Potato chip omelet delights beyond expectation
Even if you haven’t worked in a restaurant, the concept of family meal may be familiar: It’s the act of cobbling together a meal that salvages or repurposes ingredients to resourcefully feed a restaurant’s staff before service, and, ideally, to connect them at the table. The frugality of this kind of meal can be thrilling — it’s a marriage of hospitality and practicality — and it exemplifies how many Americans are preparing food right now, as many home cooks have leaned into making focaccia, growing victory gardens and stretching staple ingredients.
Despite pioneering lavish modernist cuisine at El Bulli restaurant in Spain, chef Ferran Adrià’s cookbook “The Family Meal: Home Cooking With Ferran
Adrià” (Phaidon, 2011) embraces restraint. In it, Adrià explored the dishes he created alongside Eugeni de Diego, a head chef at the restaurant, to serve the staff. The book tackles approachable meals using limited ingredient lists, a topic not often associated with Michelin-starred restaurants but one that is ever popular with home cooks — and practiced now with renewed fervor.
The simplicity of Adrià’s omelet is its charm: Using just eggs, potato chips and olive oil, it evokes the flavors of a labor-intensive tortilla Española but takes only minutes to assemble and cook.
Adrià encourages cooks to use the best-quality potato chips and eggs available, but the recipe works with any chips you may have, even flavored ones. The tortilla’s execution may take some practice, but it’s straightforward: Whisk eggs until light and aerated, fold in the chips until slightly softened, then cook in a slick of olive oil in a nonstick skillet.
The only challenge is the flip. You’ll want to turn the omelet the second it starts to set underneath. You may fret about the loose, glistening, alarmingly uncooked egg mixture on top. Have some faith, cover the omelet with a plate and twist your wrists without hesitation, then just slide the omelet back onto the skillet to finish cooking.
You could opt to add some finely sliced chives, a pinch of piment d’Espelette or paprika, a handful of grated Manchego or any other cheese you have on hand, or serve the omelet alongside salad or charcuterie. But any addition is purely extraneous.
Ferran Adrià’s Potato Chip Omelet
Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Total time: 10 minutes
Ingredients
12 large eggs
6 ounces potato chips (about 6
cups)
2 tablespoons olive oil
Kosher salt and black pepper,
for serving (optional)
Directions
Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and whisk vigorously until frothy and lightened in color, about 4 minutes. (If you have a balloon whisk, now is the time to use it: It will aerate better than a standard whisk, and should take half the time and effort. Either way, your arm will burn by the end of this, but a fluffy, puffy omelet will be your reward.)
Add 1 tablespoon oil to a 10inch nonstick skillet and heat over medium.
Add the chips to the eggs. Using a plastic spatula, gently fold a few times to ensure chips are coated. Let the chips soak for 1 minute.
Pour the mixture into the skillet, using the spatula to spread the potatoes into an even layer, then to loosen the omelet from the sides of the pan.
After the bottom of the omelet is just about set — it should barely take on color but the top isn’t completely set — 3 to 4 minutes, cover the omelet with an upside-down plate or a large, flat lid.
Holding one hand flat against the plate and holding the skillet by its handle, gently flip over the omelet to release it onto the plate.
Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet, then carefully slide the omelet from the plate, uncooked-sidedown, into the pan and cook for about 2 minutes. Slide the omelet onto a plate, slice and serve immediately.