Don’t tell James Beard Award-winning food writer Michael Ruhlman that eggs are trending.
True, he’s got a new book out this spring, “Egg,” that’s all about the sunny little kitchen staples. And he’s certainly aware that more people are catching on to the fact that the egg is “just this really fabulous, versatile ingredient.” But the problem with eggs being trendy is that it implies they could — or maybe even did — fall out of fashion, which is not something he’ll entertain.
The egg, after all, can be “the height of refinement or the quintessential simple peasant dish. It can be four-star cooking or it can be a last-minute on-the-run lunch,” he says. “What can’t it do?”
Eggs, of course, are a basic ingredient and not likely to become tomorrow’s shrimp aspic. But their popularity is definitely on the rise.
According to the American Egg Board, consumption is at a seven-year high with Americans adding three eggs person for each of the last three years, bringing the 2013 per capita total to just over 250 eggs.