When You Cook for Yourself

Two breakfast plates: an omelet, an egg-in-a-hole cut from toast, and a few segments of mandarin, with a smoothie alongside. This is what happens when you cook a lot for other people, and then you cook for yourself. #notfancy #chefproblems.

It is a truth of the trade that cooks feed themselves simply. Still, a plain omelet is one of the classic tests of a cook. Chefs have long used it as an audition because it shows control of heat and timing with nowhere to hide. The egg-in-a-hole is the detail that gives me away as a baker: even on a day off, I cut something out with a cutter.