Compromise: How to make breakfast
A creature of habit, I have just about exactly the same thing for breakfast every day, especially when I’m on the road.
Here it is. An egg white omelet, made in a cast-iron skillet with fresh herbs and a whole wheat tortilla. Sometimes I add some peppers from the farmer’s market or whatever looks good. It takes me less than six minutes, start to finish, including clean up, to make breakfast.
If you run a hotel (the sort of hotel that charges $15 for breakfast) you might have a few questions. Here we go:
Can we use a standard restaurant skillet? The cast iron is too hard to clean.
Of course you can. If you do, you’ll end up with eggs that have no real color and are a little flaccid, but it’ll work.
Can we use a portable propane burner instead of a real stove? It’s easier for us.
Of course you can. If you do, though, you won’t have a lot of heat and it’ll take a long time and not taste as good.
Do we have to use fresh herbs? That’ll add more than $3 a day to our costs.
Of course you don’t have to use fresh herbs. The eggs won’t taste as good, naturally.
Whole wheat tortilla? Most of our guests are satisfied with toasted Wonder bread, which is a lot cheaper and comes in a big loaf.
Sure, you can use that, but I’m not going to eat it.
I notice your omelet is sort of big… our policy is to only use three eggs, so if you want an egg-white omelet, it’s going to be pretty tiny. It’s not fair to give you more eggs, because it’s the same price as the regular omelet. Is that okay?
Well, since eggs cost you 8 cents each, I can understand your desire to standardize and keep your costs really low. So, sure, go ahead.
You used fresh veggies as a garnish. Even though you ordered a healthy protein, we’re going to give you hash browns as a garnish, because that’s what everyone gets. Okay?
Sure, whatever.
You mentioned the farmer’s market. We get a delivery every day from Sysco, and if it’s not on the
truck, we can’t serve it… it takes too much time to go to a farmer’s market. You understand, right?
Yep.
Please come again to our expensive restaurant! It’s a purple cow! It’s remarkable! Because we said so.
Once you start compromising, when do you stop?
If your goal is to be remarkable, please understand that the easiest way to do that is to compromise less, not more. And no, this wasn’t a post about breakfast.