THE NIGHT NANCY SILVERTON MADE A MEDIOCRE OMELET

If Nancy Silverton had one single moment when she felt maybe something wasn’t right with her, it was last Friday night when she made an omelet at her house in Los Angeles.

Earlier that day, March, 27, she and I took the Corona virus test because someone we had been in contact with had tested positive. We hooked up an appointment with a family friend who is a doctor and made the drive to his office in the city of Orange, 42.5 miles away, which around here is basically a road trip.

I’m not a silver lining guy, but I would dread to have taken that drive in normal times. It would have been at least two maddening hours. That day, with the Frank Sinatra station on and all the songs about spring it took 40 minutes.

So we took the test, I shopped for eggs and cheese at a market in the same shopping center as the doctor’s office, we drove home – this time almost sad there was no traffic because we knew why - and that night Nancy made an omelet for her son Ben.

‘It was during the making of the omelet that I realized something was not quite right, “ Nancy said. “When I cook I am very organized. I lay my mise en place out in front of me in the order I will use the ingredients.

“In the case of this omelet, I had the ingredients out -the eggs, butter, salt, Gruyere a wedge of Parmesan and coarsely ground black pepper – and the tools to make it - a small nonstick skillet, a mixing bowl, a fork, a micro-plane, my heat proof red spatula, a small glass of water to emulsify the eggs.

“But, they were scattered all over the work table. They weren’t in my normal properly aligned order. I thought to myself ‘This is not the way I cook. Why am I doing this this was?’ This just did not feel right.”

So Nancy Silverton made the omelet.

It wasn’t the normal Nancy omelet. For one thing, it had a hint  of color to it. Her omelets don’t.  It wasn’t folded properly. Her omelets are. It’s didn’t lay seductively on the plate.  I’m sure most people would have truly relished it. They woulda told their friends about it when they got home. Instagramed it. But, Nancy knew something was wrong.

“That’s when I knew I was sick, When I made that omelet. That wasn’t the way I cook. That omelet was cooked by the virus.”

Three days later, the doctor’s wife called. Nancy had tested positive.

http://www.krikorianwrites.com/blog/2020/3/31/odlfsdioqb59rp0z8n2yxvm8k8v7j3

NANCY OMELET ON A GOOD DAY IN JULY 2019, IN PANICALE, UMBRIA, ITALY

That’s hard to write, What i love to write is Nancy has has no symptoms. She is in lockdown at San Quarantine, aka her home, with her cellie Michael Krikorian who tested, somehow, negative. They have got hooked to two shows. “The Restaurant” and , of all things “Let’s Make A Deal”.

“I’m one of the lucky ones so far.” Nancy said.