France. The technique of the rolled omelette is quintessentially French — Auguste Escoffier, Ferdinand Point, and Paul Bocuse all treated the perfect omelette as the true test of a cook's skill. Jacques Pepin's television demonstrations of the technique are the definitive modern reference.
The French omelette is the benchmark of kitchen skill. Three eggs, good butter, a hot pan, 90 seconds. The exterior should be pale, unbrowned, uncracked. The interior should be barely set — baveuse (wet, silky) in the French chef's ideal. The technique — rapid circular stirring with a fork followed by a roll-and-flip — is learned, not intuited. This is the first dish a French chef's apprentice must master.
- Japanese tamagoyaki (layered rolled egg omelette — the Japanese version of the same rolled-egg discipline); Spanish tortilla espanola (thick, set egg and potato cake — the opposite approach to the same ingredient); Iranian kuku sabzi (herb-packed egg frittata — the Middle Eastern interpretation of egg as vehicle for flavour).
A cold glass of Chablis alongside a plain omelette with fine herbs (chives, tarragon, chervil, flat-leaf parsley). The mineral acidity of Chablis cuts through the butter and egg. For a filled omelette (Gruyere, ham, mushrooms duxelles): a white Burgundy from Macon.