CHAPTER ELEVENpieces or discolored areas, pour the egg into a larger bowl
where all eggs will be whisked together. Proceed cracking
one egg at a time until all the eggs you plan to scramble
are in the bigger bowl. If you fi nd shell shards or discol-
ored areas in an egg, while it is still in the small bowl,
use a half of the egg shell to scoop out the shell sliver. It
might be necessary to use tweezers to remove any discol-
ored spots from fertilized eggs if you can’t pick it out
with the shell.
For our hero shot, I used a dozen large eggs and whisked
them with about 1/3 cup of half-and-half until thor-
oughly blended. Eggs cook evenly and more quickly if
they are room temperature, so they were pulled out of the
refrigerator at the beginning of the day to allow them to
come to room temperature. Th e trick is to use a large
non-stick skillet over low to medium-low heat and stir
constantly during the entire cooking process. I prefer a
wooden spoon for this job. Th e constant agitation and
stirring motion helps the eggs to form small-sized curds
as they cook. When the entire pan of eggs has formed
curds, change the motion from stirring to gently lifting
and folding over a spoonful of eggs at a time. Keep the
motion constant so the eggs stay fl uff y and don’t stick.
When the consistency changes from liquid to fl uff y, and
the color lightens up just a bit, they are ready to build on
the hero plate.
Building the Hero Plate
Position biscuits on the plate and then determine where
the bacon and eggs will reside on the plate. Build the
eggs by placing a small group of curds in the center of
the designated egg area. Build outward until the prede-
termined size for the egg mass is reached. Th en build
height into the eggs by placing a small group of curds
at a time on top of the base egg area. I like using a small
metal spatula for this job because the eggs transfer