The Bear Omelette

I'm a sucker for food themed media, whether it be TV shows, movies, books, etc. So when the first season of The Bear was released last year, I knew it was going to be a must watch for me. We had almost finished the final season of Shameless, when I saw an article that the lead in The Bear would be played by Jeremy Allen White, the same actor who plays Lip Gallagher. Having enjoyed his portrayal as the oldest son in the most dysfunctional family on television, I definitely wanted to give his new show a chance. The show follows a young fine-dining chef's return home to run his local family sandwich shop. It felt like the show was written for me.

This post isn't a review of the show, because if it was I would write paragraph after paragraph absolutely gushing over how much I love it. The filming is beautiful, scoring brings back waves of nostalgia from excellent music selections, and the writing deserves all of the critical praise that it has received. On top of all of that the acting is superb, immersing you into the web of relationships at the Original Beef of Chicago and subsequently The Bear. We just finished season two last night, but this is about the omelette made in episode 9 of season 2.

There's a scene that follows Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) making a French omelette for Natalie (Abby Elliott), but it's the way she elevates it that has the internet buzzing. There a bunch of articles about this scene and many people have replicated what she makes. It starts with the French techniques of making a simple omelette, but then Boursin cheese gets added onto one side of the egg before rolling it up. After rubbing a pad of butter over the omelette, it gets garnished with chopped chives, some cracked pepper, and crushed sour cream and onion potato chips. Watch the scene below and tell me you don't want to try it.

I'm not a big scrambled eggs or omelette fan, but this tasted so good and was well worth the minimal effort needed to make it. It's the combination of the creamy cheese along with salty and crunchy chips that takes the humble omelette to the next level. I went pretty heavy handed with the chips, but I loved the extra texture and salt they brought and personally think are necessary to make an omelette something I'd want to eat. A lot of the other dishes in the show take a lot more ingredients and skill to pull of (I fully expect a full cookbook to come out after the show ends), but this one is easy and relatively budget friendly. It's the type of dish that I want to make for others because it's just so different and has been a real talking piece. 

Even if you're not much of a cook, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not trying to make one for yourself. If sour cream and onion isn't a flavor profile you enjoy, there are a lot of combinations you could try utilizing other types of soft cheeses and cheese spreads with similarly flavored chips. Just thinking about this now, I think a soft cheddar spread with my favorite potato chips would be amazing. The possibilities are endless and you deserve something more, so get in the kitchen and start creating because I certainly will be.