At Woodside, Calif.’s Village Pub, for example, executive chef Dmitry Elperin’s signature glistening poached egg isn’t accompanied by bacon or home fries. Rather, it’s perched atop house-made spaghettini and served with sauteed artichokes, shaved bottarga and a vegetable nage — a flavorful French stock — for dinner.

“Eggs are the most simple form of elegance,” says Elperin, who loves serving poached eggs with crispy sweet breads and chicory. “We relate them to caviar. And to our childhoods. They’re rich, neutral and simply a great vehicle for transporting flavor.”

Eggs have firm roots in classic French cooking, say Elperin and his colleagues, and Americans are catching on — and adding their own spin.

Elperin so respects the egg that he uses a sous vide immersion circulator to maintain a water bath at exactly 144.5 degrees, the optimal temperature for poaching an egg slowly, in its own shell, for 45 minutes.

“It ensures that the egg is the perfect consistency and dates back to the French techniques of cooking eggs in the most delicate way possible,” says Elperin, who sources his prized organic eggs from Glaum Egg Ranch in Aptos, Calif.

At Oakland, Calif.’s Marzano and its sister restaurant, Hudson, eggs are cooked to perfection atop artisanal pizzas in wood-fired ovens. Two-year-old Marzano offers nine delicate, blistered, Neapolitan pizzas, including a garlicky meatball marinara, all with the option of an added egg for $2. And on Hudson’s opening night Jan. 18, executive chef Robert Holt was cracking eggs onto pizzas topped with wild nettles and fresh goat cheese, or spicy pork sausage with braised Tuscan kale.

“Egg on a pizza is just like breakfast, but you’re eating it for dinner,” says Holt. “People just love that savory flavor and texture.”

Read More: St. Cloud Times