The Unexpected Tool Thomas Keller Uses For Michelin-Worthy Scrambled Eggs

When Thomas Keller — the only American-born chef to get three Michelin stars at two different restaurants simultaneously – gives a cooking tip, you take it, especially when it's so easy. When the French Laundry's head chef wants scrambled eggs, he still reaches for a whisk and a bowl, but also a chinois, a cone-shaped strainer that does some amazing things with little effort.

If you only ever use a whisk or fork, you may have noticed strings of stubborn egg white that refuse to mix in evenly. This is called the chalaza, a type of protein that keeps the yolk centered in the shell. While you can always use an emulsifying wand, blender, or other electric tool, a chinois removes those bits entirely and creates a creamier end product. Keller uses this when he makes French scrambled eggs, ones so decadent and rich that they have an almost porridge-like texture.

While it dirties an extra dish, Keller also points out that a chinois acts almost like a final quality control before your eggs hit a hot pan (via TikTok). It filters out unwanted bits like eggshell or too-large peppercorn flakes, ensuring that your breakfast's creaminess won't have any unexpected sabotage. Even if you haven't mastered the other tricks for an even better result, this low-effort tool gets you started on the right track without having to obsess over smaller details you may not want to deal with first thing in the morning.

Getting creamy scrambled eggs is all about controlling the size of the curds, the individual pieces of egg that form from heat contact. Thomas Keller learned more than a few tricks to achieve this, but both his techniques and extra ingredients boil down to one idea: Treat the eggs gently.

Keller and Bobby Flay dollop in the same dairy for a bit of extra creamy texture: crème fraiche. Added dairy fat through just about any source helps the egg proteins coagulate more slowly. Of course, this adds a bit of extra heartiness, but it's a great way for beginner chefs to achieve the same texture when they don't have the proper technique down quite yet. Keller also likes to add butter at the beginning and end of the cook, ensuring there's always a bit coating the proteins and adding more taste.

When you want small versus large curd scrambled eggs, Keller believes it's all about how much action you apply to them. Short, rapid motions disrupt the eggs as they stick together, breaking them up into smaller bits with the right texture. Keller prefers to use a whisk over a fork or spatula because it helps move everything in the pan with less physical effort. This has the added benefit of making sure every last bit has uniform contact with the bottom of the hot pan, ensuring no individual piece gets too big.