Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

FOOD AND DRINK

How Eggs Mayonnaise became the ‘most ordered’ dish in France

After a year of prolonged restaurant closures, many French people turned to takeaway - with the bistro classic Eggs Mayonnaise listed as the most ordered dish. Here's a look at the impressive pedigree of this humble-sounding dish.

Published: 4 January 2022 12:07 CET
How Eggs Mayonnaise became the 'most ordered' dish in France
Eggs mayonnaise is a French classic. Photo by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)

Food ordering giant Deliveroo has published its list of the most-ordered dishes in France for 2021.

The winner wasn’t a burger, pizza or noodles as many might expect, but a French bistro classic: les œufs mayonnaise (eggs mayonnaise) from the Bouillon restaurant chain in Paris.  

Many in the English-speaking world associate egg mayonnaise  with a mundane sandwich you might find in a supermarket meal deal.

But in France, eggs mayonnaise holds a treasured place in culinary tradition.

It is served as an hors d’oeuvres or starter and consists of a large chicken egg boiled only to a point where the yolk retains some level of liquidity. The eggs are chilled, peeled and sliced in half before being served with a mayonnaise and mustard sauce, typically thinned with water or lemon juice. It is often served with a lettuce or crudités on the side. 

There are many variations of eggs mayonnaise – 49 were included in a recent recipe book dedicated to the dish. 

There’s also a club dedicated to this dish – Association for the Saving of Egg Mayonnaise (ASOM) – an organisation whose motto reads: “Time goes on, the eggs get harder”.

As well as promoting the joys of a classic egg mayonnaise, ASOM also holds an annual competition to find the best version of the dish.

In 2019, the eggs mayonnaise dish prepared by the Bouillon Pigalle restaurant in Paris was named as the best in the world ASOM.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Bouillon (@bouillonlinsta)

The key ingredient of the Bouillon chain’s success is perhaps the delicious truffles that they add to the mayonnaise. Another obvious advantage is the price: this dish costs just €2 on Deliveroo (minus delivery fee). 

The prestigious title of Egg Mayonnaise World Champion has since been claimed by La Rôtisserie d’Argent – another restaurant in Paris. 

The dish ranks fifth globally for the most ordered meals on Deliveroo. 

The full list of France’s most ordered Deliveroo dishes is below:

1. Les œufs mayonnaise “champions du monde” de Bouillon Service, Paris

2. Pita Chawarma Poulet, Mezzencore, Paris

3. Gratin de Penne façon Livio, Livio Piu, Paris

4. The beast de Kokomo, Bordeaux

5. Menu “Le braisé”, Le Braisé, Lille

6. Classic cheeseburger, Dumbo, Paris

7. Poke bowl, Poke Lab, Toulouse

8. Formule doner kebab, Sürpriz Berliner Kebab, Paris

9. Menu korean fried chicken honey garlic de K-Town Street Food, Paris

10. Klassiker, Mont Berliner, Lyon

Member comments

  1. Some interesting sounding dishes there…the one I need to know more about is no. 4…The beast de Kokomo…

    1. It’s a cheese and bacon burger, Rob.
      The Beast
      12 €
      Bœuf Aubrac maturé, cheddar affiné 9 mois, onion ring maison, poitrine fumée, mayo sriracha maison

    1. Not quite, MJ! Deviled Eggs are made by mashing the hard yolk into the mayonnaise. In France, Œuf Mayo is simply a hard-boiled egg cut in half, with a dollop of mayo. SIMPLY DIVINE!

      1. Thanks for the clarification. It looked like a deviled egg, and perhaps I didn’t read carefully enough.

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

SHOW COMMENTS