#081 Breakfast is King
It's the best meal of the day
Breakfast has a bad reputation these days. So many are believing it’s redundant; that you’d be better off starving yourself every morning. While intermittent fasting has its merits (and is a great tool), most people will benefit from a hearty breakfast early in the morning. It kickstarts your metabolism. Breakfast gives you fuel for the day. If you want to restrict your eating window, it’s always better have an early dinner instead of a late breakfast.
Though don’t get me wrong, when I talk about breakfast, I’m talking about real breakfast. I’m not talking about cereal, granola and froot loops that’s almost become synonymous with the word breakfast itself. That, is quite literally the worst way you can start your day. Those biscuits contain poor quality oils, artificial food colorings, among other ingredients you don’t want to consume first thing in the morning.
Real breakfast is supposed to nourish you from the inside out. You want nutrient-dense foods. Eggs. Butter (with good sourdough as a vehicle). Meat. Orange juice. Milk. These foods will lift you. Perhaps with a nice cup of hot cappuccino enjoyed after 🥂
Here at the Warkitchen Breakfast Club, nourishing, beautiful breakfasts are prescription. And whenever we find ourselves bored of the regular egg + sourdough combination, one way we enjoy elevating breakfast is with a hearty breakfast sandwich. Here’s how you can make one for yourself:
1. Bread
I used a sourdough baguette in the picture, and personally, those are my favorite when it comes to making sandwiches like this. They give you that crunch on the outside, with an airy inside that makes every bite incredible. You could also use regular sourdough, just cut it length-wise.
No matter the bread you pick, the most important thing is to toast it at the right time. You want to bite into a good crunch. Nobody enjoys a soggy sandwich, and trust me once you start toasting them you’ll never go back. Prepare the subsequent steps below first, and always toast last.
2. Filling
I filled the sandwich with thin slices of beef tenderloin, 2 fried eggs, and caramelized onions. There was also some gouda on the eggs. For your breakfast sandwich, you can use any protein you want: steak, slices of roast chicken, wild-caught smoked salmon — it’s really up to you and what you have on hand!
What you want to nail however is to achieve a contrast in textures. You want the softness of the tenderloin and its richness to juxtapose the crunchiness of the egg white. The crust of sourdough to pair with the custardy yolk that breaks on your first bite. It's all about creating a symphony of flavors.
3. Assembly
The most important thing about cooking is to have everything in your head. You need to have the steps roughly in your head, so that you bring everything together without unnecessarily sitting around waiting (which just kills the experience and turns food cold). You need cadence. Here's the sequence of events you can expect to create a great breakfast sandwich:
Cook your protein of choice (especially if it’s steak)
Caramelize onions, fry the egg (while meat rests)
Slice meat in your preferred way
Toast the bread (get it CRISPY)
Optional: add some aioli or mayo
Layer on the tenderloin, onions, and eggs
Top with the other half of the baguette, cut it in half, and dig in!
Bon Appetit 🥖
If you’re not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered. Optimal Fuel is the ultimate resource to figure nutrition out (without any prior experience). It’s been designed to give you everything you need to understand modern nutrition AND be equipped with techniques and recipes to cook healthy food that actually tastes good.
As much as cooking gets shamed as a skill that’s irrelevant in 2024? It’s the ultimate life hack. Simply having the ability to cook a steak better than most restaurants (at any time) is incredible and something you’ll take granted for.
You can be dropped anywhere in the world. All you’d need is a cut of meat, fire, a pan and you’ll be able to enjoy an incredible meal that’s healthy for you.
See, the world tends to see nutrition and gastronomy as two completely different fields. Nutrition experts are great at understanding what we should eat, and what we shouldn’t (most of them anyway). Yet, they put zero care into constructing the meal experience. Nobody wants to eat a plate that looks like dog food, no matter how nourishing it is. We are visual creatures.
On the other hand, you have those obsessed with cooking who are guided solely by their tastebuds. They cook what tastes good, and nothing else. This is how you end up being a glutton and having your food work AGAINST you, not for you.
You need a positive relationship with food, and the only way to get there is to cook healthy food that actually tastes good. This is the WARKITCHEN philosophy. We believe food is nourishment. But it should also taste good. It should look good. I still can’t believe there’s people out there forcing dried chicken breast and oversteamed broccoli down their throats every morning thinking it’s the only way. It’s not the only way…
It’s very possible to cook healthy things everyday that tastes amazing that won’t feel a drag to eat. Grab your copy here and you’ll secure lifetime access to every future digital version (we’re already on V4.0).
Ingredients Are Crucial
There is no such thing as unhealthy food, only unhealthy INGREDIENTS. The very foods vilified by the mainstream media are actually some of the healthiest things you can consume. A burger can be made healthy. So can pancakes. It just depends on what you’re using to construct them with.
Sourdough Starter Everything
We need to normalize sourdough starter everything. It just makes everything taste better. More sourdough pancakes. Sourdough pizza. Sourdough with breakfast. The world would be a better place.
ISSUE 25 is LIVE!
We released Issue 25 last Sunday, and it’s true — it’s our most aesthetic issue yet. Alex Kittoe and his Art. Joe's voyage from Alaska to Patagonia. Finding serenity in film. Spanish Gazpacho. Countryside Living. 7 Rules For Leisure. Elevating Toast. Man's search for meaning. There's something for everyone, and you can read it in full here 👇
❋ Manami Sasaki’s Impressive Edible Toast
“Another impressive edible artwork in the series is the kintsugi toast, which takes its cues from the traditional japanese technique of repairing broken ceramics with precious metals, such as liquid gold or silver. Here, Sasaki has tore the toast and connected the sections with edible gold leaf. sour cream has been used as the base, while a fine pattern at the bottom of the toast is created using ketchup. in her most recent post, the designer and artist has recreated bruno munari’s tuttotondo tuttoquadro tile projects for Italian ceramics company, gabbianelli, using sour cream, cherry tomato, basil, and seaweed.”
“Harissa is a traditional spicy paste originating from Tunisia. This spicy paste is made with roasted red peppers as the main ingredient, along with olive oil and spices and herbs such as cumin, coriander, caraway, and garlic. There are so many variations on harissa that there is no fixed recipe and every family has their own version.”
❋ Jason Raish’s Illustrations Are Detail-Obsessed Yet Rich with Dynamic Juxtapositions
“What would be your dream project or job, or is it already on your resume?
My dream project would be literally out of this world, some kind of SpaceX Mars involvement. A campaign for Mars or space travel? Flight suits, Mars fashion? Realistically though, a dream project would be working on visual development for a movie or a project that wants me to draw fashionable, classy figures, an advertising project with a meaty budget that really will put my time-consuming art to good use (something like James Jean’s Prada campaign maybe?)”
Thank you for joining us on this beautiful Sunday ladies & gents! Hope you had a wonderful one 🥂
❋ Read our other WARKITCHEN issues:
❋ Get your copy of Optimal Fuel: Your Nutrition Playbook here. It's a cookbook and nutrition guide — all in one. All proceeds goes towards an outrageous amount of hearty ribeyes and raw honey!
❋ If you'd like to contribute an article or sponsor a future issue, simply reply to this email or send us a DM @TheWarKitchen 🤝
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Couldn't agree more, Rocky! And, timely enough, dropping Kiddo CWD's exclusive Sourdough Pancake recipe in honor of Father's Day this week... get ready!