- Buongiorno, bonjour.

Today I'm going French.

And you know why?

Because I have a dear friend and a great chef with me in the kitchen, and I don't even have to say his name.

I know you know Jacques, how you doing?

- I am doing great.

I'm so happy to be with you.

We're gonna cook eggs, right?

- Yeah.

I wanna learn this, this, you have a lot of nuances about the way you cook your eggs.

So let, tell me what, what's the recipe?

- We all do it in different way, but I mean boiling water here, you know, the wrong part of the eggs where you have the air chamber make a hole here and when you put that in the boiling water the pressure will be released.

You can see the little bubble coming out and the egg doesn't crack.

- So, you know, let me, let me use let me use this as you have.

- Yeah, all right, great, okay.

- Yeah.

- So we, do this- - You see the bubbles that come out, the air that come out?

- Yep, it's not like if you don't make a hole you go to jail or anything like that.

- No, but the egg might crack.

- Look at it.

The eggs might crack, yes.

- Yeah.

Look at this.

This looks great.

And you know, how do you boil an egg?

Do you get that question?

I get a lot of time that question.

- But there, usually I put it into boiling water.

The water slow down a little bit.

It gets cold and you keep it just a light boil.

If you boil it too fast, it toughen the egg white you know, so gentle boil between nine, 10 minutes depending on the side, then you cool it off right away.

Even a hot cooked egg is not that easy to do.

- No, no, the simplest things are the hardest things to do.

But it's little tips like that that you know they wanna know.

You know, that you've been on television for how long now?

- 40 years almost.

- My god.

My god.

25 for me.

But anyway, and these questions but it is the simple questions and the simple tips that really makes the difference.

And then this recipe is all about the egg yolk.

- Egg yolk, stuffed.

My mother used to do that, so I call it after her name.

I mean, she used to, as you'll see, take the yoke out, mash it up with garlic, parsley, stuff it, cook it and finish it with a mustard sauce.

- Oh my God.

So I always learn something from you.

What do you think, they're done?

- I think they're done.

Well, it's easy.

We're gonna see whether they spin or not.

- [Lidia] Let's see.

- You see that?

- They stand up totally.

So they are totally cooked.

- Are we cooking or are we playing?

- [Jacques] Yeah, you see that?

- [Lidia] Huh, look at that.

- [Jacques] And look at the raw egg.

- [Lidia] You see.

- [Jacques] The raw egg doesn't.

- Kids love to do that.

This is a great- - Love to do that.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So you're gonna put that in ice water now, right?

- Okay, let me get some ice water.

- You gotta put water, huh?

- Okay, just pick them up and put them in ice water.

- Yep, yep.

In ice water you want to leave them seven, eight minutes until they are cold inside.

I usually break the egg all around like this.

You know the easiest way to peel it, to peel the egg is to go underwater in the sink.

When you go underwater.

- Running water, yeah.

- Because if it goes between that skin here, there's a skin here.

- [Lidia] Yeah, there you go.

- And when the water good in between that skin, that's it.

- All right.

- Put them right there.

We have some peeled.

- Oh, you have all, you're ready.

Oh okay.

- You did all the work for me so.

- Yeah, right.

Now, what's next?

- Well, next we're going to stuff it now.

So, we're going to cut them in half and we wanna check them out.

There is no green on the yolk.

Okay, good.

Okay.

Yes.

We can cut them one way or the other, but.

- [Lidia] Okay.

And your mother used to make these for you?

- We certainly, when I was a kid we eat eggs much more than meat in protein, you know.

Gratin with eggs with spinach gratin with Swiss chard.

You know the Eggs Jeannette like this.

My mother did eggs all the time.

- Used are the eggs, of course.

- Yes.

- Now so look at that.

- Well, you know, you can do that in the food processor if you want, you know, but.

- No, I wanna see your work.

Oh, I wanna see your technique.

Food processors too easy.

- So here we have persillade, you know, in France what we call persillade.

- Persillade, yeah.

- It's persi and ail, garlic, you know.

So we are here, you know, parsley.

You did all the work for me.

Look at that.

- Yes, yes, listen, when you have a guest in the house.

- Garlic.

- Lot of garlic you put out, I'll clean after you.

How's that?

- And I'm gonna put salt in there.

Pepper.

Yes, well, you can start your skillet if you want now.

- So, so, okay.

- Yeah a bit of this so.

- [Lidia] What oil do we use?

I have peanut oil here and I have olive oil.

What should I use?

- Just start with the peanut oil for that and, so I'm putting a bit of milk in there.

- Oh, okay.

- To make like a puree, you know.

- [Lidia] How much oil, just enough to line the bottom?

- [Jacques] Yes, yes, just.

- Okay.

- So I have salt, pepper, garlic, parsley.

You wanna stuff it but you want to keep a little bit of that to make the sauce with the mustard.

- Okay.

- So here you can give me a hand, you stuff it back.

We wanna stuff it.

- Okay.

- Move over, move over.

- I'm sorry, madam.

- [Lidia] You and I are used to our space in the kitchen And so just like that.

And it's a little bit over, no problem, huh?

- Oh yeah.

It's not like my, I was married 54 years, you know.

- Yeah.

- It's not like my wife when I came into the kitchen she say darling, what do you think?

She usually, if I come into the kitchen, she say, "Don't touch anything."

(Lidia laughs) - She did, huh?

Her kitchen was her kitchen not your domain.

Because I know I was at your house and you have your family kitchen but then you have also almost like a studio kitchen.

- Yes, that's right.

- Sent to the studio kitchen.

- Yep, so this is to make the sauce with it.

So here we can- - Tell me what to do.

- I think that'd be, that'd be fine.

They can, we can start with that.

- [Lidia] Okay, I'll do that.

And you do the filling.

- [Jacques] Yep, is it on high?

- Yeah, it is.

- Okay, yeah.

And it'll take a good minute, minute and a half.

- And you don't mix it, you just leave them like that so they form a crust.

- Yeah, so they brown, they brown nicely.

So here I'm putting some mustard, you know, in this.

I'm gonna put a bit of water in there.

- You need anything from here?

You need olive oil?

- Yeah, now I need the olive oil.

- If I wanna give it to you, you don't know, you know.

I have to, I might put peanut oil for you.

- You put a dash of vinegar in it for me.

- Sure, I have a apple cider vinegar.

Is that okay?

- That's great.

- How much?

- Good.

Okay and I need more olive oil.

- Yes, oui monsieur.

- Yeah, my mother used to do that and you serve it room temperature, it should be a enough right there.

At room temperature and you know those eggs, there is hundreds of recipe of eggs that we used to do, you know when we were kids then.

- I mean eggs, we had everyday eggs in some form or another, just about so.

- I tell them, I just move them like they this.

- [Lidia] Flip them over.

- [Jacques] You see?

- [Lidia] Flip them over.

So, you know that when you hear them cracking like that you know it's time, right?

- Yes, about, and they can see them.

- Okay.

mmm.

And you used to have this for dinner, lunch?

- You wanna shut it off?

- You want me to shut it off?

- Yeah.

- Got it.

- Yes, I mean, we let it cool off of course a bit.

- Let me just clean up.

- That's a good idea.

- Yeah.

Put this here.

- And we're gonna put that sauce.

- And how did you, how did you serve it?

- Usually as the first course, you know.

- Ah.

- Sorry if I use my finger.

- Absolutely but this would be a great, great, great brunch idea.

- Oh yeah, that's good.

Oh, yes.

And that's it.

We add all the eggs on top of it here.

- Okay, do you want a salad?

Do you- - Oh, that would be a good idea.

- I got a salad.

Okay, I'm gonna toss the salad.

- Can you do the salad?

Okay, I arrange this.

- And I'm gonna add a little bit of olive oil.

- Yes.

- And the vinegar.

- [Jacques] You know, there is nothing like being together and cooking together.

It's fun.

- [Lidia] I think so, you know, I know you cook with your daughter, you cook with your grandchild.

I do too.

I do a lot of that.

- It bring the kid together.

I mean, when Claudine was a year old, I hold her in my arm and I say okay melanger, stir it, so she stir it and so she could eat it because she made it.

I mean, you know.

- Yeah, exactly, exactly.

- The same thing with my granddaughter, you know.

- And tell me where you would put the salad.

You would put it on that?

You would put it on a separate plate?

- No, I'll serve it separate.

- You know.

- I mean, I serve the salad like this.

- [Lidia] And so what about me?

- Oh, I'm sorry.

Well that was yours actually, op, I'm sorry.

- Oh, that's very nice.

No problem.

- I screw it up again.

- No, no, no, you're right on.

And then you would put the eggs right on top of it like this or what?

- No, no, no.

I serve the egg separate.

But I mean- - So eating the eggs separate.

- We can test it.

- Like that.

- Yeah.

- Okay.

- So, can I steal a little bit of sauce here?

- Yeah, that's what we have to do.

- [Lidia] And put it on top like that?

- [Jacques] Yeah, yeah on top of the egg.

- [Lidia] Okay, that's good.

We'll share this.

How's that?

- Okay.

- Okay, so no, gimme that piece.

- [Jacques] Oh.

- Because it has more filling, more filling.

You're used to eating this.

I have to taste it.

Mm, delicieux.

So you know what I would do?

Would the French egg mind Italian cheese on the salad?

- Oh no, I need some cheese.

Especially if we have some wine.

(Lidia laughs) - I meant for the salad like this.

You see we do a lot of this.

- [Jacques] That looks like wine.

- That is wine.

That's from Friuli.

I'm sorry, no French.

How's that?

- It's okay.

I come from Friuli.

- I love Italian wine.

I love any free wine.

(Lidia laughs) - All right, this and I think, we say you saluté, you say?

- Salud, santé.

- Santé.

- Enjoy and drink and thank you very much for coming.

- Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Salud.

- Salud, happy cooking.

- [Lidia] Immigrants like me have added to America's rich and diverse tapestry of culture, religion, and foods.

In my upcoming "Lidia Celebrates America's" special, I set out to meet some of our nation's more recent arrivals.

What motivated their journey here?

What challenges have they faced and what does being an American mean to them?

(gentle music)