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Cooking for One: The Single-Egg Omelet

Four minutes, start to finish (truly), and so good you’ll make it every day.

Published October 23, 2023

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All photos: Kate Bittman

Most omelets that you order in a diner, or any restaurant, for that matter, are basically the same: They’re enormous, they’re bloated, and they contain so much egg that the fillings tend to get lost. I’m always poking around inside the egg in hopes of getting to some cheese, and I always feel like there’s not enough cheese, but I’m sure that’s not the case—it’s just that it’s been consumed by the mountains of egg.

It’s not just in diners that I’m frustrated by the standard omelet. I’ve also tried for years to perfect them at home, and you know what? I can’t. All that egg is too difficult for me to flip and I’m not trying to go on YouTube or Tiktok to learn the latest hack. I’m too impatient. Plus, again, I don’t want all that egg; I want a perfect egg to cheese ratio: 1 to 1. Yes, I said it: 1 to 1. And you know what gives you that?  A one-egg omelet, which is my current obsession.

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