Breakfast in a jar

When I think of convenience foods and fast food restaurants I usually don't usually associate them with particularly good food. In fact not at all. What I do associate them with though is efficient and smart packaging. If you think of the way this food is packaged and how quickly, efficiently and conveniently it is delivered, you have to acknowledge that these establishments do a very good job about it. Not very environmentally friendly though.

Why is this exclusive of fast food chains or supermarket foods? I think that convenience can absolutely apply to good food.

A few weeks ago, Erin Snyder, one of my sous-chefs, and I, were thinking about a new breakfast item to replace a dish that was proving to be too finicky and inconsistent. We wanted something that was good, easy and practically fool-proof. The result was the breakfast in a jar. The idea was to be able to put the following items together in a jar:

.Vegetable or potato

.Protein (optional)

.Eggs (coddled)

.Cheese (optional)

.Bread, toasted for texture.

With these starting points there could be endless combinations. All that was needed was to have the mise en place ready, assemble all of the ingredients in a jar, and serve. This of course gives us the option of a rotating menu, where we could change it daily if we wanted to.

The item in the photo is made up of grilled ramps, sauteed shiitake mushrooms, rendered Canadian bacon, two coddled eggs (sans shell) and toasted brioche cubes.

Some other ideas:

• Potatoes fried in duck fat, caramelized onions, eggs, Gruyere, toasted sourdough.
• Chorizo, leeks, eggs, manchego, buttered baguette.
• Smoked salmon, green onions, eggs, creme fraiche, toasted bagel (diced).
• Wild mushrooms, eggs, fontina cheese, buttered and toasted brioche cubes.
• Eggs Benedict in a jar: julienned Canadian bacon, eggs, hollandaise sauce, toasted cubed English Muffin.
• Sauteed morels, grilled asparagus, eggs, pecorino tartufo cheese, rye bread toast.
• Maple bacon lardons, grits, eggs, brioche French toast