Eggs Benedict should really be called Eggs Benedict Arnold, because it will betray any shortcomings you have as a home cook. You should give it a go anyway. (Kenji: “You CAN and SHOULD make Eggs Benedict at home.”) Why? It’s a dish that all but the best restaurants get right, and you have all but three and a half minutes to shovel it in your mouth before the window closes for the perfect bite. So you may as well perfect it at home.

What does perfect look like? Each element is prepared to its ideal temperature at the exact same time. Yolks “a river of liquid gold” while whites are perfectly set (and shaped like a “chaos mop” if you’re like Deb). English muffins are fork split, not sliced. Hollandaise sauce is an emulsion, which means you are trying to mix two ingredients that don’t want to be mixed, so yeah, you are literally fighting nature. Who will break first, you or the sauce? A delicious showdown for the ages.

Recipes Mentioned:

• Foolproof Eggs Benedict (Serious Eats)
• Easy Poached Eggs (Serious Eats)
• How to Make Eggs Benedict the Classic Way (Kenji’s Cooking Show)
• How to Make Eggs Benedict for a Crowd (Kenji’s Cooking Show)
• How to Poach an Egg, Smitten Kitchen-Style (Smitten Kitchen)
• Spinach and Smashed Egg Toast (Smitten Kitchen
• Old-Fashioned, No-Knead English Muffins Recipe (Serious Eats)

Crisp on the outside, custardy on the inside – this week we’re talking French Toast with special guest Christopher Kimball (Milk Street). Chris joins Kenji and Deb to banter about bread for longer than any podcast ever has (not fact checked) – and how each of them perfects this classic breakfast dish. Plus, Kenji dispels a myth about smoke points!

Recipes Mentioned:

• Carmelized Cinnamon Sugar French Toast (Smitten Kitchen Keepers)
• Perfect quick and easy french toast (Serious Eats)
• French Toast, Perfected (Milk Street)

Deb and Kenji are taking a break this week. Please enjoy this classic episode from our friends at Sidedoor, "America’s Unknown Celebrity Chef".

For more information, visit Sidedoor's episode page, and subscribe to Sidedoor on your favorite podcast player.

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When Lena Richard cooked her first chicken on television, she beat Julia Child to the screen by over a decade. At a time when most African American women cooks worked behind swinging kitchen doors, Richard claimed her place as a culinary authority, broadcasting in the living rooms of New Orleans’s elite white families. She was an entrepreneur, educator, author, and an icon – and her legacy lives on in her recipes. Today: her improbable rise to prominence, and her famous gumbo.