In his 2020 cookbook “How To Dress An Egg: Surprising and Simple Ways to Cook Dinner,” Ned Baldwin, the chef and owner of New York City’s Houseman Restaurant, shared the story of his aptly named bestselling dish: the dressed egg.
Shortly after opening Houseman, Baldwin was thinking about putting oeuf mayonnaise — a classic hors d'oeuvre featuring hard-boiled eggs topped with seasoned mayonnaise — as a dish on the menu. He had some of the ingredients already on hand, but as he was going down the stairs to where the food processor was to make the mayonnaise, Baldwin recalled changing his mind.
“Midway down the stairs, I asked myself, ‘Why does this need to be mayo? I can dress the eggs with those ingredients and leave out all the extra fat,’” Baldwin said in his cookbook, which was co-authored with Peter Kaminsky.
“That night we served the hard-boiled eggs with a piquant herbaceous dressing that is somewhere at the intersection of gremolata, chimichurri and paradise,” he continued. “We liked it so much that in our kitchen shorthand, it quickly became ‘egg candy,’ and thus it is called today.”
Almost a decade later, Baldwin’s “egg candy” concept has received newfound attention via a viral brunch trend on TikTok. Called “egg flight,” the trend swaps out wine or beer for hard-boiled eggs that are cut in half and adorned with various toppings from smoked salmon, capers and chili crisp to peanut butter and jelly (on the more extreme end). Its popularity is credited to Alice Choi, a food blogger better known as @hipfoodiemom1 on TikTok. Her now-viral video, posted on June 29 of this year, garnered 1.6 million views.
@hipfoodiemom1 Egg flight!!!! My pickled red onions recipe is linked in my bio and the video is pinned to the top of my page
♬ original sound - Alice Choi
Egg flight!!!! My pickled red onions recipe is linked in my bio and the video is pinned to the top of my page
“I think this caught on because it’s like making a deviled egg but much easier,” Choi told TODAY.com. “You don’t have to mess with removing the yolks, mixing them with mayo and mustard and then piping it back into the egg white.”
Choi has been creating high-protein, egg-focused snacks since 2022, but it wasn’t until she started slicing and topping her hard boiled eggs that the idea of “egg flights” came into fruition. The trend itself garnered significant online attention during an unlikely time. Egg prices have been on the rise since 2022, when U.S. officials confirmed a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza (H5N1) in a commercial flock. Last June, a flock of approximately 103,000 turkeys in Cherokee County, Iowa, was reportedly infected with bird flu, per the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Another outbreak was reported amongst a flock of about 4.2 million egg-laying chickens in Sioux County, Iowa. In December, a patient in Louisiana was hospitalized with a severe case of H5N1 bird flu, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed. Since April 2024, there have been a total of 61 reported human cases of H5N1 bird flu within the U.S.
“Eggs are one of the primary drivers of food inflation,” wrote Patrick Thomas and Jesse Newman for the Wall Street Journal. “The index for eggs was up 37% from a year ago, according to the latest Labor Department figures, and the average retail price of a dozen large eggs increased nearly 14% to $4.15 in December.”
High prices coupled with the lack of available, fresh eggs have forced certain establishments to either place limits or a surcharge on egg purchases. Back in February, Waffle House implemented a temporary surcharge of 50 cents per egg at its nearly 2,000 restaurant locations across 25 states. “The continuing egg shortage caused by HPAI (bird flu) has caused a dramatic increase in egg prices,” the restaurant chain said in a statement to CNN. “Customers and restaurants are being forced to make difficult decisions.” Additionally, a Trader Joe’s in Merrick, New York, limited customers to one dozen eggs per person while Costco warned customers about product cuts or delays. Sprouts and Kroger also reported limits on egg sales at some locations.
“When you look at the price of eggs, they haven’t gone up in [approximately] 40 years. In the 1980s, a dozen eggs averaged about one dollar per carton,” explained Lisa Steele, a fifth-generation chicken keeper, author of “The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook,” and host of the American Public Television/CreateTV series “Welcome to My Farm.”
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When asked about rising egg prices, Steele pushed back on the fear-mongering: “A typical dozen eggs is about a pound and a half of eggs. When you start comparing that to a pound of chicken, fish or steak, it kind of puts things into perspective. Ounce for ounce, eggs really aren't that expensive, even at $8 a dozen, which now, they’ve dropped back to a more reasonable price.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price for a dozen Grade A eggs went down to $5.12 in April after reaching a record $6.23 in March. “It was the first month-to-month drop in egg prices since October 2024,” The Associated Press reported. The average price of eggs, regardless of size, also fell 12.7 percent.
Despite the reprieve, retail egg prices reportedly remain near record highs. The average price for a dozen large eggs in April was 79% higher than the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported exactly a year ago. At that time, the price averaged $2.86 per dozen.
In recent months, eggs have undergone a sort-of rebranding from breakfast staple to hot commodity. So much so that some are humurously referring to eggs as “chicken caviar” to signify their status as a newfound luxury food item. A few are also making memes of so-called “chicken dealers” whose illicit product of choice are cartons of eggs as opposed to hard drugs.
Steele’s second cookbook, which is due out in May 2026, will once again focus on eggs, this time with an array of recipes that “make people think outside the box.” That includes egg casserole variations and a twist on a traditional bacon and egg sandwich that includes sriracha aioli, she shared as teasers.
“I feel like people do eat a lot of eggs still, even with the high prices, and they’re just looking for different ways to do so,” Steele said.
Indeed they are, as the “egg flights” trend has shown.
