Belgian Town Resists Fear With a 10,000-Egg Omelet

Photo: Christopher Stern

August 16, 2017 — In the midst of a European scandal involving pesticide-contaminated eggs which stretches as far as Hong Kong, one Belgian town is raising the finger to health worries by cracking open some fresh ones. Ten thousand of them, to be exact.

For 22 years, the town of Malmedy has come together for a festival of music, dance, games and, naturally, a giant 10,000-egg omelet. At four meters (13 feet) in diameter, this omelet needs to be stirred by several strapping Belgians, decked out in tall white toques and wacky apparel, as is obligatory at weird festivals across Europe. Despite its size, the recipe for the omelet was apparently a simple one: 10,000 eggs, 66 lbs of lardons (fancy term for bacon bits), oil, several pounds of salt and pepper and 13 pounds of chives.

Reuters reports that the president of the The Global Brotherhood of the Knights of the Giant Malmedy Omelette (yes, this grandiosely old-world name is not a joke) was confident of the omelet’s safety. And indeed, the company that supplied the eggs was proven to be free of fipronil, the controversial antiparasitic chemical. No fear this year; festival-goers, undeterred by recent turmoil, tucked into their snacks with gusto.