Travel Around the World in Six Omelets

Few words strike fear into the heart of a new cook like "French rolled omelet.”

It’s such a famously elemental dish that some restaurants use it to test a chef’s skill level. With only a few simple ingredients, there’s no room to hide mistakes, and a short lapse in attention can, in a matter of seconds, morph a custardy masterpiece of soft-set eggs into a spongy, acrid mass.

The French are not alone in putting the omelet on a pedestal. In every corner of the world, cooks rely on a combination of precise technique and close attention to coax eggs into tender, satisfying dishes. In Slovenia, to make a sweet Pohorje omelet, eggs are separated; whipped until light and fluffy; gently folded back together to form a rich, eggy batter; and then baked into a cloudlike dessert. In Thailand, the eggs for khai yat sai are swirled in a skillet until they set into a thin sheet, which is then folded around a ground-meat-and-basil filling. Yet another version of the omelet is the Denver omelet sandwich, which originated in the American West in the early 1900s. Historians claim that the dish—made with green bell pepper, ham, and onion and originally served between sliced bread—was created by transcontinental railroad workers or cattle drive cowboys. In the 1950s, the Denver omelet sandwich was said to be the most popular sandwich on menus across the country. (Somewhere along the way, the bread was dropped, and this omelet became an American diner staple.)

The omelets of the world vary wildly in flavor and texture from one country to the next, but they all share one defining characteristic: The eggs are kept separate from the filling. This is what sets omelets apart from other eggy dishes such as frittatas, where mix-ins like tomatoes, mushrooms, and bacon are stirred directly into the egg mixture before cooking. In an omelet, while the eggs can be whisked to the point of aeration or manipulated into different textures through the use of ingredients like flour and yogurt, the mix-ins are always rolled, folded, or stacked between the egg layers. In the recipes that follow, we pay homage to the omelet with six global variations (including a scrambled omelet riff) that elevate the humble egg.