François Payard Tests The Egg Separating Water Bottle Trick

It seems like everyone is coming up with some new, genius way of doing the most basic thing: separating eggs. There's the water bottle trick that went viral last August, not to mention a new gadget called Pluck that sucks up the egg yolks.

Naturally, we had to test these methods out. So we called up pro pastry chef François Payard to put these to the test and show us some classic techniques of his own. First we learn how to break the eggs (using one hand!) and then how to separate them, using hands, the egg shell, Pluck, and a water bottle.

"For us in pastry, when you want egg whites, they have to be clean," Payard explains. "There cannot be yolk inside because then you cannot whip the egg whties. So we just want to have a beautiful, clean egg whites."

Watch as he showcases various methods for separating yolks from whites, and figure out your favorite method to make all the meringues and custards you want.