What an honor to be invited by the White House to participate in this year’s Easter Egg Roll. I was invited because Mrs. Obama gave a theme to the event this year, “Let’s Go Play,” which involved healthy eating for kids. And you gotta include eggs in that! And to that end, chefs were invited to give cooking demonstrations at the “KID’S KITCHEN.” The stage was set up on the grounds with the White House as the backdrop and was complete with an overhead mirror that made what the chefs were doing visible to kids who sat at tables directly below. There was even a prep tent for the chefs to organize and prepare the ingredients for their demos. Of course, the ingredients were all healthful foods, for dishes that kids might put together at home themselves. Well, older kids might. Except for my omelets.

Without a doubt, my omelet demos conveyed kid-friendly ease of preparation. And they included veggies that – along with the eggs – delivered dynamite nutrition. I invited two youngsters to participate in both of the omelet demos I gave. And participate they did. I showed them the technique and then turned the frying pan over to both of them to make an omelet by themselves from start to finish.

For my first demo I had a 9-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl, both of whom turned out omelets so beautiful that the audience and a couple of the White House chefs who were there couldn’t believe it. Honest! My second demo starred a very precocious 6-year-old boy who wanted to take over the show. I had to rein him in! His partner was a more subdued 7-year-old girl. Again, after I showed them how, both of them made omelets so surprisingly beautiful that I couldn’t believe it. During that demo there was a photographer from the Washington Post taking zillions of pictures that I hope get published because with the kids making the omelets it was all cuter than cute.

By the way, the omelets were filled with low-fat cheese, diced tomatoes, mushrooms and fat-free ham, plus chopped parsley for color. Low-fat, low-cal, and lots of flavor and nutrition.

Though my programs were scheduled for the afternoon, my colleague Elizabeth and I arrived at the White House lawn at 7 am to take it all in and speak with media. That was a new experience for me. An entire section of the lawn was set aside for television networks and local stations and their crews to report on the event.  Armed with my omelet pan and spatula, I was able to land three interviews!

It helps to be a Guinness Book record holder. Everyone finds that quirky.

A highlight of the day was showing up at the book reading section of the lawn where the president, first lady and their daughters showed up to read  stories to a group of children.  I wasn’t able to make contact, of course, but it was very thrilling to be within 20 feet or so of the first family. I took pictures until my camera battery died.

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE! Over the past few weeks, I have been telling anyone who would listen how to celebrate Easter with eggs – on TV, radio and in newspapers. Mostly, I told people the proper way to hard-cook eggs. Did you know that 7 out of 10 moms don’t know the right way to hard-cook their Easter eggs? When I offered up this information, the general response was “huh?” Everyone’s been “hard boiling” their eggs because that’s what the phrase that’s been used forever says. Boil ‘em? WRONG.

Twenty-one radio shows asked for me to educate their listeners on the proper way to hard cook eggs (see below). They also wanted to talk about how to use eggs after Easter, especially since – and I’m sure you know this – the week after Easter is NATIONAL EGG SALAD WEEK! All of the radio interviews were lots of fun and I had a great time!

But I shined the brightest in Chicago. On the hugely popular “Dean Richards Show,” on WGN Radio, I was scheduled for a10-minute interview, but one topic led to another and before we both knew it, I was on the air with Dean for 45 minutes! (Including some commercial breaks but who’s counting?) I had listeners calling in with questions about eggs in general, my Guinness omelet record, my favorite uses for hard-cooked eggs, and light and funny exchanges about my career with eggs. I loved it! I hate to boast, but the show’s host, Dean Richards, said that my interview was one of the most fun interviews he had ever conducted! Meanwhile, I had calls from two of my Chicago friends who were fans of the show to tell me that it was more like “The Howard Helmer Show.” But don’t tell Dean because I wanna go back.

As if that wasn’t enough, I taped a segment with the nationally syndicated “Mike and Juliet” morning television show. The show has a wide audience reach and is aired on the local Fox station in most markets. I embarked in an omelet cook-off against Pete, who works at the show but was a chef in the army before his television days. After I showed Mike and his viewers the technique I’d be using, the race was on. Pete and I used the same brand of pans, ladles, spatulas, etc. to keep it fair. Mike was the referee. There was a countdown: 5, 4, 3, 2, GO! and off we went. Twenty three seconds later I turned my omelet out onto a plate and was declared winner of the race while the live studio audience (all wearing yellow American Egg Board aprons!) cheered. Pete, the good sport that he is, shook my hand and acknowledged that I was the clear “Omelet King”!  You can watch the segment HERE!

In addition to “Mike and Juliet,” a segment I taped some time ago for Mr. Food aired across the country last week, showing everyone how to make hard-cooked eggs. That’s here for your viewing pleasure: Mr. Food! 

All in all, I loved all of the media attention I got. Even more important, I was so happy that so many more people would be hard-cooking their eggs, rather than hard-boiling, from this point forward!

HERE’S THE PROPER METHOD TO HARD-COOK EGGS:

Place the eggs in a saucepan in a single layer and cover them with about an inch of water.  Bring the water to just where it starts to boil, then take the pan off the heat and put a tight fitting lid on it. Set a timer for 15-minutes. When the timer goes off, plunge the eggs into cold running water to stop the cooking and to cool them down. Then peel away. Or, you can save the hard cooked eggs in their shells in the refrigerator for up to a week and enjoy them whenever you like.

One of my responsibilities with the American Egg Board is to meet with food editors of national women’s and culinary magazines in New York. I keep them updated on all of the great things happening within the egg world, with hopes of them wanting to write about eggs or feature egg recipes in their pages. I have about 30 editors on my “media list” that I keep in touch with on an on-going basis.

Every year I invite the Egg Board’s director of communications to join me in taking as many of these editors to lunch as we can squeeze into a single week. The purpose is to thank them for all of the times they featured eggs on their food pages over the past year. I have the fun privilege of selecting a restaurant that I think everyone will love! This year, I chose Gramercy Tavern, Zagat Restaurant Guide’s top New York Restaurant year after year. It was a good choice. Everyone loved it.

A few weeks ago, from Tuesday thru Friday, we hosted seven editors each day at lunch. It was wonderful. The editors, all of whom are friends and colleagues with one another, welcomed a chance to break away from their test kitchens, computers, emails and cell phones and be able to chat amongst themselves. Because there are more editors than there were seats at our luncheon tables, some of the editors met up with us at breakfast or at dinner. For breakfast, we met at Landmarc restaurant in the Time-Warner center where they serve eggs poached in red wine. For dinner, it was Food Network’s Bobby Flay’s midtown restaurant Bar Americain.

In addition to me and Kristin Livermore (the Egg Board’s director of communications), here’s who was at our luncheon tables during the week of March 10th thru the 13th:

Tuesday the 10th:  Tina Ujlaki from Food & Wine – Allie Lewis Clapp from Real Simple – Salma Abdelnour from O Oprah – Fran Carpentier from Parade – Freya Berg from Kraft Friends and Family – Barbara Chernitz from Redbook.
Wednesday the 11th :  Beth Lipton from All You – Marge Perry from Better Homes & Gardens – David Bonom from Cooking Light – Jackie Plant from Woman’s Day – Julie Miltenberger from Family Circle – Tracy Seaman from Everyday with Rachael Ray.
Thursday the 12th:  Sara Moulton from Gourmet –Cheryl Slokum from Country Living – Teri Tsang from Everyday with Rachael Ray – Bret Thorn from Nation’s Restaurant News – Tara Bench and Vanessa Seder from Ladies Home Journal.
Friday the 13th:  Carol Prager from WeightWatchers, Judith Hill from Prevention, Susan Westmoreland from Good Housekeeping, Diane Hodges from True Story, Regina Ragone from Family Circle, Kate Slate from Hallmark, Chris Koury from Woman’s World.

Can’t wait for next year!