace elsewhere in their home, or a fire pit outside. It's not THAT elitist, unless you are required to only cook it in a kitchen fire.
2
Iran , North Korea , gun violence ,so much to be concerned about and now ...... $250 egg spoons ? Really ?
Alice Waters is a national treasure but this article makes her seem unintentionally elitist in regard to most Americans .
Cooking eggs over open fires ? I live in San Francisco and 90% of the time there are " Spare the Air " days where fires are against the law [ as is probably also true in Berkeley ].......Does one have to become an outlaw to make breakfast ?
4
Sorry, but I can't say that I care.
3
I've been watching that little video of the cooking egg for 40 minutes, and I'm certain that egg's got be be overcooked by now.
6
what's the carbon foot print of that egg?
2
Any way you cook it, the egg is stolen from an imprisoned chicken, so give it up, along with all other animal products.
1
Kim — I hope your post was intended to be taken with a grain of salt (and maybe a grind of pepper, great on an egg), but if you are serious, you probably shouldn’t read cooking articles...this is not the Vegan Times.
Imprisoned chickens indeed...At this Passover season of liberation, let’s join Kim in singing “Let my poultry go!”
All I could think of was the 14C(?) English proverb: He who sups with the devil should have a long spoon.
Meaning no disrespect to Ms Waters!
1
If people want to support a blacksmith by buying expensive egg spoons, so what? Lot's of people have old cast iron pans or other implements lying around. They are not a big deal. Cooking over a fire? How elitist! This is boy scout stuff. You don't have to be rich or poor to build a little fire. Even middle class schmoes can build a little fire and cook an egg on it.
5
It costs a lot of money to be elemental and primitive. Then again, if you love it and use it and can easily afford it, why not?
If you care about not contributing to global warming, don't build a fire to cook an egg!
2
Allergic to eggs, and after reading this, glad of it.
3
Why does everything have to turn into a food fight?
5
I saw the egg spoon and hearth and kept thinking it would be some heroin addict's dream come true.
2
"... some heroin addict's dream come true."
A cigarette lighter is more convenient, and spoons are cheaper at Goodwill.
1
While I'm not likely to buy a $250 egg spoon, I'd rather buy this hand made iron version from an actual blacksmith and cook a very tasty egg in it over a fire I make myself than spend $250 on a tv for the bathroom. Or on ammo. Or on a Burberry doggie raincoat. Or on a juicero. Or the downpayment on a Thermomix. My point is, if you've got $250 to spend, you can spend it a lot of different ways. If it turns out a darn good egg, well, there's worse things.
9
Tempest in a teapot. Or an egg spoon. As for anything that comes out of bro-dacious Anthony Bourdain’s mouth, consider the source. Then dismiss it. That man irritates me just by existing in my world.
The entire “controversy” is just silly. If you have a fire going already and want to play with your fancy pan, who cares? People like to cook over wood fires. That’s why kids toast marshmallows in the fireplace, or cook cheese toast or wieners speared on forks. If you are making a fire solely for that fried egg, I think you need more to do in your life, but it’s your business. It’s true that it’s wasteful and pollutes the air, though. I don’t use my two fireplaces for that reason. They hold candles instead of wood.
Frankly, I think you could get the same effect on a high-btu gas range, in a standard pan. But eating with others is about ceremony and sharing. So do what gives you joy.
Is that view too white and elitist fo Anthony Bourdain? Do I care?
Now I’m going to go back to worrying that Trump is marching us toward oblivion.
6
I kept reading this ridiculous article but then came to the photo of the blacksmith and the photo of three of her creations (beautiful!) and thought immediately that she would be a much more interesting person to read about .
7
As a woman, I think the egg spoon is ridiculous. As someone who's seen an Anthony Bourdain show, I think calling his criticism sexist is also ridiculous (he hates everything!).
To anyone who wants an egg spoon, you do you, friend. But please don't hold that spoon up as a symbol of feminism.
8
I am a woman who microwaves eggs in a coffee mug. Wonder what it makes me? Oaf?
4
"I am a woman who microwaves eggs in a coffee mug."
Why do we need to know you are "a woman"?
"Wonder what it makes me? Oaf?"
That depends on the recipe -- how do you keep the eggs from exploding?
1
More of an oeuf.
11
Wow!! I had no idea. Cooking is meant to be a labor of love. My mom raised us to put love in everything you make. Keep that in mind and forget this ridiculous gender ego.
Just imagine how many egg spoons they will sell today! Just like another popular mental item (guns) the more controversy around them the more that will sell. Imagine if Obama threatened to take egg spoons away.
4
Makes me think of the star-belly Sneetches.
6
All of this reminded me of something I once read by Wolfram Siebeck, a German author and restaurant critic: Secret Ingredients
Once upon a time there was a cook so famous that people came from everywhere in order to try one of his exquisite meals. Even his breakfast delighted them so that they asked 'This egg is godly. Tell us what is was cooked in?' The cook only smiled and answered: 'It was cooked in something that begins with 'W', but you'll never guess what is.' And the guess asked: 'Did you cook it in white wine?' But the master only shook his head. 'Or perhaps in wild boar tears.' 'No.No,' answered the cook 'You'll never guess what it is.' 'Did you cook it in wild strawberry juice?' the diners inquired. However, no matter how hard they pressed him, the cook never revealed his secret.
The moral of this story -if there is one- is up to you.
1
This article is further proof (if any is needed) that some people will find a reason to get angry about pretty much anything. The only thing missing was to somehow tie it all in and blame it on Trump. Using an egg spoon is elitist? Criticizing a woman for using one is sexist? Good grief people, grow up. Now I know where all the university snow flakes go when they graduate!
5
Has no one noticed that this idea which is being defended as a woman's idea coming in for critiques no man's idea would receive in fact comes from... a man? (William Rubel)
1
"... this idea ... comes from... a man? (William Rubel)"
Cooking over a fire is a prehistoric technique that is thought to have enabled humans to evolve large brains.
Smoke, Fire and Human Evolution
By STEPH YIN
AUG. 5, 2016
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/science/fire-smoke-evolution-tubercul...
1
I haven't noticed anyone claiming that Alice Waters invented the idea of cooking over fire, no. Even among her devoted fan base that would be a bit much.
After reading this much-a-do-about-nothing article, I think I'll get in my car and drive to McDonalds and buy an egg McMuffin...just kidding, but really I think both sides of this argument should read the front page of the NY Times and realize there are a lot more important things going on in this world than what's discussed here
3
To borrow from Shakespeare--an egg spoon by any other name ... or as Gertrude Stein might have said an egg spoon is an egg spoon is an egg spoon
1
I nominate the modern culinary foam as the most pretentious “man” made creation of the last century.
3
"Six cords of wood to cook one egg", yup, we are going to do something about climate change.
3
Just boil a dozen of the silly things and save yourself a lot of clean-up work. In that form, they can be popped into a briefcase, taken to office, and eaten with no utensil required other than a waste basket for the shell pieces.
1
Where would we be without the fine service provided by this news outlet of up-to-the-minute news about the latest in egg-spoon disagreements?
4
Another example of fake and manufactured “outrage” which really isn’t outrage to anyone except the 7 sad #eggspoon followers out there. This is the sort of article which makes me contemplate why I subscribe.
4
Remember your advice the next time you buy something that you really don't need but want anyway.
3
the evil spirits of climate change love people who cook a single egg with several logs of wood. especially when they call it "sensitive".
2
These clearly are people with far too much time on their hands. Let them eat and cook their eggs any way they want, I just don't think they need too share this nonsense with the rest of us. $250.00 for an egg spoon. Really?
2
Do actual people in the real world worry about stuff like this? A little pretentious but so are so many food things, including Anthony Bourdain. All about making it complicated enough to justify their existence......
5
As usual, the real fun is in the Comments section.
14
I'm going over to Honeybee's to eat. All this nonsense about a way over priced kitchen utensil? Makes me hungry. Heck I've used hot rocks to cook eggs.
1
“I have never heard the word ‘precious’ used with a man who has promoted some little specialized gadget.” Then you haven’t been listening.
4
Sorry, 14 dollars.
Just a great read, Kim Severson style.
I have on word for this: PRETENTIOUS.
1
This article is ridiculous. A sous vide machine is reusable and only requires water. Needing to build a fire so you can use your special spoon is excess. Did she build a custom fireplace to build her fire in? Just own it and everybody move on.
2
I recall a particularly icky passage in AB's otherwise enjoyable Kitchen Confidential where some kitchen staff are copulating with the bride of a wedding party in a restaurant on a kitchen trash can.
If it strikes you as stupid or precious, don't use the egg spoon, of course. AB does a lot of macho moves in his TV specials but I cannot think of one thing he's contributed to food that has changed my life. I can think of a dozen AW things that have. Does AB even cook or does he just talk about food?
4
"Does AB even cook or does he just talk about food?"
Well, Bourdain WAS a chef. Waters was never a chef. Not even at Chez Panisse. Her career has been talking about food.
The difference is that Waters talks down to people about food. AB calls out people like her.
2
She most certainly is a chef
1
Bourdain is really milking the cow. Jeez. Never has any chef made so much of so little.
Methinks he's jealous because Waters was on 60 minutes.
3
Oh my heavens! Egg spoon wars! Call out the troops, emergency services, maybe psychological help is in order. Some people need a life, egg spoon? How about a long metal rod to cook your rat on a stick,great idea.
Wow. Everyone should just stop talking about this.
2
I can't stand this. Men buy trucks, drive on beaches and we rightfully castigated them as destructive. A woman does something similar in a different, arguably more feminine context and we defend her because, what? , she's, um, female?
Unless you've already built the fire for other purposes, building one to cook an egg is disgraceful. I know it, others know it; there's no serious debate. And there's no sexism here, merely people being stupid and yelling.
5
Uh oh. Somebody has more money than me and better stuff. Time to be outraged!
1
I totally do not understand the sexism issues here. Is there some kind of back story to this?
2
Oh lord...sexism allegations, a $250 spoon? and all over an egg?
In these times? Shame on Alice and Anthony.
1
Romneya Coulteri, fried egg flower.......just grow them.
1
Is it more offensive that this battle exists, or that the New York Times decided to report on it. Hard to tell.
And Kim, social context isn't everything. Eggs is eggs.
4
I'm tired of everything being sexist. I've mocked stupid food appliances for years without thought of which gender created them.
This egg spoon makes sense if you have a fireplace and you have the money. Does that make me a feminist?
2
“Spoon?” It’s a long-handled pan with which to cook over a wood fire, if you happen to have one going. No big deal.
And cooking an egg sous-vide is one of the stupidest things one can do in a kitchen.
2
Alice Waters can cook it anyway she wants and I'll eat it. Anthony Bourdain is a tiresome act and terminally self-absorbed.
5
Bourdain is pompous, but he got this one right.
2
Ridiculous. $250 for a ladle that should cost $3 to manufacture, and an hour with a stack of wood to cook an egg. A sucker is born every minute.
2
poor people will never care enough to read this article
3
one can imagine how much energy wasted to cook 1 egg. It's truly is stupidity. Donate $250 to Medicine without Border is a much better use of money than on an egg.
5
We need Tom Wolfe right now. Something on the order of electronic kool aid acid test , with the culinary arts as its topic.
3
Go camping.
2
Well, if your spoon doesn't melt during the nuclear holocaust, and there's any wood left, you'll be ready to survive unless the radiation kills you and/or all the chickens, or the survivalists crawl out of their shelters and start shooting. No spoon, no worries; you'll either starve or die from radiation poisoning or the survivalists.
Folks, this is an embarrassingly idiotic contretemps for a supposedly literate and sophisticated audience. Trump is heading us toward a dictatorship of the worst and dimmest and you're griping about a (phenomenal, IMHO) celebrity chef burning wood under some custom made ironware. At least as ridiculous as the 11/09/17 election outcome!
1
Only in the NYT would we have such an esoteric piece and a reader (me) who would spend time to reflect on it enough to write a comment.
4
So much for eggalitarianism.
4
So the adjective “precious” is now a misogynist slur? I can’t keep up.
2
Well, when it’s applied to only women 90% if the time, it might be.
1
Give it a rest, y'all. For everyone with an opinion, your tribalism is showing, This subject has no importance.
1
Ah, the decadence of rich people cooking like poor people and squabbling over nothing
2
Twaddle, Alice. The delight of an egg is its simplicity. Leave it alone.
The comments are worth 1000 of this article.
3
Wow! I thought I was a sour puss! Y'all need to lighten UP! Go, hard boil some eggs, Easter is on Sunday! Sheesh.
Guess I screwed up. Back in the late 70's used a bent soup laddle to cook eggs, beans, and soup on our camping trips. If we had had Facebook back then i'd be famous and somehow orignal, even though my grandpa taught me the trick.
3
This is so ridiculous I can’t even finish reading the column. “Egg Spoon” ? Really? Hey all you people cooking an egg in a spoon over an open fire; if you’ve got time to do that why don’t you read a book to a kid or call your mom? Pfft.
3
New York Times, you know the whole point of this story was just to egg us on.
2
Now, I have been a NY Times reader for many years, but posting an article about elitism in the kitchen in an elitist journal and only allowing posting of comments by those true elites who subscribe just seems a little ironic.
1
My takeaway was less about eggs and spoons or male vs female and more about the fact that Bourdain can be an arrogant jerk.
I've never read anything as bizarre as these comments on the egg spoon. Is this all real or just an NYT gag?
2
Have we come to this in the #MeToo movement, argument over a spoon?
Has the #MeToo movement been reduced to: well, men have always enjoyed (precious specialized gadgets), why can't women?
If it is precious and elitist, isn't it precious and elitist whether wielded by a man or a woman?
Leave #MeToo out of all this sililness.
"Levain" toast is sourdough toast in English. Pretentious French usages infuriate moi.
6
Can you be born with an egg spoon in your mouth?
6
I've spent $250.00 on gadgets that I abandoned in a year or two. So if she treasures it, good for her. On the other hand, I don't believe most working families have the time to cook one egg at a time over an open fire. Like so many things in life, what makes sense for one person rarely serves as a model for everyone else.
3
I don't have a fireplace in my kitchen, but there is one on the back deck and we use it all year long -- even in winter, when we dig it out of the snowdrifts.
I don't have an egg spoon, but it looks pretty basic to me -- something that could be knocked by in China and sold at Target for $9.99.
The only reason it is $250 is that it is hand-forged by a blacksmith and sold with Alice Water's prestigious name on it.
If you hand-forged the knob on your kitchen cupboard, each one would cost $250 too -- instead of $1.99 at the hardware store.
This is a mountain made out of a molehill.
1
I have used one these for decades...it's called a pie iron. Often found at campsites. There is nothing new about this. BTW, it is a really tasty way to make an egg. The wood fire imparts a great smokey essence to the egg.
2
Why ask Bourdain for comment only to let him eke out one as vague as that? The question isn’t (or shouldn’t have been) whether male chefs are ever precious about expensive tools but why they’re almost never derided for it the same way Waters was.
4
Actually in a Paris episode, Bourdain spends a enormous amount of money for an ornate duck press, like two thousand euros, that he admits he will probably never use more than once. It is definitely the macho equivalent perhaps of an egg spoon.
2
For the thousandth time, this is the $17 pie iron my VT family, and so I, have always used to cook eggs in fire. (I got a handmade, under $50 one as a wedding present, so use that one, too.) https://www.amazon.com/Romes-1805-Round-Steel-Handles/dp/B000F630II/ref=...
3
I remember having a pie iron only it was made of aluminum. Had one 70 years ago as a kid. Made apple pies out of Wonder Bread over the gas burner on the kitchen stove. Bought one several years ago to duplicate what I made as a kid. It was terrible. So I threw it out. I have to agree that the comments on this article are more interesting than the article. If you're rich, and you can afford a hand forged "pie spoon" as a work of art or craft, go for it. If you're not rich, or not interested, it's clearly worth ignoring. I would also agree with those commenters who noted that both men and women are equally capable of doing stupid things. Me included.
1
So it is! thanks for the tip. I did vaguely remember using something like this at Girl Scout Camp in the 1960s!
1
Why this He-She fight in the kitchen. For a normal household the cooking chore is divided by the capabilities and time availability. If the Mom has long hours of a financial or legal or medical fields, then the father finds time to cook simple healthy lunches and dinners. If the opposite is true, mom finds time. The modern families are too busy trying to find the time to do the necessary chores of children upbringing and keeping food on the table, mixed up with soccer, ballet, Girl/Boy Scouts, PTA, etc. So I guess this fight is not for your ordinary households. This He/She fight is for the Name Chefs. May be it is just a He/She Ego fight.
2
There is a great scene in the film Donny Brasco where the mafia made man , Al Pacino, replete in his polyester track suit preaches to his young acolyte and FBI undercover agent, Johnny Depp, that men make the best cooks. He is sort of breaking stereotypes.
It is basically a wok utensil that that you can see being used in every Chinese take out to add liquid ingredients to the wok. Probably less than ten buck in any kitchen supply store. (Wood hearth not included.)
9
Having attended several food service industry meetings that Ms Waters has spoken at, it is very clear to me that she has no idea how tough it is for the average person to eat a healthy diet. It is time she left her cosseted world of egg spoons and organic veggies and joined the real world. When a half dozen fresh pears cost more than feeding four people at a fast food outlet the cards are stacked against low-income families.
13
Waters isn't interested in the average person. She's interested in a refined cuisine as much as most of the highly touted chefs and food writers. So what? I doubt that a "half dozen fresh pears cost more than feeding four people at a fast food outlet." Perhaps you should try shopping in the real world.
1
It is true that Ms. Waters lives in a very rarified atmosphere -- that of a legendary chef and restauranteur in Berkeley -- she is adored and feted by almost everyone (besides Bourdain, who is a carnk) in the gourmet food field. She really did pioneer the whole "farm to chef" movement and a lot of stuff we now take for granted -- organic and heirloom items, foraged stuff, French recipes adapted to California cuisine, etc.
But as far as knowledge of "ordinary American life"....she might as well be a tribeswoman living on the banks of the Amazon. She is very woefully out of touch and literally has NO INKLING that a lot of her precious (and very delicious) foods are unaffordable -- that the average American cannot dream of eating at her very $$$ restaurant Chez Panisse. Or that a $250 egg spoon sounds chi chi and Marie-Antoinette-ish.
She gets her food & groceries as part of her JOB, without a normal household budget -- she gets comped at the very best restaurants of the world (as I said, she's a legend!) -- I'll bet it is a rare day that she has to pull out her wallet. It is a pretty sure thing that you and I would have to pay $250 for that hand-forged egg spoon -- but the artisan gladly gave it to Alice Waters because she's famous and it is unbelievable and unbuyable advertising.
2
My iron skillet that I bought 45 years ago for ten bucks works just fine for me.
12
A very long time ago in my junior high school metal working shop class, I made a long-handled ladle that looks like these egg spoons. But it was nicer looking and cost $1 for materials. If I can dig it up I’ll put it on eBay for $200. A bargain!
13
It is called a “solder ladle”. Plumbers use them to melt lead to pour into a cast iron pipe joint. Twenty dollars tops. Shhhh, don’t tell the ladies.
1
Unfortunately without Alice Water's "name"...it is still only worth maybe $5-$10.
1
I was kind of hoping the environmentalists would pile on here with an analysis of the carbon neutrality of fire-cooked eggs. Is there some loophole, perhaps the hand-forged metal is recycled, forged over a landfill-reclaimed methane-gas fire?
8
My first copied recipe was in crayon, I found it in my dad's personal recipe book, about 10 years ago. He is the person that taught me to cook. He was an executive chef before I was born I like to say. My mom cooked too, but she liked to help him fix cars more than cook. We all as a family cooked and canned and I grew the garden because that is another one of my passions. There shouldn't be a he and she fight in the kitchen.
You should all learn to get along in the kitchen. I love growing food that I will cook later or can or pickle or do something to it and eat it. I also like eating things as I grow them.
The rocket stoves where you have small bits of wood and high heat in a small space would be something you could have to cook the egg with. Wood is loads better than coal or oil. It grows on trees you know......
It grows you can keep planting it, you can use little bits of cuttings, not the whole tree. You can make your own wood lot, Leaf mold and live off your land, a lot better than you may know. @BioWebScape was here.
4
Try a Ghillie stove.
Food is precious. We tend to forget that in our hectic culture.
I much prefer my lifestyle. I treat food as though it is something important and precious because it is. I think there are no other ways that can beat using a heavy cast iron skillet to fry trout or french fries. I prefer both using a wood fire as a heat source. It is a ritual where the food I am going to eat is carefully thought out, prepared with care, and then savored. Do I do this every time I want trout or french fries? Of course not! But if someone is visiting and there are beautiful trout at the fish monger's stall, then why not make it an adventure. Oh I could always opt out and just go in the deli next door and pick up a few sandwiches. But I am pretty sure that even if I never see that visitor again what they are going to remember is having a glass of wine and meandering through the garden while the aroma of trout being pan fried over a wood fire.
I think when we become fully processed by our current Work to Spend to Work Culture we don't respect anything. If you want to find graceful living, you'll fine it much easier to accomplish by learning to cook. When you begin cooking you'll see and experience food differently and that, in turn, will open other doors where you'll see other things differently. Over time you'll find that you have carved out a graceful life. There's just 24 hours in everyone's day. Maybe that spoon will help you realize you're just not spending yours wisely.
7
Wealth, income, property and power continue to centralize; since the Reagan tax cuts. Republicans and Trump cut more taxes for the rich. A few billionaires are worth more than a hundred million Americans.
And we talk about eggs. We deserve Trump.
14
There are a lot of stories in the Times, many about the President. Why is this one story a problem?
1
Even during wars and depressions and other tragedies....people still have to eat.
1
Yes. Not a 'problem', just rather silly with so much destruction going on. You're right.
I'm stayin' out of this one, except to say that The Egg Spoon is a beautiful artifact, will last forever, and give enormous pleasure to (almost) anyone who sees it hanging by the hearth over the years, handles it, wonders about its provenance, and experiences some measure of awe.
We do not live by eggs and wisecracks alone. I avoid both in my life (well, the eggs mostly, and snide jibes at the expense of someone we might not understand.) I'm old and have had my fill of eggs, but can never get enough beauty. Use it for garlic, Tony, you can afford it!
4
You posted a comment. You're not staying out of this one.
3
Lodge makes a 3.5" cast iron mini skillet, it's $6.75 on their website. The 6.5" one is $12.75. You can get a round pie iron (with a long handle) for $16 on Amazon, or less at Home Depot... Granted, not an egg spoon, the iron is cast and is thicker, but I would bet you could achieve the same results with a little practice.
I guess a long-handled egg spoon is cool, but for $250? That simply can't be taken seriously. Even for a handmade one.
21
I honestly do not see any reason the same egg could not be cooked in a small cast iron pan on a gas range.
But this is beautiful and charming and fun, and makes for a lovely experience cooking and then eating it.
Yeah, it's a crazy ridiculous price. Waters probably got it for free, since her "word of mouth" is incredible advertising.
Even if she paid full price....as indulgences go, this is pretty mild.
1
Can we, PLEASE, stop with the fetishisation of food? In a world where at least 30% of the population is malnourished and/or dying of starvation, this obsession with food and how it is prepared has reached obscene levels. Food is not a religion and eating is not a sacrament and if they have become that in our lives, it's time to re-assess our priorities. No one lives forever. If you have a diet that pleases and sustains you, be grateful for it and enjoy it. Making a fetish of the selection, preparation and presentation of food elevates it to an absurd level of significance.
46
Food is culture too. Food is passed down from cave to cave to city to space station. Food is what we are for the most part as it sustains us a lot more than say TV. But I don't worship food, I study how it's made I know who created it and all other things. But He taught me that I can be good with the gifts I have been given and I always share. People used to come by my dorm then my apartment then just stop by knowing that if they did I'd feed them.
The homeless people knew if they saw me food was close by.
The point is maybe that food isn't just the fancy TV colors, but the Big Oven in town the baker uses and all the folks stop by with stew pots to have the baker use the remaining heat to cook their supper. A scene in european towns for centuries. everyone has to eat, Eating well is for everyone. The way to help people eat better is to help them grow some of it themselves. That is the whole point of making this a better planet. Helping others.
2
Thankfully, the situation, though appalling, is not so dire. The UN numbers the hungry and malnourished at something like one in seven (14%). Relatively small adjustments in consumption, production and distribution patterns could well extinguish the problem. If it were truly closer to a third of the world, I think I'd have to give Malthus the win.
2
Everyone on both sides of this story seems to have lots of extra time. If they need suggestions on more impactful issues to pursue, call me.
28
Anthony Bourdain is on record for hating Alice Waters, who in my opinion is an American Treasure. In other countries, she would receive an honorary title for her great contribution to the world of culture.
Personally, because of Mr. Bourdain's open misogyny, I cannot watch, listen or read words written by him. I think his hatred for Alice Waters is a thinly disguised jealousy.
Alice Waters creates absolutely the most delicious simple food there is.
If you have not yet eaten at Chez Panisse, Alice Water's restaurant in Berkeley, California, then you are not yet spoiled for life. It is simply THE best restaurant and cafe restaurant any where. Its bread, its plain coffee, its salads, or soups and the open-fire oven cooked calzone are amazing. Simple food that is fantastic.
14
I can't afford to eat at Chez Panisse. Is that a problem?
1
I think they are both a couple of self-important gasbags, fronting for an unsustainable segment of their shared business. Why this pseudo-issue rates space in the NYT is a mystery - unless this 1% cultural feud is aiming to be some kind of veiled humor. Tom Wolfe would have a field day with these people - "Radical Chic" 2.0?
1
I should have stated the Cafe is where if you have not eaten any of the Chez Panisse's Cafe offering, then you have not yet been spoiled for life.
The Cafe is upstairs, and it is warm and reflects the great architects of Berkeley, California Bernard Maybeck and Julia Morgen. It in and of it self is a treasure.
The restaurant is downstairs and is not attended by many people at all. You can go there by reservation only and you can check the cost but the single meal which includes everything is more than one hundred dollars per person.
The Cafe is where everyone goes. It is always abuzz with people and really great vibes and absolutely fantastic food.
Since almost anywhere in California a simple sandwich will set you back $9.00 from a deli or sandwich shop, the cost of eating in the Cafe of Chez Panisse is comparable to the market rate for a great dinner: which is considered moderate in cost.
If you CAN afford to eat anywhere else, you CAN afford to eat at Chez Pannise's cafe. I assure you, it is well worth your time and effort to try it. They take reservations for the Cafe, but I am not certain how far in advance.
It’s a Pudgie Pie iron. Except fancier. And it would cost you $500 to get two of them so you could cover your egg or cook a pudgie pie or any of a million other campfire foods you can make in the pie iron. Nice long handle and about $20.
17
I have an egg spoon! It’s part of an inexpensive set of utensils I received as a wedding gift 47 years ago. I use it to baste sunny side up eggs with bacon fat. It’s the best egg in the world!
7
Good for you!
Beaujolais or Armagnac?
2
What is the big deal? Alice Waters cooked an egg over a fire in a egg spoon. Cool that she did this, cool that she enjoys this, cool that she shares these tasty treats with others. She's not hurting anyone.
Does no one else think that Anthony Bourdain's commenting about her being "Pol Pot in a muu muu" was totally over the top? Pol Pot killed millions of people! Bourdain's assinine comment not only makes light of that, but shows him to be the *ss that even he, in his writings, demonstrates he is.
Do your thing, Alice Waters!
108
Not only are Bourdain's comments infantile and insulting (to the point of being lawsuit worthy) but he clearly has no idea what six cords of wood look like.
4
Anthony Bourdain is insufferable.He is the Donald Trump of the food world.
3
Anthony Bourdain probably doesn't know what a cord of wood is. Six cords of wood would make a stack about 20'x14'x4'. Which would fill a typical 2 car garage to the top of a tall person's head. A lot of wood to fry an egg.
3
It's mildly interesting that these egg spoons happened to get pegged as women's implements. Usually rustic iron tools and open fire are seen as a domain of men's cookery--as in barbecue. Of course all techniques should be open to all sincere practitioners.
10
I'm trying to teach my husband how to barbecue but I have to tell you it is hard. So far he has broken 2 Webers in two years. Until him, I didn't know anyone who could break an basic Weber.
When I was 10, 12, 15, I used to get up at dawn, put a frying pan, matches, lighter fluid, and the fixing for friend eggs and bacon, and walk a mile from my home (in the city) to the cliffs overlooking the Ottawa River. I climbed down the cliffs to a ledge, made a fire with any dried wood I could find, make my breakfast and imagine I was a Voyageur in the wilds, looking over the river that Samuel de Champlain travelled.
I would wait until the fire went out and my cast iron skillet was cold, douse the ashes, and head home.
At 61, I treasure my memories of the solitude and the sound of the sizzling eggs s and bacon.
I would have given my eye teeth to have an “egg spoon”.
Some people have no soul and no imagination. Their loss.
76
For $12 you can still have one v.s $250
Lovely memory, but I but it kind of misses the point. That was a campfire. This is about marketing a twee, artisanal piece of one-function cookwear, to be used in a wood burner fireplace. A fireplace that sits next to to an efficient stove. I bet you used whatever inexpensive skillet your parents had on hand.
It’s a bit much to say “some people have no would and no imagination” because they think this is an over-the-top-foodie fixation.
I love your spirit!
1
When did it become acceptable to lecture people on how they chose to cook their food? Over a fire, over a gas grill or on an electric burner - however anyone chooses to cook is their business and theirs ALONE.
30
Sure makes it hard to make scrambled eggs, or an omlet, or even eggs easy over.
What is POINT (stated in Russian accent)?
8
As a foodie who just today spent $120 on a new all–clad frying pan, who am I to judge? But I’ll have to go with elitest on this. I try to avoid large and/or expensive kitchen items that have a single purpose. If it only has a single purpose i have to use it everyday (like a coffee maker).
5
My father-in-law made pots and pans for All-Clad for nearly all of his work life, mostly before they were purchased by Waterford. He gifted me practically one of everything they made, from the tiniest measuring spoon to the huge lobster pot. My husband does most of the cooking but prefers his non-All-Clad cast iron skillet that a previous girlfriend had found at the Goodwill. Go figure!
7
Ah, come on. My daughter used to trade her peanut jelly sandwich for lunch for whatever gourmet delight Fannie had at their school. It's all in the eye and care!
20
Well, it's rather romantic, isn't it? It's based on belief. The Right has its beliefs, and the #MeToo Left has its beliefs. I agree with Anthony Bourdain, it is stupid.
But, as with the Trump business people who try to get some business from an association with him, a $250 spoon is a good haul.
To paraphrase the great James Carville, in cooking, "it's the flavor, stupid." Speaking of which, New Orleans knows something about flavor. I get great flavor from my eggs from poaching, or frying in some bacon fat, and eat them with a fork.
12
I have to side with Bourdain on this, though the Pol Pot comment was a little harsh. Ms Singer is guilty of overselling and her defenses are not compelling. However, we do need to keep those blacksmiths busy at the forge.
24
Take the $250 to your local food bank instead.
99
i have in my possesion an antique cooking tool favored by female and male tribes which populated the cross timbers sections of texas all the way to the ozarks in one direction, the rockies in the other. this primitive but effective tool was used to roast, just so, a culinary masterpiece, whose small size bellied a large sugar content. simple in design, pale in color. found only in outposts connected to indigious tribes of the ways of safe travelers. this tool must be manipulated by skilled artisans in order to roast the rare morsels perfectly over dying coals of a wood fire. the wood must be from indigenous trees. i might be persuaded to part with this tool for $1,000, before it is featured on the goop website.
19
.
We do treat males and females differently. The female birds who lay the eggs live a short life of misery, including the ones whose eggs are sold with labels suggesting otherwise (terms like "free range"; 'organic"; "cage free"; and "humane" are standard factory-farm deceptions -- they all come from torture factories).
The male chicks of the egg-laying variety are useless to the factory-farm money machine, and get tortured to death shortly after birth.
17
Lol. Thinking youre maybe a vegan. In any case, we try to eat local eggs when we can - no torture involved.
But when we can't, a normal store bought egg is just fine.
1
Fine for you. The comment was to the point that there’s an ocean of terror and pain for every single factory farm laying hen. It is beyond brutal.
I think there is some truth behind the relation to sexism.
"If Francis Mallmann, ... , had cooked an egg with a spoon instead of roasting a lamb on a wooden cross near blazing wood, he’d be a hero, ... ". Yeah I agree.
But, from my point of view, females (especially those who studied) appear more academic and elitist. My sister is a dentist. Do you think she would ever date a male who didnt study? Never. But an academic male would easier date a girl that didnt study. Some feminists would say: "these males are just interested in her body". But the truth behind all of that is that feminism is a very academic movement, and males have more "coolness" and understanding when it comes to non-academic friends or spouses. And, proud academics seem often elitist in some aspects. Feminism is not true feminism as long as there are not more academic females marrying non-academic males.
7
My neighbour is an artist and was always an A student and she married a man who is a skilled tradesman and admits he hated school. They are blissfully happy and share many interests but books are not one of them.
2
Feminism is not true feminism as long as one is taking the rules for men and applying them to women. This is an apples to oranges comparison, but what does dating have do with this article anyway?
1
It seems very problematic and very, very silly to extrapolate so much about “females” based on your sister’s dating habits.
2
A two egg omelette cooked in butter with herbs and sea salt takes me about ten minutes to cook start to finish. I can't see myself bending down in front of our fireplace, getting a fire started, waiting for the wood to burn down a bit, dragging an egg in a big spoon into the living room and then cooking one egg. Also, our dog would be right at my elbow the entire time wondering what was up with that egg. My luck I would jostle the egg spoon and spill raw egg on the carpet or get a leg cramp getting up from the cooking position with my hot egg. When you the run the full scenario it is just too risky.
49
Cooking fireplaces, these days anyway, are at about counter height and are found in kitchens. If you want carpet in your kitchen, that's your choice, but I don't recommend it.
6
It's not the egg-spoon itself that's elitist: it's how and where it's used. Who has a counter-height "cooking fireplace" in their kitchen...other than those with enough highly-disposable income to design their bespoke kitchens--probably in custom-built homes--from scratch? Or who are living in code-compliant Colonial-era homes--in equally-pricy Colonial-era neighborhoods.
And those who venture out onto the deck, patio or into the backyard to light a wood-coal fire to cook one egg in a utensil that costs more than their grill, using a quantity of hardwood charcoal that costs as much as a dozen of those eggs...have more time and money than sense. The only indoor "cooking fireplaces" of which I know, are in upscale restaurant kitchens. Hmmmm...don't all of us have one of those at our disposal (or have earned enough renown from running one that we can replicate it at home)?
In this month's Bon Appetit, an article on cast-iron cooking sang the praises of a line of artisanal copper-colored cast iron skillets, the 10-incher of which can be yours for a mere $250...about the same as a hand-forged egg spoon (oh, please...gag me with one of the latter).
I fry my single pasture-raised egg in butter and olive oil every morning on a gas range in a carefully-seasoned 7" cast iron skillet: $10 on eBay from a guy who'd restored it till it was as smooth as a baby's bottom. Go ahead and judge--I'm feeling pretty good about it.
9
But why does anyone (apart from Alice Waters) think you have to build a fire just to cook the egg? Normally, this would be done in a place where you already have a fire burning in the fireplace to warm a family that comes home chilled, icy and ravenous from playing outside in the snow. We use the fire to cook sausages and potatoes, why not eggs? They sound delicious and there's nothing elitist about it. It's silly to imagine that everyone who would like to prepare these eggs has to be equipped with a kitchen counter-level fire that they build specially for a single egg.
A spoon:
"It helps you become sensitive. We are hoping men become sensitive and we find each other in that place."
9
To some of us, guys or gals, cooking an egg "sous vide" or cooking it in an "egg spoon" over a specially lit wood fire are just too "precious"...
To us, "food = love" and that's what the whole debate should be about: how to feed a hungry world with love, care and attention to growing their bodies and their minds...and ours!
6
You can feed a bunch of homeless people with $250.00. That's pretty loving.
1
Silly on both sides. I love eggs cooked many ways, & the idea of the egg spoon or a small long handled mini pan is kinda cool & I'd do it over the flame on my stove, but $250...forget it!
22
A very simple and satisfying way to cook an egg. As another commenter pointed out, you can use a small cast iron pan if you don't have an egg spoon. And if you don't have a wood-burning fireplace at home, you can try this method while camping. There's no need to make this about class or gender, or try to find a larger political or social truth.
24
Criticism of AW as being elitist is misguided, in my view. Is she dismissing any other way of making eggs? No. Is she criticizing anyone not on the egg spoon bandwagon? No. Like ALL aficionados of the finer things in life she indulges in what appeals to her just like many do. Anthony Bourdain may fetishize his eating habits on television for years, but it's Alice Waters who is insufferable? The fact remains that much of what is considered modern gastronomy had its roots at Chez Panisse, and no one has ever been forced to dine there.
46
Not true. Maybe "forced" is too strong, but the folks were in town and I could find no way out of it. And, yeah, it was good, but I would prefer the masala dosas down the street.
4
JimmyMac, you sound like a man who needs to learn to be more sensitive. I predict an egg spoon will be under your Christmas tree this December.
1
It would be great for camping. :)
21
Venturing a guess: what people find obnoxious about the egg spoon is its performative rusticity. I doubt molecular gastronomers would point to their gadgets as part of some "authentic" experience; it's deliberately out-there. Haven't we more-or-less just gone through a period of hipsterism and its accompanying backlash? See viz. lumberjack beards, flannel shirts, Mast Bros. chocolate, artisanal knives, US-made leather boots… The Wes Anderson-aesthetic is basically the embodiment of "precious."
19
Ms. Waters says that she wants young boys to "feel the sense of fire". I think that young boys are very creative at finding ways to feel the sense of fire without needing a ridiculously priced gadget.
This egg spoon seems the height of elitism in the kitchen to me. But I have never been a fan of kitchen gadgets, either.
25
yeah, boys and fire, look out!
Maybe they didn't get enough "spoon-time"
1
Oh, leave her alone! Alice Waters is a national treasure, for crying out loud.
34
Agreed. Love Bourdain and love me some Waters!
My chinese wok ladle works just fine for this!
33
You know our civilization is doomed when people choose things like this to argue over. Fiddling while Rome burns.
44
Why do you need an open fire? Or a spoon? I fry eggs every day in my seasoned cast iron pan, with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper...on the crazy open flame that is my gas range! This is nuts. Female or male, it's absolutely elitist. No one thinks a $250 spoon is necessary. Donate the $ if you feel the need to contribute to a cause.
26
Could Alice recommend an inductive-compatible egg spoon? Please and thank you.
5
If the writer really knew anything about eggs, cooking or eating them, she would know that an egg spoon is a specialized spoon with which you eat a soft boiled egg. If you want to philosophize the pros and cons and cultural non-meaning of cooking an egg over an open fire in a very large spoon (or very small pot), then come up with a name for said spoon that isn't already used by another kitchen item.
12
The point to me is that Ms. Waters is a professional cook, which is terrific, but my profession differs and I am not about to be captured and tossed into a kitchen since I like my profession.
3
Egg spoons?
My mother and mother-in-law can cook eggs any way you want them in a cast-iron skillet and leave you speechless.
I will truly pity my son when his grandmothers die; their greatest pleasure in life is seeing him appear on their doorsteps so they can cook for him--usually out of cast-iron.
Meanwhile, his greatest pleasure in life is being showered with homemade biscuits, meatloaf, chicken-friend steak, fried fish, fresh green beans and gallons of homemade cream gravy. And don't forget the Eggs Benedict.
Cast-iron skillets are incredibly versatile when it comes to grandsons.
Egg spoons are too much sugar for a dime.
27
What a lovely comment! Thank you for these images!
1
I’m pretty sure you can buy a small Lodge cast iron fry pan to do the same thing for about $15 in Target.
56
Why did Ms. Singer feel the need to describe Shawn Lovell as "an incredible female blacksmith?" She is an incredible blacksmith. Why perpetuate gender stereotyping?
35
look. i am dedicated feminist. a female blacksmith is quite rare. for one thing, the manual labor necessitating brute strength is very difficult for women. i am not in the least bothered by reference but thrilled to see accomplished women in a challenging field receive deserved recognition.
63
You miss the point. Is she an incredible blacksmith or an incredible (as you opine rare) female blacksmith?
I presume Ms Singer meant the former
5
@ Janet H. Boulder CO
I am sure you are aware of the physiological and anatomical differences between the female and male of the human species. Each professiom carries with it, for good or bad, the historical image associated with a certain type of activity. In some of the West European countries women are Ministers of War or Defense. But, it is difficult to visualize one in the traditional image of leading the troops on horseback, at a gallop, with a drawn sword, to drumbeat and trumpets blaring. Just as a medial cook had to be a strong man, capable of tearing asunder the carcasses of beef, wild boar, and deer.
1
Never mind the eggs: I’m reeling at the idea of drinking tea, made with half tea, half milk and maple syrup!, out of a jar. Ghastly!
163
Europeans don't really get maple syrup, do they? Perhaps you should think of it as a form of masala chai.
Good Lord!
If you like it and you can do it, then do it. If you don't like it, then don't do it. If you can't afford to do it, well, that's the way with lots of things in life. Find away or just get over it. Beyond that, just say nothing.
Do we need to go to war about everything!?
Get over yourselves.
136
Yes, it's times like this when the comment section is on the verge of running amok.
Remember the old days when you read the morning paper and if something in it irked you you just shook the paper for a second and muttered under your breath?
I don't miss the old days, either. I'm fascinated by all these differing points of view.
2
Thank you that was awesome.
2
This is one fight that I'll be glad to steer away from. REALLY?? Arguing over an egg spoon used in a fire????
22
But you didn't.
1
I'd like to see the air emissions from the coals reported. If you have lungs, it's ridiculous to speak of this as healthy, whether your lungs are in a man or a woman.
21
Oh come on, Times readers getting upset about spending $250 on something they don't really need? Have you looked around your homes lately? And criticism from Anthony Bourdain who spends his time globe-trotting and hobnobbing with the peasants Marie-Antoinette-style is just too funny.
71
I've always felt that Bourdain is a fatuous gasbag and basically a Duck Dynasty act with nicer clothes and a better barber.
2
"Only people who are very rich or very poor have fireplaces in their kitchens..."
And - of those two groups - most likely only one of them is reading the Food Section of the New York Times...
92
Don't make assumptions. I have no running water and heat my house with a wood stove, but here I am, reading the food section of the New York Times just like you are. I wouldn't spend $250 on an egg spoon, but if a cheap version turns up in my local hardware store I might get one.
2
Argue about something.... Worth arguing about.
15
Guess what? You can do the same thing in an ordinary ladle, over a gas burner.
But that would take the magic away, Hugh?
23
>> “I am quite sure male chefs have committed far, far worse crimes in the cause of pretentious and pomposity,” he said
I bet he actually said “pretension,” not “pretentious.”
13
People care about this? Amazing.
16
We cook over the open fire in cast iron all the time with my son's Boy Scout Troop. We all agree that food cooked over an open fire tastes the best.... The egg spoon is the vehicle - all the better hand forged with spirit and style... Also, if you buy vintage kitchen gadgets, it is quite common to see hand-made items.
19
Much ado about nothing.
10
Very eggistential.
144
Not egzactly the old shell game :-)
I'll bet that it has albumen prints all over it.
2
Pure goofiness beyond elitism. Ridiculous.
9
Why did Anthony Bourdain get the last dismissive word in an article about gender disparity?
50
If a woman got the last word it wouldn't be sexist? Amazing.
This is almost silly...
4
Almost?
No, it is silly.
1
I’ll tell you what...after reading through the comments I am definitely going to cook eggs for dinner. On a gas range. In a skillet.
21
I am going to use extra virgins organic olive oil... in a Petri dish in the microwave.
For the price of that egg spoon you could buy a Moria spoon, which is used exclusively for fishing embryos out of jars, and have 16 dollars left over. It's a win-win!!
4
At least two layers of puritanism in the article and the comments: not only is the pleasure of the cooking, the conviviality, and the tool itself almost entirely overlooked, but the arguments against the egg spoon are almost entirely moral, couched in terms of unfairness to the poor, of being too busy with presumably more important things, of a kind of ingrown envy, and of environmental recklessness. But cooking and eating are a sacrament. They are worth our attention. If you can't afford the spoon, improv one with a small, thin steel saute pan and a couple feet of #9 fence wire. Works great and cost me about $18. So weird to hold your lack of pleasure over another, as though it's a kind of moral superiority.
18
I haven't missed the earlier days of the pretentious foodie one bit, they seemed to have gone into hibernation - at least until now. I cook because it's how I feed and sustain myself, but just as important, it's how I take care of my friends. To put food on table that brings smiles and fills bellies. To the extent I can, I support local farms and farmer's markets. A good deal of the slow food movement made us stop and think. But..its penchant for absolutism is beyond tiresome.
12
That 60 minutes egg episode was iconic. Everyone has seen it and everyone was cooking eggs after. Who wouldn’t want a perfect egg by Ms Waters. I would love the spoon. I may just get one..
10
It reminds me of a thing I call camping. Except I pull my grandmothers 100 year old cast iron pan out of the VW camper and use it over an open fire. Not exactly anything new folks.
104
There are two issues, the spoon and the fire. As to the spoon, as with all things Waters, I am envious and desirous. But the fire is another matter. Without making a judgment, it is obvious that food cooked over burning wood usually tastes better, and that the air we breathe goes in and out much worse. So if there is an objection, it should lie in luxuriating in an egg whose production involves as much CO2, CO, and poisonous particulates as the wood grilling of a steak (as much as the second hand smoke from a pack of cigarettes?). And indulgence in each in urban environments (including Berkeley) should probably be on the rare side. And this is not a gender issue.
38
Speaking of grilling steaks, how frequently are Big Green Egg devotees questioned about what they’re doing for the environment? There are doubtlessly more of those in use than egg spoons.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/dining/the-cult-of-the-big-green-egg-...
1
When the embers in the fire are "photo" gorgeous, that lowly egg will cook to perfection in literally anything. The key is in the heat source as much as anything else.
10
How many wars have been fought for terminology?
Call it a skillet, half the wind’s gone from the sail. Meantime half the restaurants in town serve wood-fired anything, and nobody’s blinking an eye.
18
I agree, "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." An egg spoon is a small skillet with a very long and slim handle. So now can we move on?
26
In Japan, I had a pork cutlet fried with such a device over a Bunsen burner. After slicing, the cutlet was returned to the pan. A secret sauce containing mirin and onions was added to the cutlet and warmed to a simmer. A whole beaten egg was added and slightly poached. The cutlet, egg and sauce were slid over a bowl of rice. The dish was katsudon,
Being California, the egg spoon costs $10 and the story costs $240. If you haven't noticed. all CA cooking is food with a story.
I own a $10 ceramic coated, hinged, shallow, aluminum clam shell that makes perfect pancakes, fried eggs and omelets. It is a favorite pan. A modern version of the egg spoon, doubled.
5
California cooking largely involves using incredible local ingredients, sometimes in innovative ways but often very simply. There may be a story involved, but the food itself is always the center of the experience.
5
it is totally a wok ladle.
AND I like the idea of cooking an egg in it.
Smart
Though I do believe I have seen it done in Jakarta.
22
Wow. I'll never know the taste of an egg cooked in an artisanal iron egg spoon over an open fire. But I'll bet it tastes a lot like an egg.
309
1) I'd like to know what Jeremiah Tower thinks
2) For anyone who who does not want to shell out $250 for spoon, why not throw the whole egg directly onto the embers after the fire dies down. A small pinhole on both ends made with a safety pin will prevent explosion and you get something quite delectable and far more simple with zero pretension which is the problem with the foodie movement these days...
8
When Anthony Bourdain has done as much for American cuisine as Alice Waters has, maybe I'll listen to him. His macho attitude pervades all his escapades (read "Kitchen Confidential" and I pay no attention to him. On the other hand, I have read and cooked from all of Alice's cookbooks. Call it elitist if you will. It has given me great pleasure and if I may so myself, I'm an awesome cook.
77
You're right about the relative quality of their books. She's a much better writer. The same goes for their restaurants. I've eaten at one of his restaurants and two of hers. Les Halles at its best was pretty good, but it was never great. Chez Panisse at its best was, and is, an absolute joy.
18
Irrelevant. Once in a while we need to acknowledge that the emperor (or empress) has no clothes on. This is just that time, and the egg spoon and Alice Waters are desperately trying to get you to believe they’re not parading around naked.
3
A.C. is a novelist, not a food writer, and he's right when he expressed great respect for her and all she's accomplished, but said sometimes she's tone-deaf to the effect of what she is saying. Not everyone can afford to eat arugula salad on the Ponte Vecchio.
The is the sort of artificial "controversy" that could only exist in the internet era. It's a tempest in an egg spoon.
29
The price seems high to many commenting here - but really isn't for a hand forged item. A great deal of its value is that it is still handmade and that you can't buy it a Walmart. What you buy at Walmart will work just as well, but it doesn't have any soul. $ 25 for its function but $ 225 for its soul. If you don't understand this then you don't need one. That OK but someday maybe you will still value someone that can make something. If not that is OK too because us blacksmiths will all be gone.
34
How about a blind taste test:
Go out and buy one of these elitist egg spoons and also go to a local thrift store and put down $10 for a used cast iron frying pan. Cook an egg in each - over the same fire and I'm willing to bet they both taste the same. Iron is Iron.
9
My InstantPot, despite not being made by hand, definitely has a soul, so much so that I bought a second one to keep the first one company. This article has inspired me to forge my own hand-made InstantPot that I will sell for the modest price of $2,500 (10% discount for the first 500 orders). After all, to paraphrase the transformational insight of Ms. Singer, "The price of the pot is beside the point."
No, don't be silly, I don't mean I can forge the entire InstantPot, just the inner pot-inside-the-InstantPot that you toss all the cookstuffs into.
Well, from a technical standpoint you are wrong about iron being "iron". The cast iron pan is 2 percent carbon and the hand forge one made of mild steel is about 0.2 percent carbon. The historical egg spoon would have been made from real wrought iron with almost zero percent iron but containing 2 to 3 percent silicon oxide. Yes all three would taste the same. Not my point - the point is do we still assign any value to things made by hand? How about my grandmother handmade quilt? It will keep you no warmer than the blanket from the thrift store but I will always value it much more. Its value is that it was handmade and I knew the person who made it.
(by the way my shop rate is $ 60 per hour and I would have about 2 hours in such an item - so when you figure retail markup of 50 % - $250 is about right.)
1
This reminded me of my father’s “cowboy wok”, which is an old plow disc with horseshoes welded to the sides for handles. He uses it on campfires and it works really well. He would love this egg spoon if it didn’t cost so much.
20
There is more than "a bit of sexism" in Mr. Bourdain's dismissive comment about using six cords of wood to cook a single egg. There is a LOT of sexism in that comment accusing Alice Waters of profligate wasting of wood to cook an egg for Leslie Stahl simply to boost her ego and image.
Is there some elitism in the use of egg spoons? Yes - but there is elitism in every food movement. Many households can't afford the Instant Pot, a sous vide machine, a VitaMix blender, or the latest and greatest cookware either. But that doesn't mean people can't learn from those techniques. You don't need a wood hearth in your kitchen to cook an egg in an egg spoon - you can use a charcoal grill available at the local grocery store for 15.99 and set up on your patio or balcony. You don't need a $250 egg spoon to make great eggs either - you can spend $25-$50 (depending on the size and brand) on a cast iron skillet and learn to make great eggs on the grill. It's the mindfulness of making the food that really matters.
31
One more time I’m thoroughly under-impressed by Alice Waters. As a young progressive woman in the 70’s when I 1st heard all the hubbub about her discovery and promotion of organic foods.. I sort of gagged, like when Martha Stewart educated American women to the concept of craft.. well, for some reason I’ve grown to respect Martha Stewart, but Alice-NO. It’s still just pure promotion, leaving the food tasteless. And a 5% donation?-that’s an insult!
18
I have no strong feelings about Waters pushing these pans, but I share your feelings about Alice Waters and Martha Stewart. I used to laugh at the perfect domesticity thing Stewart promoted, but she turned that into a business that was approachable to all. She also seems to have a sense of humor about herself, which is important. Waters, in contrast, takes herself far too seriously. Her restaurant used to be (this is going back to the 1980s) almost a Church to the Humble Radish. (I got that same vibe at Blue Hill, btw, so this is not a gender-based judgement. It’s a judgement about foodies.)
26
Someone once said "If you have to ask how much a yacht costs to maintain, you can't afford it." Similarly, if you can't grasp (or are even willing to consider) the value of a well-raised, well-fed hen's egg cooked over a wood fire, then you're out of luck.
There's something elemental and totally recherché about cooking over a wood fire, and a really good egg can be a revelation no matter how you cook it. If you're not willing or able to understand that, it's perfectly OK.
9
Cutting down trees and burning them inside your home, releasing particulate matter into the air, causing the elderly and asthmatics to suffer, for the purpose of ambiance, much less to cook one egg, is insane.
I bet Alice Waters drives a Prius and thinks she’s saving the world.
48
I'm guessing it's a Tesla.
4
The spoons shown are not exactly impressive craftmanship, a first year blacksmith apprentice would not have passed, if he had handed those in.
23
Finally, someone who actually understands the craft! Who puts the handle on the inside? And, if I had designed them the rivets would be flush, but of course here only the cook need be.
At that price a forged knife by one of Japan's most esteemed blacksmiths is a hundred times more difficult to create, and you will have a tool used in every meal, for years. This is so Berkeley.
6
I had to scroll through all these comments, but this blacksmith critique has just made my day.
3
I know this is off-topic, but a plea to Alice -- and Fanny: Pleeeeeze bring back Cafe Fanny in Berkeley!! How I miss it. You could even put spoon-cooked eggs on the menu.
10
Sometimes a spoon is just a spoon. And sometimes Anthony Bourdain is only the host of a show that features food and so must spout off to gain some publicity. I would not go to that much trouble for an egg but as a city child spending the summer on a ranch I was then and still am amazed you can cook toast over an open fire. Sometimes food is just to eat.
Alice Waters started a movement and some people resent that. If her spoon is more than just a spoon, so be it.
19
I saw the 60 Minutes program with Alice Waters. I still tell people about it. Leslie Stahl swooned over that egg. It looked so delicious. I can’t forget it. I have to try it. But I don’t have a fireplace. Can I hold it over the burner?
4
Do you have a small grill? If so, get some wood chips, and you're good to go. Just don't use petrochemicals to start the fire. You can taste them in every bite.
1
I'm sure people make fun of a lot of my home made from scratch practices and find my attraction to simple and traditional utensils precious at times, but I've got to admit I find the $250 egg spoon a pretty good magnet for criticism of elitist food culture. On the other hand, if its meaningful and satisfying for you, go for it! When it appears to be popular because it is trendy and chic, gag-me-with-a-spoon as some people used to say. Either way, attention to and time spent on preparing wholesome and delicious food unfortunately may be a luxury in our frantic culture, but its a grail worth seeking, me thinks. It can feed both the body and soul - and both seem to really need some serious feeding these days.
3
Oh my gosh, my brother found me an egg spoon at a yard sale. When he gave it to me for Christmas I didn't really know what to do with it, now I do
I like backyard and beach fires, they are elemental, and hiking with kids to the beach and building a driftwood fire and cooking a can of beans and hot dogs on sticks is always fun. I'll never forget visiting a friend in the winter in Connecticut, it was snowy and cold, her parents had a wood fire in their fireplace going strong and they used it like a hibachi and cooked pork chops! Why not do two things at once?
19
Try baked potatoes cooked in a wood stove, if you have a chance. Heaven.
Gobsmacked! Is this really a "war?" Come on! I understand that chefs have contributed to our culture, and I respect Alice Waters for her ground-breaking advances to our generally under-average American palate. But please...are we really fighting over cooking an egg?
Too precious. Really, tooooo....
23
No, we aren't fighting over cooking an egg. We are fighting over yet another spoiled man brattily dismissing a female peer who is far more skilled and far more influential than he is.
18
I don’t I don’t have the time or mental energy to worry this much about my food.
14
Yes, it does cost $250 dollars, but if you amortize it over its lifetime, it only comes out to $250 per use.
721
There should be a special button — that a reader can use only once in his or her lifetime — to give a letter a thousand "Recommended"s. If there were, I'd use it on this gem. Thanks, Stan.
49
I thought the NYT had stooped to a new low with its tabloid-style coverage of porn star Stormy Daniels, but this article is the epitome (or nadir) of food porn. Shame on us for reading it, and on the NYT for printing it.
Or is the article part of a sneaky effort to identify the 0.1 percenters who must be squeezed for even more of their wealth: Buy a $250 egg spoon and the seller turns your info over to the Wealth Redistribution enforcers.
2
Such shade from Brooklyn, no less. Bravo
3
My deBuyer carbon steel skillet is the place I want to cook a crisp-edged fried egg. Over a gas stove burner. I’m OK with olive oil and herbs, for what it’s worth. Mmm-mmm! Don’t have to use good charcoal or firewood, though. (Smoked salt is a good comp, if needed.) Save the flamibles for things best cooked outdoors!
3
Looks like a wok ladle. Too small for my needs. I eat three or four eggs at a time for breakfast, using my 12-inch Sitram stainless steel skillet to poach them...in cream. Excellent with thick slices of toast. Pass the pepper grinder.
7
Thanks for this article. I was looking for another debate to wade into. This one is way more fun then politics. Now, I need to figure out which side I'm on.
195
on the sunny side
5
I'm not sure how the egg spoon has morphed into a gender issue; it would be a profoundly stupid idea whether promoted by male or female (or other-gendered) chefs and food writers.
The true raison d'etre of this egg spoon is to signal virtue and affluence; if it cost $10.00 the narcissistic elitists would drop it like, well, a hot frying pan.
By the way, one major on-line vendor whose name begins with A sells a set of four mini-cast iron pans (3.5 inch diameter) for under $30--enough for two couples to use simultaneously. After all, having only one spoon makes fellow diners observers, not participants; where's the fun in that? Kind of like fondue with only one fork for several people.
1
Parts of the DC area had a power outage after the last Winter storm. My daughter posted a picture of her cooking breakfast in her backyard over an open fire on Facebook. Her dog sitting in a camp chair watching the fire. She was using the old cast iron skillet that disappeared when we were packing up to move to West Virginia. Like the blender that disappeared when daughter went away to college I will not be getting the skillet back.
18
The hand-forged long egg spoons are beautifully made. You can also get a 12 cm. cast iron egg pan on Amazon for $6.95 and make a charcoal fire to cook it on. Most of all, farm fresh eggs are the best tasting - whether they're boiled or fried in a queen's spoon!
13
it could maybe be sumpin— if it were square and had that coppery stuff on it.
And only if I could get two at a time for $19.99 offen the TV.
11
I think I'll have one made right away.
Fascinating that one need be overly rich or overly poor to have a fire in the kitchen though. I guess I'm the latter.
3
Every craft treasures fine tools. Carpenters covet Marple chisels and elite (and difficult to use) Japanese saws. As a wood butcher, I used a machinists square built by Starrett that cost many times what the same tool cost at Sears. It was no better, but I thought it made me better. Was I a chump?
Finger-pickers covet vintage Martin guitars
However, Stradivarius probably could have built his ethereal violins with a dull spoon and a kitchen knife. I exaggerate, but the craft and art is in the heart, not in the tool.
11
Marples chisels are average at best. Japanese saws are easy to use and are used by Japanese carpenters every day. And by non Japanese carpenters every day. Starrett squares are infinitely superior to sears and if you can’t see the difference..if one uses tools every day the tool becomes
1
Steve. . You sound like a lover of fine steel. I'm 71, so when I pounded nails, Marple was what we lusted for. I'm not Japanese, so I had troubles getting acclimated to Japanese saws.. maybe it was the moisture content in my materials.
As far as Starrett. . .well. . I love the feel, but 90 degrees is the same whether you measure with a Sears, Starrett or Harbor Freight square.
3
We have two really old egg poachers, one does 4 eggs and the other is just for one egg. Egg spoon? don't need one. Our utensils in our kitchen already serve their intended purpose.
3
I guess I now know why we never had an eggspoon to use when camping with the Boy Scouts.
And I'm really glad Ms. Waters has a sense of humor about all this. Perhaps that will somewhat disarm the knee-jerk insecure male types who are threatened by the spoon. Frankly, they should embrace their inner spoon and they might find themselves closer to the women (or men) they love.
But this is all new to me. I've been mystified as tiny frying pans appeared on the shelf hangers here and there at the local grocery in recent years. Guess I was thinking about them all wrong. I see now these were, in fact, mass-produced spoons. The handles are far too short for an open fire, but I'll bet they work just fine on a stove. And I can afford one, even though they seemed overpriced at nearly $10.
That's a bargain compared to the wonderfully executed, but somewhat too pricey for my Midwest tastes Singer-Lovell spoon. It is a wonderful, sleek and right-sized instrument and it's a good thing to support our female blacksmiths, too. I like it, and need no reason to find fault simply because it's costly - and even less to do so because of the gender of the smith.
Besides, how many chefs that are giving grief have picked up a hammer and stood over a hot anvil shaping it into something useful? Very, very few, I'd bet. If they want respect for their hands on dough, then respect her hands on steel.
If you can't stand the heat get outta the kitchen.
17
"“The price of the spoon is beside the point,” Ms. Singer said. “What’s ridiculous is that we treat men and women differently. "
Of course the point the other people are making with this celebrity showdown, is that wealthy men and women both get treated differently than the rest of us. Alice Waters is a target not solely because she is a woman, but because she is a privileged woman. The price of the spoon is exactly the point. You can cook an egg over a fire with a cheap pan from Walmart, but it wouldn't be an Alice Waters moment. The whole discussion is silly theatrics.
116
Note also that Ms. Singer called it “attitudinal and atmospheric.” Did she mean
“Attitudinal and stratospheric”?
1
Do we have to police Ms. Waters' kitchen tools? It makes her happy, it's not hurting anyone. There are plenty of more important things to clutch ones pearls over.
20
Decades ago, for those who publicly performed "I'm Cutting-Edge Rich", there was this piece of graffiti:
"Cocaine is nature's way of saying you're making too much money".
Thankfully, most people no longer see that as an innocuous way to publicly get rid of that excess money (without benefitting worthy causes).
Thus, new substitutes must be always be found. After The Egg Spoon, what will tomorrow's new thing be?
12
If it means supporting a female blacksmith and slow food movement, I'll bite. I can think of a gazillion things I can fry up on that little pan
14
I think Alice Waters is very damaging to eating in this country. There was just an article in this very paper about how more Americans than ever are overweight / obese. Why? Confusion and too much "morality" over eating and food. Food does not have to be organic, or slow, or made from scratch or grown in your own garden - any of the the ideas that Ms. Waters and her ilk promote. Avoid any food that you get from a drive through and anything that has too many ingredients you can't pronounce and it will all be OK. It's just food. Don't over think it
20
"Confusion and too much 'morality' over eating and food."
So _that's_ why so many Americans are obese?
7
. . . you won't get fat using this spoon.
1
Ms. Waters promotes the kind of eating you champion so your outrage is desperately misplaced.
3
I find both Alice Waters and Dan Barber insufferable, so I am an equal-opportunity anti-elitist, I guess-- likewise Myrvhold and his excessive gadgetry and "science."
It's possible to champion local food, growing your own food, and doing more with less (food waste and technique) without acting like a cult leader (and worse, accepting it when other people treat you like a cult leader). But reasonable, moderate behavior doesn't make for good media, I guess.
30
I laughed aloud at Bourdain's comment.
Thanks for the chuckle.
21
6 cords of wood?
I've heated a 1200 ft2 house for an entire heating season while using less than 2 cords of wood.
1
@Chris Cole: 6 cords of wood is about right for a bad winter in my neck of the woods! South Carolina is lots warmer!
While I wouldn't whip up a fire just to cook one egg, I would love to use this to cook an egg on an already created fire. Cooking things over fire is fun, which is why kids love making s'mores and the best part of camping is trying to figure out how to cook stuff.
127
Thanks for the simple wisdom in this. Not everything needs to be a self-righteous, snarky battle in the comments section.
2
Ingredients:
1) 9-inch cast-iron mini wok, pre-seasoned: $25
2) 6 feet of 3/8-inch threaded rod: $6
3) 3/8-inch nuts and washers, 4 each: $4
Directions:
1) Carefully heat the rod in the middle.
2) Bend the rod in half until the ends are 9 inches apart. Let cool.
3) Apply heat approx. 1 inch from one end of the rod. Bend 90 degrees in a direction perpendicular to the first bend. Let cool.
4) Repeat step 3) for the other end of the rod.
5) Use the nuts and washers to fasten the bent ends of the rods through the wok handles.
6) Use the remaining $215 to buy 1000 eggs.
7) Donate 976 eggs to a local food bank. Cook remaining eggs, one at a time, in your egg spoon. Impress your friends and neighbors.
264
A few questions and inquiries:
9"? Then just use a frying pan with the handle removed.
Seriously though, how are heating the rod in the middle and an inch from the ends? With a bernzamatic? Or would you use the appropriate forge?
You didn't describe how to bend the overly long rod at the fastening ends without damaging the threading. What tool would you need? Are you suggesting hot rolled or cold rolled? Of course it wouldn't be galvanized. How are sealing your overly long handled, unnecessarily heavy, frying pan?
Where are you buying such cheap eggs? Not a local, organic farm.
I think something similar, and not $250, would be fun to cook with on an actual campfire while camping...but at home when you have a stove? Wasteful or not, isn't it just a little bit silly? This is coming from someone who owns a house built in 1913 which still has a functional living room fireplace, used to have a cooking fireplace/stove in the kitchen, and has a backyard BBQ and fire pit. So you can say that I appreciate a good wood fire as much any anyone. That kitchen fireplace was taken out and replaced with a gas range for a reason.
34
Try a cast iron ladle ........... used on ETSY or EBAY...........usually used to melt lead to cast bullets or fishing sinkers.
A LOT less expensive!
2
Actually, the most irritating thing about that 60 minutes interview was Ms. Waters' proclamation that most Americans are choosing between a second pair of Nikes and Bronx grapes.
21
She is pretty naive and pretty unworldly, living in a bubble of vast affluence and liberal foodies in Northern California....but she is a very fine cook and writer, and spearheaded the whole "foodie revolution" of the last 40 years. In a goofy way, I kind of like her.
3
I buy my eggs from a guy who has chickens. I pay $1.25 per dozen. I cook said eggs in a pot of boiling water, or in a non-stick pan in clarified butter and s&p. I could cook a lot of delicious eggs before ever reaching that $250 price point! Silly.
56
The whole point is she payed a ridiculous sum to a "craftsman" to make a unique, one of a kind cooking utensil.
If you hired an artisan craftsman to hand-forge your frying pans....they would cost $400 each.
It isn't the SPOON ITSELF -- it could be knocked off for $10 or less -- but that an ARTIST hand-forged it, and is charging a super premium price, and Ms.Waters is very rich and famous, and doesn't have to worry "if I spend $250 on an egg spoon....what will I buy groceries with this month?"
As luxuries....this is pretty small stuff, frankly.
Call me when she buys a $500 million yacht.
3
I'm jealous.
The spoon doesn't hold...a candle... on a weekly read of the Times Real Estate section, if I really want to get into a first world snit.
150
I am not wealthy -- am pretty frugal -- and live a very modest life by the standards of the NYT real estate section.
But I am sure I could figure out how to find or make a long-handled spoon in which to cook a single egg.
What a kerfluffle about nothing.
1
I am fairly sure the NYT prints this sort of thing in lieu of comics. This is an amazing mashup of the precious, the absurd, the ridiculous, and the just plain hilarious. Can't you give us Calvin and Hobbes reruns instead?
393
Instead? Why can’t we have both!
1
my grandma would baste the eggs with the hot oil (lard) to cook the top and crisp the edges. she would do a pan full at a time and would split her sides laughing at this "egg spoon". Her stove burned corn cobs.
41
I think cooking over corn cobs could easily be the next big thing.
14
But only local, organic, heritage corn cobs, grown by a food justice organization!
I feel elitist just reading about the egg spoon in The New York Times.
522
I kind of want one, which puts me in the right class of people. Just think, I used to swoon going through the Christmas Sears catalogue, looking at the to-die-for new toys.
8
Hold the presses! I just learned that Ms. Waters and her au so courant daughter are developing an artisanal mini-buggy whip that can be used to whisk eggs, cream and numerous other comestibles. Rumored to be the same price point, $250, certain to be another best-seller.
#spoonmetoo
I've see houses in Southern California that have poolside barbecue setups that are more elaborate and costly than most Americans' indoor kitchens. I've seen houses that have a TV in every room, including the shower. What kind of carbon footprint did Bourdain's globe-trotting show have? Absurdity is in the eyes of the beholder. Lesley Stahl, 60 Minutes' resident conservative, was kind of mocking during the interview, but she did admit it was the best egg she'd ever had.
112
It was probably a really good egg. The ingredients count the most.
5
It looks delicious.
The spoon was made by a craftsperson in a very expensive part of the country -- hand forged -- did you have your silverware hand forged? your door handles? your chandelier? No? if you had, they would cost a fortune too. Just as if you had your wedding dress custom made from scratch, out of hand-loomed silk.
That doesn't mean that ordinary people cannot find or make or somehow substitute some cookery (a small cast iron pan?) for a long-handled "egg spoon" (or more accurately: a small fry pan with a very long handle).
Even at $250...which I admit is ridiculous....as extravagances go, this is really on the low end.
3
First they came for the egg spoons ...
189
... then they came for the sous-vide machines ...
40
... then they came for the mason jar half-full of lactose-free milk and maple syrup ...
13
... then I wanted to produce a hagiographic Chef's Table episode ... and there was nothing left to exploit
7
One word: why?
18
One word: pleasure.
2
“The price of the spoon is beside the point,” Ms. Singer said.
Good to hear. Does that mean you'll sell me one for a reasonable price, like $19.95?
219
@Susan Foley: You can buy a reasonable facsimile of that spoon in most Chinatown kitchen supply stores for about $10! It's a part of wok cookware....the other piece is like a spatula.
37
She may not -- her daughter is exploiting mom's famous last name to sell chi chi goods (ala Gwyneth Paltrow and her tra-la-la brands) on the internet.
Ms.Waters herself is actually a very fine cook and legendary restauranteur. She has some silly pretensions -- sure -- but she is the real deal when it comes to cooking.
I assure you, Target and other stores will be knocking these spoons out for Xmas 2018 for $9.99.
6
It’s a good bet Williams-Somona will beat Target to the punch. This kind of trifling useless will-live-forever-in-your-back-kitchen-drawer gadget is right up W-S’s alley.
2
$250 for a long handled iron spoon?? Really, Iknow excellent smith's that would make one for $25.....I have one from my great grandfather used to melt lead for shot and bullets. Anyone want it for $250??? It's not lead contaminated...Gotta agree with Tony B.
It's actually Boy Scout campfire cooking.....use a tuna can.
BTW retired Reg. Dietitian and CIA trained, after Boy Scouts....
26
OK, but I assure you that a BERKELEY, California "artisan FEMALE ironworker" would indeed charge $250 -- just for the cachet and to be able to say "this is identical to the ones that I custom forged for the legendary Alice Waters".
Prices on that kind of hand-crafted wares are astronomical and I have seen this kind of pricing at craft and art fairs here in the Midwest, so in Berkeley....I am unsurprised in the extreme.
2
Why does everything have to become elitist and inaccessible? This reminds me the ladle we use to season spices in Indian cuisine (tadka). Just because Alice Waters has to find a use for a silly long handled spoon, I'm not running to buy one. My eggs taste just fine in my home skillet.
18
She never said you had to buy her exact spoon or cook the eggs in an indoor fireplace.
My guess is that the taste is more about the spices, seasoning, whatever oil or clarified butter she uses -- more so than the spoon.
2
You don't need to have a special fireplace in your kitchen if you heat with a wood stove like many people in rural northern New England. Admittedly you'd normally have the stove door closed for heating, but when the coals are right maybe you could open the door just for the time it takes to cook the egg.
12
Obviously no one has ever been camping.
305
"When I leave New York, it's like camping out".
2
I'm with Bourdain on this.
Rich cooks with more money than brains.
39
Do I have this right? It's okay for a woman to waste crazy amounts of energy to cook an egg because some men have also cooked eggs impractically?
Who has time in their lives for such childish rationalization? Y'all must lead fortunate and easy lives for this quibbling to matter to you.
41
It's pretty wasteful to build a whole fire for one egg. Plus, where do you put the ketchup slices?
8
The ketchup has a separate utensil-- artisan made, brass, re-purposed from bottle-feeding early spring lambs. Hold it upside down at 42 degrees and dribble your fire roasted egg with one of Heinz' 57 flavors.
26
I want one!!! and I know a forger who can make it...why not? Nicer than a plastic spiralizer on the wall next to my copper pans.
4
In the Intersectional SWPL Virtue-Signalling Sweepstakes, Egg-Spoon On The Wood Fire is significantly handicapped by its anti-greenness.
14
Gas stove works too...
3
Oh, tish-tosh - it's not the same as a perfectly urated wood fire, has none of the aroma and experiential fiber, oops, I mean virtue - or the other way around. The best eggs are chosen from the henhouse by one of Alice's twelve chosen band under a full moon, btw.
6
Instead of spending $250 on a gadget most people will use never or infrequently (or hang from the wall as a piece of art), those interested in helping the Edible Schoolyard Project should donate some or all of that money directly to the organization.
As for the apparent sexism/bias in this (fabricated/hand-forged/artisanal) debate, the quote in this section struck me as ironic, since Lovell is a blacksmith, not a "female" blacksmith: <>
36
The difference between a sous vide cooker and an egg spoon is that an egg spoon has a useful range of culinary applications similar to Donald Trump's printable vocabulary and requires the same constant attention he does to avoid a disaster.
5
Egg spoons. Who knew? Flyover country has its own advantages at times. I suppose that you could even poach the egg if you had a fancy pot of water in the fire (or better yet on a fancy grill!) But it's still one egg at a time, and sometimes even a girl wants more than one egg.
21
Never heard of an egg spoon. But my mother-in-law (in Spain) would fry an egg (or many) in a pan filled with maybe an inch of olive oil. The egg(s) would get a crisp crust all around it. The hot oil simmered and sputtered and scoops of hot oil would be ladled or washed over the frying egg.
Sounds to me like the egg spoon does something very similar.
You get a very greasy fried egg, crispy and brown around the edges. The yolk is still runny for dipping with some nice Spanish bread. Yum!
21
Soon enough, if not already, someone will market a non-artisan, mass market egg spoon and we will be all the better for it.
27
I hope so. I heat my house with wood. I can make breakfast while getting warm. Toast can heat up on top of the wood stove.
6
But I will still have to figure out a way to safely build a fire in my kitchen and acquire the wood and dispose of the coals. Oh wait ! I can use those ashes to make artisanal soap ...
16
It's called a small cast iron skillet.
2
Sentence all these people to Denny’s for a Grand Slam breakfast- for life.
199
A life of Grand Slam breakfasts? Isn't that called death by cholesterol?
Let me make my attitude about cooking over a fire that looks as though it wants to cook me, cooking with a so-called "hand-forged iron egg spoon," clear...I would spend the rest of my life on canned soups before I touched a designer egg spoon.
I am not about to be a woman of 1800s.
45
So what do you make for dinner, Nancy? Reservations?
9
I think you missed the point, Miguel - our great grandmothers and great great grandmothers had to work and cook and probably had little or no leisure time for themselves. Many of us want to move forward, not backwards.
5
One can make a lot of things without a special egg spoon
3
if i had a fireplace, i would want one.
but wood burning and our air pollution make the former too selfish.
44
Either way, it is still a First World problem.
143
So, this thing's not a ladle???
130
Exactly. My husband, an historical reenactor specializing in food, uses a wok ladle with an extended handle as an egg spoon. The results are delicious.
18
Oh, no! It's not as ladle.
It's a SPECIAL egg spoon! Otherwise known as a foodie ben wa
11
$250 is a lot of money to spend on a forged iron egg spoon.
Having never used one, I would doubt that frying a sunny-side-up egg in any UNCOVERED utensil would make all the white calculated and the yolk soft. I absolutely dislike an egg with the white mucous and transparent on, and around, the yolk.
10
A deft orbit around the yolk mid-fry with a chopstick will pull off the thick albumin that I, too, find gross. I drag it into the the hot pan. I still rupture about 10% of yolks doing this.
9
baste the egg with the hot oil to cook the top and crisp the edges, no turning needed.
Grandma did this and could do a pan full at a time, she would split a side laughing at the "egg spoon"
11
Wow, I got something out of reading the comments, after all.
Now I know how to avoid the gooey mucus. that'll be good.
Well done!! xx oo :-)
You could buy a stainless forged wok spoon online for ten bucks and cook your Alice Waters style egg over a stove burner turned down low. All the fun, none of the expense and hassle. Why does this have to be a big deal?
(A: because 1) human beings are tribal about everything, 2) we ritualize everything, and 3) for a man it’s legit, but women get crit.)
159
No woodsy smoky flavor though.
5
Summertime BBQ grill, use real charcoal or throw some mesquite chips on the charcoal briquettes. Then you could pretend.
6
I’ve never done it, but I imagine that the woodsy smoke goes up your nose rather than flavoring the egg. But then, the smell of woodsmoke is a proper aesthetic experience in itself.
4
It's a lot of brouhaha over pan with a long handle, made out of iron, stuck in a fire with an egg in it. Though I sort of get the elitism of someone who can afford a fireplace in their kitchen and $250 for a hand-forged egg-spoon.
40
Anyone that can carry a few rocks can "afford a fireplace."
1
To the best of my knowledge, Alice Waters did not put a fireplace in her kitchen -- she remodeled her small bungalow so that the KITCHEN was in the largest room, the living room, which already had a working fireplace. She spends most of her time cooking, so this makes sense for HER lifestyle.
This may have changed over the years, but I remember reading about and seeing pictures of her kitchen.
If it was your vocation and CAREER to cook and invent recipes and experiment with food....it would certainly justify spending extra money on your kitchen (vs. your car or your garden or your wardrobe).
3
Eggstually, a tempest in an egg spoon!
32
Egg-xactly.
7
Good lord. It's an egg. Just get a small skillet and use your stove.
191
But then everyone wouldn't know that you could spend $250. on a single utensil and had a kitchen big enough for a specialized fireplace.
30
Exactly, or a small skillet on the grill if you want the smokiness (which I'm sure is delicious). This is not the stupidest thing I've ever seen done with $250, not sure why we have to get so judgey. Buy in if you think it's cool, don't if you don't.
8