I'm an amateur cook who called a Master Chef to teach me how to make Eggs Benedict. Here's how it went.

• Delmonico's Chef Billy Oliva teaches an amateur how to make eggs benedict through video chat.
• Eggs Benedict is widely considered to have been created at Delmonico's in the late 1800s.

Following is a transcript of the video.

Medha Imam: Today, we are making eggs Benedict with chef Billy Oliva.

Billy Oliva: That doesn't look so good.

Medha: No?

Billy: It should feel like you're touching a, almost like a balloon.

Baba: It's good enough.

[laughing]

Medha: Hello, lovely people! My name is Medha from Food Insider, and I have been craving brunch for quite a while now, so I thought, you know what? I report on food, I know a lot of professional chefs in the industry, so why not have them teach me how to cook? So, today we're gonna learn how to make eggs Benedict with chef Billy Oliva from Delmonico's, which is credited for creating eggs Benedict in New York City. So, let's go. So, let's get cooking. So, let me call him.

[Skype call]

Well, hello, chef Billy! How are you doing today?

Billy: I'm good.

Medha: So, since I've never made eggs Benedict before, what do you think I'll struggle with the most?

Billy: Well, the two trickiest parts of making eggs Benedict has to be the poaching of the eggs, which is a little tricky, but I think we'll get you through it. And then the second-hardest thing is the hollandaise. Those two are the, if you've never made them before, they can be a little daunting.

Medha: Yeah, I've never made either of those, so I am nervous.

Billy: It's not as hard as you think it is.

Medha: All right, let's get started!

Billy: The first step you wanna do would probably be the poaching of the eggs. So, you're gonna need a pot to poach your eggs, some vinegar, obviously some water, a slotted spoon, and an ice bath.

Medha: All right, so, I have this pot. Is this OK? Is it too big? Billy: It's a little big. [laughs] Medha: OK. Billy: It depends on how many eggs you're poaching.

Medha: We have this saucepan.

Billy: I think that saucepan will be easier for you to control.

Medha: OK.

Billy: So, I would maybe do it in the saucepan.

Medha: I found white balsamic reduction. I hope that it can be used as a substitute for white vinegar. I don't know if it will.

Billy: It would be a good idea to actually taste the white balsamic, and just to see how syrupy it is.

Medha: Oh, yeah, [laughs] it's really syrupy.

Billy: It's too sweet, right?

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: Yeah. We could go find another vinegar if you want.

Medha: Yeah, actually. Mom? Mama? I think she's on the phone. [laughs] Mama? I'll be back. Mom!

[distant mumbling]

Do we have any vinegar?

Mama: Yeah, in the fridge.

Medha: OK, this fridge?

Mama: Yeah.

Medha: Oh. White distilled vinegar. Got it!

OK, is this fine for the angle? Tell me if I should go lower or higher.

Billy: I can see the stove pretty good, yeah. I would give it, like, two or three capfuls, maybe.

Medha: Two or three capfuls. I'm, like, so scared of under performing in front of you. [laughing]

Billy: I'm actually the easiest person to cook for. As long as I don't have to make it and somebody else is making it, it's gonna taste good.

Medha: All right, chef, I'm just showing you, it's starting to boil. I know this is literally the easiest part of the process, so I didn't really have to show you, but I'm just mimicking.

Billy: Yes, you're ready to start poaching! Lower the heat so we don't have a rolling boil, though.

Medha: OK. So, what does a roaring boil look like?

Billy: A rolling boil. When the bubbles are kind of rolling on top of one of each other. You wanna lower it down so you have a nice, gentle simmer. 'Cause if it's boiling too hard, when you add your eggs, and the bubbles are coming up, it's gonna kind of mess up your poached egg. The guy that does most of my poached eggs down in the restaurant cracks them with one hand and drops them in as he goes. He's done thousands of them. For you, yeah, maybe crack the egg into a small bowl and then slide it out of the bowl into the pot. Or you just go ahead and go for it and crack the egg on the side of the pot and drop it in and see what happens. Those are the two ways I would do it.

Medha: I think I will do the former option, where there is a little bowl to help me out.

Billy: Give the water a stir before you do that. Give it, like, a little whirlpool bath. OK. Once that water is spinning nice, then you can go ahead and drop your egg in.

Medha: OK, so I let it... should I stop twirling?

Billy: That's good, yeah. You have a nice spin on the water.

Medha: And now?

Billy: Now go ahead. Bring the bowl closer to the water.

Medha: I think I -

Billy: That doesn't look so good.

Medha: No?

Billy: It was a little high.

Medha: Right.

Billy: You kinda, you kinda plopped it in.

Medha: And that's not what it's supposed to do.

Billy: So you don't want it to - when you have it in the bowl and you dump it, the yolk is the heaviest part, so the yolk just kinda sinks.

[Medha squeals]

OK, OK, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You could have put the bowl a little bit closer to the water, but it doesn't look so bad.

Medha: Does it look bad, bad, though?

Billy: No, it doesn't look that bad.

Medha: What I see is that the entire egg itself is now coated in a white kind of coating.

Billy: You just wanna have it in there long enough to set the white. So you're probably almost ready to come out. So maybe about three or four minutes, if the water is the right temperature.

Medha: OK, and then I have to pop it right into the ice water, correct?

Billy: We're gonna scoop out our egg very gently, and we're gonna lower the spoon into the ice water. Again, we don't wanna, we don't wanna dump it into the ice water because we don't want our yolk to break. Scoop out the egg and lay it real gently into the, into the ice water. The ice is, you know, got some sharp, not sharp edges but some square edges on it, and you could puncture the egg, and then it would just leak out.

Medha: Now just gently pour it in the water.

Billy: Right down into the ice water.

Medha: Stuck to the spoon. All right. Should I put more ice in this water? It just floated to the bottom.

Billy: That's OK. As long as the water is pretty cold.

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: That's good, that'll stop the cooking process, and that's what we wanna do. If you're gonna cook and serve right away, you won't need the ice bath. But if you're gonna poach the eggs first, go back and get all your other stuff ready, the ice bath helps just so you don't overcook the eggs, and it makes it a little bit easier for when you're going to reheat the eggs.

Medha: This first essential part wasn't too difficult. I know I didn't do it perfectly, but I think I can get the hang of it after a couple tries. So, this time around, I'm going to try poaching two eggs. So, just crack. It's on a low simmer.

Billy: OK, give your water, don't forget to give your water a little swirl.

Medha: Oh, yes, correct. So, swirling.

Billy: That should be good.

Medha: There you go. And I'm just going to slide it in?

Billy: Closer to the water than the first one.

Medha: Do it again?

Billy: Yep. How do we look? OK. They might stick together a little bit, so we'll see.

Medha: What do I do? How do I break it?

Billy: You can break it with a spoon, but let it set a little bit. Let it set a little bit first. How do we look?

Medha: I think they didn't stick, but I don't know about it being stuck to the bottom. So I think I needed to have a more aggressive swirl in, and I didn't, and so that's why it kind of floated directly to the bottom this time around. The first one looks pretty good, I have to say. The second one looks like... a Harry Potter dementor. [laughing]

Billy: OK, we'll be able to make it work, though.

Medha: OK. I don't know if it's ready yet. But should I take it out?

Billy: Let's take a look.

Medha: OK, let me show you.

Billy: The white looks all, the white looks set, right? There's no kinda opaque or clear spots on the white? So, I think we're, I think we're probably ready to take it out. The one on the left actually looks pretty good.

Medha: That's what I think! This is good. This is the good one.

Billy: In the restaurant, we would take a spoon like that and kinda bend it to a 90-degree angle, so it's a lot easier to pick it up. But if that's your mom's spoon, you probably definitely don't wanna do that.

Medha: Yeah, she would kill me. [laughs] Well, that one is our messy one, but that's OK. All right, we've got our three eggs Benedict, poached eggs ready to go.

Billy: I think the hollandaise is gonna be the hardest part. What you need to do for the hollandaise is get all your ingredients. Like, your mise en place, right. That's what they would say in the kitchen. All your ingredients, your butter is warm, kinda warmish-hot, ready to go. Your eggs and everything. You have your double boiler you could put on the stove now and get your water boiling.

Medha: OK, the double boiler. OK, so let me first go through that. So, right now I should probably get the butter to start melting?

Billy: Yeah, definitely.

Medha: And then what's the next - get the double boiler? Is it OK if I use a saucepan with, like, this on top as a double boiler?

Billy: Um, yeah, as long as that dish is, like, heatproof.

Medha: Yeah, it's, like, glass. "Microwave safe. No broiler. No stove top." Never mind.

Billy: Yeah, so, no stove top. So, what that means is you just don't want that dish to touch open flame.

Medha: Oh. I am nervous about accidentally cooking the eggs when we make the hollandaise sauce, but hopefully that won't happen. OK, so I'm just taking out the butter right now. It's at room temperature. Are we trying to melt it entirely?

Billy: We wanna melt it till it's liquid.

Medha: OK, and how do you, what is the right temperature for melting butter?

Billy: Like, a medium-low.

Medha: OK.

Billy: I don't want it to sizzle in the pan.

Medha: I'm just taking all the stuff out for the hollandaise sauce. So, I have the eggs.

Billy: You can put your water on for your double boiler, right?

Medha: Lemon.

Billy: I would do that next.

Medha: What would I do next?

Billy: Put the water on for the double boiler. So, put the water in your pot. And let's get the water hot, so we can start cooking the eggs.

Medha: OK. How much water should I put in this pot?

Billy: Probably about halfway up.

Medha: OK. [water pouring]

Billy: The key to the double boiler is we don't really want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl.

Medha: The butter is almost entirely liquid.

Billy: OK, then so the butter is ready. So, we can put that, take it off the flame and put it to the side. OK, so, now let's get your egg yolks into the bowl. You just want the yolks. So, you don't wanna put the whites on the... so, you have to separate the, you have to take the yellow out from the white. We only wanna cook the yellow. Do you know how to separate the yellow from the white?

Medha: Not really.

Billy: There's a couple of ways you can do it. You can crack the egg and pour the egg from one shell to the other shell, kinda letting the egg white drip out, or you could crack the egg and kinda strain it in your hand and separate the yolk. You just have to be careful it doesn't break.

Medha: OK, and, again, we want the yolk part.

Billy: We want the yellow part.

Medha: OK.

Billy: Most people would drop the yolk into the bowl with the whites when they're doing this, so you're actually doing pretty good.

Medha: Thank you. Oh, looks like that jinxed it. [laughs]

Billy: If you have a little bit of egg white in there, it's not the end of the world.

Medha: OK. Yeah, there's, like, a tiny bit. Not too much.

Billy: Let's do four eggs. Probably too much, but I'd rather have you do a little bit extra. Just to give it a little bit more volume to make it, again, a little bit easier to whisk. [laughs]

Medha: My mom's watching from the distance. [laughs] Mommy, I learned how to do the separating yolk. Uh-huh, uh-huh. OK. She said she's proud of me. OK. What?

Billy: And then we're gonna add just a touch of water to the hollandaise, to the egg yolks before we start cooking. Like, some people would probably say, "Oh, that's not a good idea," but it just makes it easier at home to do it. But when you only have two or three egg yolks, it cooks so fast. That's why I added the water to it. A few dashes of Tabasco and a few dashes of Worcestershire. A few dashes of lemon juice, I see you have there. Tabasco has a little bit of flavor, a little bit of heat. Worcestershire sauce adds a richness to it, little, again, flavor, and the lemon juice is the acid, which we need to help build our emulsion. What lemon juice is that? Is that called ReaLemon juice?

Medha: Is it real?

Billy: Yeah, so, that ReaLemon juice is kind of bitter. It's actually very bitter when you taste it. If you have fresh lemon, fresh lemon would be a great substitute for that.

Medha: And then, chef, how much of this should I put in?

Billy: Maybe two capfuls of that. That's kinda strong.

Medha: Oh, OK.

Billy: So if you wanna measure with the cap. You can add more Tabasco, and you can add, we can add more flavoring ingredients later. Again, I like to add some of those liquid ingredients to the egg yolks. It just helps the whisking and the cooking of the egg yolk a little bit. So, we're gonna whisk all, mix all that stuff together. You can break those yolks. And then, once the water is ready, it's gonna go straight to that double boiler. Gonna take a few minutes. So, Medha, once we start whisking the eggs on the stove, what you really need to pay attention to is how thick the eggs are getting. 'Cause the thicker they get, once they start getting thick, that means they're cooking. The water was boiling, right? It was a good rolling boil? Like, a good boil?

Medha: Yes.

Billy: OK, and the flame is not coming up over the side of the pot, right? We don't wanna burn, break the glass.

Medha: It's on a medium.

Billy: OK, the egg yolk heats up and starts to cook. You'll notice the color is gonna change. It's gonna get kind of a pale yellow, thick, smooth consistency. We don't wanna see little bits of egg floating in there. You should be OK. The only thing that has me nervous is the glass bowl. I've never done that. I've never done it with a glass bowl. I always like to use metal. So I just don't want the bowl to break on you while we're doing it.

Medha: And so it'll go from foam to what texture?

Billy: Little bit thick, like yogurt, when you mix it up a little bit. That's kinda the consistency we're looking for. But you'll definitely notice it when it starts to thicken. It'll kinda happen pretty quickly. Medha: So, I think it's at that point.

Billy: Can we take a look? Maybe move the pot off the stove and keep whisking and bring it closer to the camera, is that possible?

Medha: I can just show you.

Billy: Keep whisking, keep whisking.

Medha: OK.

Billy: Oh, yeah, I think we're ready to add the butter.

Medha: So, do I do that over the double boiler thing?

Billy: We're gonna do a little bit over the double boiler, then we'll take it off and do a little bit off the double boiler. You know what I might want you to do - the pot that you had the double boiler going in?

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: You might wanna add just a little bit of water from that pot till you mix the egg yolks there.

Medha: So you want me to add this water into here?

Billy: Yeah, that's 'cause you didn't use that water for anything. So, I would just use a spoon. Use a spoon. Don't dump it from the pot. Should thin it out a little bit.

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: You kinda cooked the eggs a little bit too much, so that water will just thin it out. How does it look now?

Medha: I just need a little more.

Billy: Looks a little more creamy than it did before?

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: Add one more. That looks good. Now we're gonna add the butter.

Medha: So, should I put this back to the boiler?

Billy: Put it back on the double boiler, 'cause we don't want it to get cold. But at this point, we don't want it to be too hot, so you can turn the double boiler off.

Medha: OK.

Billy: Once you add the butter, you have to stop the cooking process. If it gets too hot, it'll break, and if it gets too cold, it'll break. And what that means is the butter and the egg will separate from one another. So, now our butter, we're gonna add a little bit at a time, a little bit.

Medha: There's, like, weird, solid formation from the butter.

Billy: That's just the milk solids. That's OK. Is it getting really thick?

Medha: Kind of, but it's still good yogurt consistency.

Billy: OK, good. Then keep adding the butter. If it gets really thick on you, you can add a little bit more water to thin it out, to help you.

Medha: Got it.

Billy: And you'll see the butter will also help it thicken. It'll get a little bit thicker. [laughing]

Medha: It's like a workout.

Billy: Add a little bit more, and then we're gonna taste it.

Medha: Ooh. I taste the butter for sure. There seems to be enough butter.

Billy: Perfect.

Medha: I think there needs to be more, um, tanginess. But I'm thinking the Worcestershire and Tabasco sauce, I can barely taste.

Billy: OK, so let's add a little bit more of those.

Medha: But this is what it looks like.

Billy: So, it's gotten a little bit too thick.

Medha: Yeah. So, what do I do?

Billy: So, you can add a little bit of warm water to thin it out again, like we did the last time. A little, yeah, it's very thick. You could've cooked the eggs a little bit too much. So, that would kinda make it that consistency. And then if you add too much butter, that would also make it that consistency.

Medha: I think we added a lot of butter. Like, I definitely added a ton more butter than I should have.

Billy: If you're happy with it, we'll season it with some salt and pepper, and then if you have one of those smaller bowls that we could kinda maybe transfer it into?

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: 'Cause if you keep it together, it stays warmer than if it's in a big bowl kinda spread out.

Medha: Holland... how-lee-ann-days. How do you pronounce it?

Billy: Hollandaise. Hollandaise.

Medha: Hollandaise sauce.

Billy: OK, so, it doesn't look too bad. I know you said it was a little chunky, so if it's chunky, there could be some little bits of cooked egg in there. It's not the end of the world, but, like I said, for the first time, it's pretty good. And now we just wanna keep that warm.

Medha: OK.

Billy: So, you can do it in a shallow water bath, kinda like what we did with the double boiler but maybe just off to the side of the stove.

Medha: I noticed that in your recipe, you used prosciutto, but I don't really eat that because I don't eat pork. So what is another substitute I could use?

Billy: There's so many substitutes. You can do grilled vegetables, you can do smoked salmon, you can do, sautéed spinach, some people do. You can kinda build it as you like, especially when you're at home.

Medha: Yeah. So, I actually have smoked salmon in my fridge. So, this is it. This is what I have. [laughs] I hope this is...

Billy: That'll work perfect! So, really, the rest of it is fairly easy. English muffin, rewarm your eggs, and then plate.

Medha: OK, so, I have one question. How do you rewarm the eggs?

Billy: Boil hot water in a kettle, take your eggs out of the ice bath, put them in another bowl, and just kinda gently pour that boiling water from the kettle into the eggs. That'll work as well. How did they come out?

Medha: They look good. Do you wanna see it? There's, like, one that looks... oh, it's really exposed.

Billy: It's kinda hard to see in the white, but it's good. Oh, there we go. OK, they don't look too bad. Not bad for a first time.

Medha: Like, this one I think is the best. This one is really bad.

Billy: When you touch those eggs to make sure they're not too cooked, it should feel like you're touching almost, like, a balloon, you know, when you push it in and it bounces back a little bit. So, you just took the English muffin out of the toaster, right?

Medha: Yes.

Billy: So, we're gonna put those on the bottom. You could always take those toasted English muffins and just slather some butter on them.

Medha: So, I'm definitely gonna add some butter, because I love my calories.

Billy: So, next we're gonna add the smoked salmon to it, and you're gonna add, the smoked salmon's been out for a while at room temperature. You got poached eggs, they're gonna go on top.

Medha: So, the good ones, correct?

Billy: Yeah, be careful. Maybe I would use a spoon, but that's OK.

Medha: I've never done this before. I'm super proud.

Billy: Kinda one good motion with your wrist outwards, right on top. I think you got it. And the sauce seems to be sticking to the eggs, right? It doesn't seem to be running right off, so that's a good sign. I like - keep the sauce on the eggs.

Medha: OK.

Billy: So that you can kinda see all the, when we serve it in the restaurant, so you can see the poached egg and you see the sauce. In the restaurant we top it with caviar and some microgreens.

Medha: What could we use instead of caviar? Since clearly I don't have caviar in my house right now.

Billy: So, caviar is a tough substitution. So, if you wanted to try and make it look prettier...

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: You could take those two little pieces of smoked salmon on the plate and put them kinda on top in the hollandaise sauce. And if you had chopped parsley or any herbs inside, you could sprinkle some herbs or maybe even a little sea salt, if you had sea salt.

Medha: All right, so, I have my knife, and we're ready to go ahead and cut the eggs Benedict. Here I go. Let's just have fun. Ooh, its runny! It's a little cooked, it seems like. It's not fully runny.

Billy: It's not fully runny, but it is a little, right? It's not fully cooked, right? Medha: It's not fully cooked, but it is still a little runny.

Billy: All right, let's try the other one. [laughing]

Medha: OK, this is this one. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was runny.

Billy: I can see that one.

Medha: That one was really good. Do you want to eat with me?

Billy: I do. So, all this eggs Benedict talk, I don't know if you guys can see it. So, I didn't make eggs Benedict, but I made ham, egg, and cheese on a toasted English. So, not quite eggs Benedict, but.

Medha: Wow, this is fantastic.

Billy: I thought you did a good job. This was crazy, this doing eggs Benedict remote like this.

Medha: Yeah.

Billy: So I think you did a pretty good job.

Medha: Oh, thank you so much. And I have to say, from my end, it tastes pretty good. Like, I'm not, you know, bleh, you know? It's really good. [laughing]

Billy: Well, that's a good thing. You never wanna be like that.

Medha: You can tell that this dish is pretty rich, and I'm really glad I got to create it at home, because I thought you could only get this when you go out and, you know, order some brunch at Delmonico's, for example. But this can be replicated at home, which I thought was the coolest part of this whole entire process.

Billy: Thank you for letting me help you.

Medha: No, thank you helping me! It's been so much fun.

Billy: Thank you, guys. Medha: I might ask my brother to try it. Sami, do you wanna come try it? Oh, my God. OK, so my brother's gonna try it.

Shirley: Don't be soft on her. Tell her how it is.

Medha: He's not soft. What do you think? [laughing] You're taking a long time.

Sami: I thought it was good.

Medha: That's it?

Shirley: Have you had eggs Benedict before?

Sami: Oh, me? No, I just said I don't think I've ever had eggs Benedict. [laughing]

Shirley: Oh, my God. What? OK, does it taste good?

Medha: Baba, do you wanna try it? It's fine.

Baba: It's fine?

Medha: It's just YouTube.

Baba: You people don't like eggs, that's all. Sami: No, I do.

Medha: I love eggs. Baba: It's good enough. [laughing] The thing is that it's cold. [laughing] It has to be warm.

Medha: OK, I can warm it up. OK, I'm warming it up for 30 seconds.

Baba: I don't care.

Medha: No! No! It's done. It's done! It's done. It's ready!

Baba: I want to do prevention.

Medha: No, Aba!

Baba: Prevention comes first.

Medha: No, Baba, come here! Sami: Wait, I'll try it first.

Baba: Give me another knife.

Medha: You need another one?

Baba: Yeah. Sami: Pretty good.

Baba: Wow, it's good now.

Medha: Are you serious?

Baba: Yeah.

Medha: OK, really?

Sami: Yeah, the cold was really uncomfortable.

Shirley: Is it good? Did she do a good job? What can she improve on?

Baba: No, I think she did a good job.

Medha: Oh! What could've I improved on?

Baba: Huh?

Medha: What could I have improved on?

Baba: You do it again. Then I will know. [laughing]