The great chef Thomas Keller, inventor of “Oysters and Pearls,” created a splendid first course with fresh-shucked oysters in a pearl tapioca sabayon, garnished with osetra caviar (today it’s domestic white sturgeon caviar, due to import restrictions).

Here’s a video, here’s the recipe).

Keller’s inspiration was a box on tapioca pearls he noticed on a shelf. He turned the tapioca into something savory instead of the conventional sweet pudding, thinking “Where do pearls come from? Oysters.”

The iconic dish came together just like that.

While we can’t get enough of Oysters and Pearls, here’s an easier take on the dish that you can make for Mother’s Day or other special occasion.

Serve this course with a dry white wine or saké.
 
RECIPE: OYSTERS & PEARLS

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. DRESS the seaweed with some yuzu or rice wine vinaigrette so it can be eaten as a salad.

2. CREATE a seaweed bed on each serving plate, topped with the oysters.

3. TOP each oyster with pearls of caviar. Decorate the plate with the cherry tomatoes and lime wedge.

You can make breakfast burritos and pizzas, Eggs Benedict and a library of other egg dishes.

Which brings us to today’s tip: the differences among the egg casserole, frittata, omelet, quiche, strata and torta/tortilla.

OMELET

The simplest of this group of egg dishes, an omelet consists of beaten eggs mixed with a small amount of cream, milk or water. The mixture is cooked in an omelet pan until set, then folded around a pre-warmed filling (see “inclusions” in the Casserole section), cooked a minute more and served.

An omelet pan is important to success. A shallow pan with sloped edges, it can vary in diameter.

For those who don’t make omelets enough to develop the technique to flip, there’s a hinged omelet pan.

Omelette is the French spelling. It evolved from the earlier amelette and alemelle, literally a thin plate, from the Latin lamella.
 
CASSEROLE

A casserole is a beaten egg dish with inclusions, that is baked in the oven.

“Inclusions” are anything else you want to include in addition to the eggs: bacon, ham or sausage; cheese; herbs; and any number of vegetables, such as asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, potatoes, spinach and summer squash. Toss in leftover veggies, too, like carrots, peas and edamame.

The word origin is French, from casse, a small saucepan, derived from the Medieval Latin cattia, crucible, a metal container for heating substances to high temperatures.
 
FRITTATA

A frittata is an Italian-style omelet, often cooked in a large pan to create multiple portions. Like the rest of the egg dishes featured here, it can have a variety of inclusions; some Italian cooks also include leftover pasta.

All of the ingredients are cooked at once on the stove top. The frittata is then flipped. (If you don’t like to flip—it takes practice to do it well—then make a casserole.)

Unlike an omelet, a frittata is not folded; the inclusions are cooked with the eggs, not a separate filling (see the photo above). The frittata is typically finished in the oven or under the broiler.

The result is dense like a crustless quiche, which is cut and served in wedges. It can be eaten hot or cold, as can the strata and torta (the later is often served as tapas).

The word comes from the Italian fritto, fried.

A strata is cooked on the stovetop and flipped in the pan; then, like a frittata, finished under a broiler or salamander.

The Spanish torta or tortilla is similar, but always includes sliced potatoes (an option with a strata) cooked in olive oil, and is not finished under a broiler.

Strata means layer in Italian; “torta” is the Spanish word for cake and some regions use the diminutive tortilla. Before the 16th century, before the availability of sugar in Europe (it originated on the Indian subcontinent and was affordable only by the wealthy until the 18th century), cake often referred to a savory dish.

A tip: instead of stove top, you can cook the whole thing from scratch in a springform pan. This doesn’t work for a casserole, which is not as solid in consistency (see photo at right).

 
QUICHE

A quiche is a savory baked custard pie, made with cream and eggs to achieve a delicate custard texture. It is cooked in a pie shell, although if you don’t want the carbs, you can make a crustless quiche in a pie plate.

A quiche includes cheese, as well as other ingredients: bacon or ham, seafood (crab, lobster, shrimp), vegetables (leeks, mushrooms and spinach are popular).

The French word was derived from the German Küche, a diminutive of the word for cake, Küchen.
 
 
You’ve got a couple of days to research recipes and decide what you’d like to cook for Mother’s Day.

Almost too pretty to eat (photo © Culinary Vegetable Institute).

Here’s something easy for Mother’s Day (or Valentine’s Day): a dessert or tea snack consisting of a single macaron, beautifully decorated.

It’s from the Culinary Vegetable Institute in Ohio, where farmers grow the most glorious produce and chefs create wondrous dishes with it.

You can create this macaron at home, either as a light dessert or as one of a number of dessert courses.

Serve it with a cup of tea or a glass of sparkling wine. For birthdays, add a candle for the honoree.
 
 
RECIPE: MACARON WITH FLOWERS

Ingredients

1. PURCHASE or make macarons, ideally in a bright color for visual appeal.

2. PLACE the macaron on its side, using a dab of frosting to affix it to the plate and keep it from rolling. While we don’t like canned frosting, in this case its thickness works to adhere the macaron.

SPRINKLE the plate with sanding sugar in a complementary color. It’s typically available in pastels: blue, green, lavender, pink and yellow.

3. PLACE the flower near the top.

4. SCATTER the sanding sugar on the plate.