DashJ

It's World Egg Day, which means we're celebrating all things eggs.

One of the most exquisite egg dishes in the world is made by master chef Alain Passard.

It's no secret that his three-star Michelin restaurant l'Arpège in Paris is a mecca for fine dining, but it's his signature "l'Arpège Egg" — a genius take on oeuf à la coque — that continues to entrance diners.

Passard originally called this signature dish the chaud-froid oeuf or "hot-cold egg" because of the contrast between the warm, poached runny egg yoke, and the sherry vinegar-infused whipped cream he adds at the top.

The dish — now called the Coquetier "Maison de Cuisine" on the restaurant's dinner prix fixe — is made from high-quality eggs from a farm in the Loire Valley of France. The fresh eggs are carefully decapitated and the white yolk is drained off to leave only the unbroken yellow yolk.

The eggs are then simmered in a water bath until just before the egg sets, and subsequently sprinkled with chives and crème fraîche whipped with aged Sherry vinegar. Passard adds a touch of Canadian maple syrup and fleur de sel (hand-harvested sea salt) to finish.

The magic of the dish really occurs when diners dip the spoon into the egg, and the flavors of the warm, runny yolk combine with the cold crème fraîche and vinegar while mixing with the sweetness of the syrup.

Warm and cold. Sweet, sour, and savory. Delicious.

It's a deceptively simple-looking dish that seems to be a poached egg set on a silver egg stand.

But anyone who has ever dipped their spoon into a l'Arpège egg knows it is so much more.

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