Instructions: Break the eggs into a small bowl and use a fork to lightly blend the yolks into the whites whisking gently.

Add a good seasoning of salt and freshly milled black pepper.

Take a small heavybased saucepan and place it over a medium heat.

Add half the butter to the pan and swirl it around so that the base and about 25mm of the sides of the pan are moistened with it. Then when the butter has melted and is just beginning to foam pour in the beaten eggs. Using a wooden fork or a wooden spoon with a point start stirring briskly using backwards and forwards movements all through the liquid egg getting into the corners of the pan to prevent it from sticking.

Dont whatever you do turn the heat up: just be patient and keep on scrambling away until you calculate that three quarters of the egg is now a creamy solid mass and a quarter is still liquid.

Remove the pan from the heat add the rest of the butter and continue scrambling with the fork or spoon.

The eggs will carry on cooking in the heat from the pan.

As soon as there is no liquid egg left serve the scrambled eggs absolutely immediately. The secret of success is removing the pan at the right stage because overcooking makes the eggs dry and flaky.

Once youve mastered the art of allowing them to finish cooking off the heat you will never have a problem.

If you like you can add a little double cream or creme fraiche as well as the butter.

Either way soft clouds of perfectly scrambled eggs are one of lifes special joys. Serve on buttered toast or bagels.

Theres only one rule and that is not to have the heat too high; if you do the eggs will become flaky and dry. The trick is to remove the pan from the heat while theres still some liquid egg left then this will disappear into a creamy mass as you serve the eggs and take them to the table. For more people just multiply the ingredients accordingly. The method remains the same but more eggs will obviously take longer to cook.

I learnt how to make scrambled eggs for the very first time by following a recipe by the famous French chef Auguste Escoffier and I still think his is the best version of all. However during the past 20 years since the first Cookery Course was published there has been an enormous move away from butter which in some ways is right because at one stage we were all far too heavyhanded with it and it sometimes obscured the delicate flavour of fresh vegetables and so on. But lets never forget what a beautiful ingredient butter is and what a great affinity it has with eggs. For this reason I am sticking with Escoffter on scrambled eggs.

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