Cracking An Egg

It’s Friday, so it’s time for more Foodie Fun.  Yes, another incomparable combination of food and business, although I’m going to be really brief today!

I was watching Jacques Pepin the other evening.  In the middle of explaining a recipe, he stopped to explain how to crack an egg.  Now, I’ve been cooking pretty seriously for 40+ years (I started young!) and that’s one thing I’ve never even considered.  I mean – crack the shell, dump it out, look for shell pieces, move on, right?

Wrong.  He stressed how one should always crack the shell on a flat surface and not on the edge of a pot or counter since this cracks the shell but doesn’t drive pieces into the egg, possibly breaking the yolk and probably leaving you with little pieces of shell scattered throughout your dish.

The business lesson is this:  attention to detail is part of what makes great performers great and we should be emphasizing that in our business dealings.  Rethinking how we execute everything is well worth the effort.  I mean, if a great chef can spend time thinking about things as simple the right way to crack an egg, surely we can spend at least as much time thinking about how to do more complicated tasks ever better!