Love brunch? Crazy about steak and eggs? Mad for bottomless
mimosas? While we're not here to judge your brunch-time go-tos,
we will tell you that some of your favorites might not be chef-recommended options.
If you can easily and cheaply make scrambled eggs, toast, and oatmeal at home, why are you ordering
these items when you go out to brunch? Take oatmeal, for example. Chef and cooking show host
Natasha Feldman points out that you may end up paying $10 for brunch oatmeal when the ingredients
only cost the restaurant around 30 cents. Doesn't sound like a bargain anymore, does it?
A Chicago pastry chef told Thrillist that most brunch foods contain cheap ingredients like eggs,
flour, and butter, which means they're marked up around 20 times. Price aside, there's also
the tendency for people to be picky about prep: They like their eggs done a certain way,
their toast cooked to a certain brownness… So why not just make it yourself and save the hassle?
If you go out for brunch, try ordering something you haven't quite mastered. Or,
if you're a creature of habit and only like foods you can make at home,
opt for something that's just a pain to make.
"Next step is to fold in the cheese." "What does that mean?"
Everyone has a different idea of the perfect corned beef hash recipe,
so the dish lends itself to a lot of mistakes. On the ChefTalk forum, one professional cook
writes that corned beef hash is a popular brunch menu item. In his experience though,
many people complain when they discover it isn't the version they were expecting.
Meanwhile, when restaurants make it from scratch, the risk is that the corned beef hash is full of
leftovers. One retired chef wrote about getting a "prime rib hash" from a local brunch spot,
only to find that it contained chopped-up leftover pieces of prime rib, leftover baked potato,
and fajita vegetables. He was not shy about sending it back to the kitchen in disdain.
Even though one owner of a breakfast and lunch place writes that any brunch place worth their
salt can make a really good corned beef hash, that same chef admits to throwing everything from
squash to rutabaga into the dish. And that? That means you never know what you're going to eat.
As a hodge-podge preparation, it remains a dish that chefs don't recommend ordering,
especially when there are so many other options.
Scrambled eggs are deceptively simple, but so many breakfast and brunch places make the most
disappointing, tasteless version you've ever had. Cooks are also less likely to pay attention to
the quality and focus on more complicated menu items. Cook Rachel Amiralian told Insider that,
"Good scrambled eggs depend very much on personal preference. Leaving them in the
hands of a cook on a busy day will probably leave you disappointed."
Even a chef who has mastered the art of scrambled eggs might find themselves too busy during a
brunch rush to make them properly, resulting in less-than-appetizing eggs. In other words,
even the best brunch restaurant might wind up serving lackluster, overcooked eggs.
And given the affordability and availability of ingredients, how about practicing the technique
at home to perfect a fluffy plate of eggs? Home can be, well, kind of nice.
A typical eggs Benedict recipe contains a poached egg and Canadian bacon on an English muffin,
topped with hollandaise sauce. Anthony Bourdain fans who have
read "Kitchen Confidential" know never to order eggs Benedict for
brunch. As a seasoned chef who worked in several brunch restaurant kitchens,
Bourdain declared he'd never order anything on the menu with hollandaise sauce, because:
"Bacteria love hollandaise. And nobody I know has ever made hollandaise to order."
Unlike egg-based mayonnaise and aioli, hollandaise sauce recipes typically begin
with hot melted butter to help with the emulsion process. Chefs keep it
warm rather than hot because it curdles and separates otherwise, commonly storing it in
a thermos or water bath because they're usually too busy to make it on demand.
The problem is that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration warns that
cooked egg-based foods like hollandaise sauce should be kept at 135 F or above to
remain safe. However, if chefs aren't keeping a watch on the temperature as time passes,
the staple eggs Benedict sauce can become a bacterial breeding ground.
Anthony Bourdain points out in "Kitchen Confidential" that foods
that only show up on brunch menus are more likely to go bad in the fridge.
Remember, brunch isn't the typical, everyday sort of meal,
and while ordinary bacon may make its way into other dishes throughout the week,
there's a chance Canadian bacon has been sitting around waiting for the
next brunch service… unless the restaurant has other menu items with Canadian bacon.
Healthline says the pork product is good for a month or two if frozen,
but only fresh for three to four days if it's open in the fridge. Canadian bacon comes pre-cooked,
which means that a chef isn't going to do more than warm it up before adding it to
your plate. Not only is it likely you're getting last week's Canadian bacon, but there's less of a
chance it will be sufficiently heated to kill the multiplying bacteria before it hits your plate.
It makes sense to go out for breakfast when you don't feel like dealing with
the hassle of cooking at home yet again. However,
if you're planning to get an ordinary plate of sausages, eggs, and grits,
don't go to a place that serves brunch. Instead, go to a breakfast place where the food is cheaper.
One pastry chef told Thrillist that brunch is when restaurants make the
most money because they're able to mark up cheap ingredients to sell at
hefty prices. She says that her boss at a fancy restaurant that sells $30
to $40 entrees sees brunch as a cash grab, and that's pretty eye-opening.
Since you're paying more for brunch, you should choose more unique and inventive dishes that make
your meal special, rather than something you could get down at the local greasy spoon for
a fraction of the price. If you're looking for a simple traditional breakfast, go somewhere cheap
and fast like IHOP or the neighborhood diner rather than a trendy expensive brunch spot.
Anthony Bourdain exposes several restaurant kitchen secrets in
"Kitchen Confidential," including the fact that:
"Brunch menus are an open invitation to the cost-conscious chef,
a dumping ground for the odd bits left over from Friday and Saturday nights."
You might expect last week's veggies in Monday's soup, but it can make for some
odd experiments at brunch. In other words, it can be tricky to use the extras from the week
in a novel fashion that satisfies diners. An anonymous New York City chef explained
this brunch phenomenon to Thrillist, explaining that it's simple economics:
If food isn't used up in a timely manner, restaurants will lose money by tossing them out.
The strategy of using leftover ingredients for brunch makes a lot of business sense, and it
can even result in excellent brunch inventions. However, it can also lead to a horrible brunch
experience. If you don't want to risk getting Wednesday's pasta in your Sunday brunch salad,
avoid brunch items with names that sound a little dicey, because they just might be.
Drinking Bloody Marys and mimosas can sometimes be the main objective of brunch
since it's a socially acceptable excuse to day drink. However,
any place that offers bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys should be a little suspicious.
If a restaurant allows you to drink all you can, it's likely making its drinks
out of low-quality liquor. An anonymous New York City chef explained to Thrillist
how restaurants get away with serving all-you-can-drink breakfast cocktails:
"When I ran a bar, my average well liquor cost around $6 a bottle,
and I could get 25 pours out of that. You can do the math there."
Cheap liquor is usually distilled less and may not be filtered as much as its
higher-quality counterparts. This means it's more likely to contain
impurities we can't easily process. As a result, our bodies treat it as poison,
which shows up physiologically as a headache or other hangover symptoms.
Drinking too much bottomless booze can also lead to dehydration,
which is also responsible for a bad headache or hangover.
This doesn't apply if you're at an actual Mexican restaurant. If that's the case,
order away. However, tempting Mexican dishes at a restaurant
that doesn't specialize in them… give it a miss — especially chilaquiles.
When done right, this egg dish packs lots of flavor and texture. When done wrong, though,
you're likely to get something underwhelming at best, with the wrong ratios of ingredients.
Another reason chilaquiles aren't a great brunch dish to order is that the chips can
get soggy fast if the cook doesn't know what they're doing. One trick to avoid
soggy chilaquiles is to eat them as soon as they're ready. If the wait staff doesn't
get them to your table immediately, they're likely to quickly get mushy.
The reason most non-Mexican restaurants fail at
chilaquiles is that the chips aren't crunchy enough and soak
up all the liquid from the toppings. And absolutely no one wants soggy tortillas.
Steak and eggs may sound like a good brunch idea, especially if
you're looking for a high-protein, low-carb menu item. Unfortunately,
chefs agree this is among the worst dishes to order. One of the main problems is that
you often end up with a chewy lower-quality piece of beef rather than a tender quality cut.
There's an exception to be made if you're sure you're getting good meat. If the price seems
appropriate for a high-quality piece of meat or the establishment has a solid reputation,
the dish should be successful. Otherwise, you might walk away
feeling less-than-satisfied… and with a sore jaw.
The price of beef keeps increasing, so your steak and eggs should by no means cost the
same as other egg-based menu items. While there are tricks to make cheap steaks taste expensive,
don't count on it happening with an ordinary plate of steak and eggs at brunch.
"When in Rome!
The forbidden fruit."
Hotel brunch buffets are rarely worth it, and while there are some decent exceptions,
the food quality is often questionable. For example,
hotel buffet scrambled eggs are commonly made from a powdered mix.
A chef from Quebec, who helps other chefs design food programs like hotel brunches,
shares that he doesn't eat eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs, greasy bacon,
or pancakes from buffets because he's rarely satisfied with these dishes. Unfortunately,
those all sound like common items at the average hotel brunch buffet.
Another chef dislikes the format at most business hotels, which he describes as nothing more than,
"A toaster on the counter in a small self-service dining room surrounded by packaged pastries,
stale bagels, a bowl of fruit with cereal, milk, juice, and marginal coffee."
If there's any choice whatsoever, he opts for a made-to-order breakfast
from the hotel restaurant rather than endure the brunch buffet.
"Where should I fly to first? Ahhh, the pit of the donut!"
Somehow, avocado toast has become the on-trend menu item to order for breakfast or brunch.
For some, the mere mention of brunch conjures up an image of avocado toast.
But is that really the indulgence you want at brunch prices? Avocado toast has been
around since at least the 1990s on menus in Sydney, Australia, but various cooking blog
incarnations in the 2000s and 2010s keep it evolving into a viral trendy must-eat.
Keep in mind, there's nothing skilled about smashing an avocado onto a slice
of bread — and it, too, falls into the category of something
you can easily make at home with the purchase of a nice loaf of bread.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if the avocado toast comes with a jammy egg on top,
along with extras like charred corn, pickled vegetables, infused oils, and so on, it is sure
to be a delectable brunch-worthy experience. But if the menu item indicates nothing special but
avocado and toasted bread, you might as well make it at home and order something that will make your
brunch a memorable dining experience. Because, remember: Brunch is all about treating yourself!
"Clothes." "Treat yourself."
"Fragrances." "Treat yourself."
"Massages." "Treat yourself."
"Mimosas!" "Treat yourself."