Omelette supremo gets cracking

It's no yolk, omelette-making. "I shell overcome" may have been 70-year-old United States omelette-making supremo Howard Helmer's resolve when he found out in the 1980s someone had beaten his world record.

He brought in the video camera to check his opposition and discovered the pretender to the throne was ambidextrous.

After training for a year to make himself more ambidextrous, he took to the competition pans again in 1990, beating the previous record by 112 by making a total of 427 two-egg unfilled omelettes in half an hour using the specified six pans.

That is an omelette every 25sec.

Not bad, when you consider his own first world record, back in 1978, was a mere 217. Yesterday, in Dunedin, Mr Helmer's cookery was not that fast, but he was still turning out omelettes complete with fillings and patter in under a minute each, in a demonstration at the Otago Polytechnic's cookery school.

Mr Helmer, who works for the American Egg Board, began his record-setting career when he was involved with setting up an omelette restaurant at Disneyland.

His lucky break coincided with the introduction of non-stick pans, which made speedy omelette production much faster, he said.

Perusal of Guinness world record books shows that in 1969 the half-hour record was a paltry 77.

While the adage says you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs, Mr Helmer has not broken most of the hundreds of thousands of eggs used in his omelettes.

In commercial kitchens in the United States the eggs are used from cartons, he said, although he can crack them two at a time if required.

As an egg ambassador Mr Helmer has travelled the world.

It is his second visit to New Zealand, although his first to Dunedin, and recently he was asked to go to Siberia.

About the only place he has not been asked to is France.

"I think they are just arrogant. I don't think they want an upstart American to make the dish they created."

Ironically, his favourite omelette is in the French style, and involves adding dry white wine to the eggs and a filling of gruyere cheese and bacon accompanied by a dollop of Dijon mustard.

One of the common mistakes people make with omelettes is cooking them too long.

"People put them in the pan and sit there and wait for something to happen."

If it is in the pan for more than a minute it gets too tough, he said.

Adding water, rather than milk, was a must as the milk had a toughening effect, he said.

After his demonstration yesterday, he took in some Dunedin sights with his hosts from Eggs Incorporated who admitted frankly they were finding it hard to keep up with him.

He said he loved the feel of Dunedin, with its architecture and hills, although he was not feeling up to walking up Baldwin St.

He expects to retire in two or three years.

"I'd settle here if I could," he said.

Omelette advice

• Crack two eggs into a bowl and whisk thoroughly with two tablespoons of water (not milk).

• Heat 24cm or 25cm non-stick pan until it is so hot "it makes you nervous".

• Put a knob of butter into the pan and shake the pan to spread it (do not use oil; it does not give the required flavour).

• Pour in eggs and, with a spatula, push cooked egg away from the side of the pan, tilting pan so the raw egg shifts to take its place. The raw egg should lose its runniness but still be moist.

• This procedure should take only 20sec.

• Put desired fillings on one half of the omelette.

• Use spatula and flip the unfilled side over filling.

• Turn upside down on to a plate. (This is useful for presentation if the omelette splits on top because "no-one needs to know the guts is spilling out underneath the omelette".)