What Chefs Eat For Breakfast Slideshow

I love breakfast! Unfortunately, during my work week breakfast usually consists of copious amounts of coffee and a granola bar, muffin, or a piece of fruit. Not a very hearty start to the day as I'm running out the door but, I think I make up for it during my weekend. Some of the favorites at our house are: peanut butter pancakes with local sugarcane syrup and white chocolate, corned beef potato hash with roasted piano peppers and over-easy eggs, or buttermilk biscuit sandwiches with local Chisesi ham, homemade fig jam, and eggs.

My husband prefers an alternative breakfast sometimes by turning our leftovers from dinner into breakfast, like chopping up leftover shrimp and folding them into grits to make griddled shrimp and grit cakes with poached eggs, or steak and cheese omelettes. We don't always eat breakfast right when we get up either. I'm a firm believer that breakfast is appropriate anytime, breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

Depending on when I have to be in the restaurant, I like to make a simple smoothie for breakfast made from peach or plain kefir, Greek yogurt, banana, frozen peaches and strawberries , milk, and honey granola.

I recently got engaged and hired a personal trainer, so my current answer is different now than the past 37 years of my life. My definition of breakfast was "My dessert of the day." My go-to was stuffed French toast coated in pecans or frosted flakes. If I was in a savory mood, eggs Benedict and some crispy bacon. Now that I'm healthy, I start with some avocado toast on seven-grain bread, maybe a bowl of quinoa. To feed my sweet tooth, an açai bowl with some fresh fruit and granola.

For breakfast, on days when I don't have to be in the kitchen early, I love to indulge in a favorite from my childhood — roasted chicken entomatadas. The ranchero salsa and queso Oaxaca give me that feeling of "home," it's the dish that my mother used to make me growing up. It's always been one of my favorite ways to start the day.

My go-to breakfast is scrambled eggs, seasoned with soy sauce, then finished with Lao Gan Ma, a chili garlic condiment that packs a ton of flavor and a little heat too. I usually scramble the eggs nice and soft and serve them over toasted whole wheat bread to soak up the juices and keep me full for the day. Oh, and plenty of iced black coffee!

Right now, we are still in research and development mode as we relaunch the iconic French Room, so I'm following more of an office schedule than a chef's schedule. That said, my wife and I have two young sons, ages one and three — they keep us both very busy. I get up around 6 and try to leave the house by 7.

The truth is most days I have a chef's breakfast of black coffee. I'll usually drink a sparkling water or juice as well on my drive in to work. As far as food is concerned, it's pretty varied. If I have enough time before I leave the house I do love a very simple avocado toast on multigrain. Sometimes I get to work and Darren, the culinary director of the hotel, has already ordered breakfast to our office. This is the best. Several of the ladies who work the room service / breakfast line in the morning have been there for 30 years and anything they make is pretty great. Lupe has been making us a very special plate of egg whites, spinach, and cheese over English muffins for about a year now, and it's pretty special. It doesn't happen every day but that's why it's so damn good when it does. Other days I'll jump into the kitchen right away and she sees that and makes me a couple breakfast tacos — very simple with egg, cheese, and pico, but very good.

If none of those things happen — and that is increasingly the case — I will grab two slices of bacon off the line and eat a whole avocado with a spoon and then a sliced apple. Chug a quart of lemon water and off to the races.

I wake up around 9:30 or 10 a.m., when my wife has to get ready for work. I am not a big into breakfast so I usually make myself an espresso and catch up on the morning news. I then walk my dog, Winnie, and have another espresso. 

After that, I'm off to work. I grab a bite to eat when I get there. Lately I have been obsessed with Superiority Burger, which is a few blocks down from my restaurant.