Savory Eggs

After a month and a half of general cooking classes and beginner techniques, we have finally arrived at more fun classes - classes which make me feel very professional.
Today we had a whole day of eggs - savory eggs. We began by making your basic scrambled eggs. It's surprising how "professional" technique will change the texture and color of something so basic - constantly stir, never allow eggs to sit and don't fold, stir. We also made "French" scrambled eggs by cutting a teaspoon of butter into the eggs before putting them into the pan - a much richer, smoother consistency.
After scrambled eggs, we moved onto mayonnaise and hollandaise. Making mayonnaise is an art and a skill; it takes time and practice and intuition... My friend Mallory and I ALMOST nailed it on our first try... almost. To make mayonnaise, you must whisk egg yolks and oil (plus lemon juice) together at the perfect pace - drizzling the oil at the same pace as whisking the eggs - this combination causes a change in the chemical makeup of the ingredients and emulsifies the mixture. Our mayonnaise held together well, but it was a little bit thick - indicating that we over whisked, but not enough to break the emulsification.

After our mayonnaise, we made hollandaise by tempering the eggs, using the heat to change the structure as well. Using our hollandaise, we made a perfectly poached egg and turned it into eggs florentine... a "healthier" version of eggs benedict - no ham, homemade hollandaise with local, pastured eggs and locally grown, organic wilted spinach on top of whole wheat english muffin.

The day was full of eggs, as you can see. We learned how to make fried eggs and sunny side up eggs... I felt like a genuine diner line cook frying eggs to order!
Lastly, we set up an omelet station - my favorite. Prior to starting school, I would have said omelets are one of my specialties... I thought I had proper technique, the correct ratio, and they were delicious. On the contrary... I did not know the proper technique, my omelets were over stuffed and the wrong texture, not to mention a few other technical problems.
There are 2 types of proper omelets -
1. French omelets - traditionally made from 2 eggs and either no fillings or a small amount of herbs or spread of cheese. They are traditionally tri-folded and very pale in appearance
2. American omelets - usually made from 3 eggs and stuffed with many different varieties of fillings. They are normally bi-folded and pale in color, though slight browning is acceptable.

A tip when cooking omelets - pour the eggs in a hot, buttered pan and stir constantly until eggs begin to cook. Cut the heat and smooth the eggs across the pan, allow eggs to continue to cook while spread, then add filling (if making an American) and begin folding process...