If you had to eat one type of food for the rest of your life what would it be?

This question haunts me, provides perfect dinner party fodder, and sometimes keeps me awake at night. An internal debate rages as to the merits of the decadent drug-like hit of seared foie gras compared to the clean untampered beauty of raw fish or maybe the comfortable simplicity of light, fluffy gnocchi con pomodoro, I could go on and on…….

Yet the answer I frequently alight upon invariably remains the same; the egg. You are probably thinking isn’t it like asking a gardener what’s your favourite flower and him/her answering soil. Yes, eggs do provide the foundation for a hundred million sauces, pastas, soufflés etc. In this context however, I am referring to the egg in its purest and most untainted incarnation either poached, scrambled, boiled or fried. And if pushed to choose, yes I’m obsessive and neurotic, I would certainly settle on the scrambled egg.

My love of this seemingly humble ingredient has spurred me to the dizzying heights of trying to attain scrambled egg nirvana. This has been achieved once at a restaurant, La Petite Maison in Nice. However, it is realised every morning in my little kitchen thanks mainly to Mr Gordon Ramsay’s excellent recipe below:

SUBLIME SCRAMBLED EGGS ON TOAST
serves 2-3
6 large free-range eggs
25g ice-cold butter, cut into small dice
1 tbsp crème fraîche
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper
Few chives, snipped
2-3 chunky slices of rustic bread, such aspain Polaîne, to serve

1 Break the eggs into a cold, heavy-based pan, place on the lowest heat possible, and add half the butter. Using a spatula, stir the eggs frequently to combine the yolks with the whites.
2 As the mixture begins to set, add the remaining butter. The eggs will take about 4-5 minutes to scramble – they should still be soft and quite lumpy. Don’t let them get too hot – keep moving the pan off and back on the heat.
3 Meanwhile, toast the bread.
4 Add the crème fraîche and season the eggs at the last minute, then add the snipped chives. Put the toast on warm plates, pile the softly scrambled eggs on top and serve immediately.

This recipe depends on the best quality eggs you can find plus the utmost patience and care. You will however, be rewarded by the most heavenly concotion, creamy, light and fluffy. Enjoy.