James Beard Award-winning author Michael Ruhlman explains why the egg is the key ingredient to the craft of cooking 'I am, notoriously, an egg slut. This book has everything you need to know about the ingredient that gives in so many ways. And keeps on giving.' Anthony Bourdain For culinary visionary Michael Ruhlman, the question is not whether the chicken or the egg came first, it's how anything could be accomplished in the kitchen without the magic of the common egg. Ruhlman starts with perfect poached and scrambled eggs, and builds up to brioche and Italian meringue. Along the way, readers learn to make their own mayonnaise, pasta, custards, quiches, cakes and other preparations that rely fundamentally on the hidden powers of the egg. A unique framework for the book is provided in an illustrated egg flowchart, which starts with the whole egg at the top and branches out to describe its many uses and preparations - boiled, pressure-cooked, poached, fried, coddled, separated, worked .