Julia Child’s L’Omelette Roulee

Mix the eggs with the water, add the salt and pepper to taste. Heat an omelette pan (that has 7″ diameter at the bottom) over medium high heat and place in the butter. Coat the entire pan with the butter including up the sides. When the foam has subsided and just before the butter starts to turn brown, pour in the eggs. Let the eggs set in the pan for 2-3 seconds then give them a shake. Now grasp the handle of the pan with both hands, thumbs on top, and immediately begin jerking the pan vigorously and roughly toward you at an even, 20 degree angle over the heat, one jerk per second. Keep doing this so that the egg releases itself from the bottom of the pan. After several jerks the eggs will begin to thicken. Very quickly add the Brie cheese and the tarragon. Then increase the angle of the pan slightly which will force the egg mass to roll over on itself with each jerk at the far lip of the pan. As soon as the omelette has shaped, hold it in the angle of the pan to brown slightly. Do not overcook, this whole process should take only 20-30 seconds! Julia has named this “dinner in half a minute.” The center of the omelette should remain soft and creamy.

Plating of this omelette is just as important as the rest of the technique. Hold the plate in your left hand. Turn the omelette pan so its handle is to your right. Grasp the handle with your right hand, thumbs on top. Rest the lip of the pan slightly off the center of the plate so that the omelette will land in the center. Then tilt the pan and plate against each other at a 45-degree angle and plate the omelette. Garnish with the parsley and serve immediately.

Excerpted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Copyright ©1961 by Alfred A. Knopf. Reprinted with permission from the publisher Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.