a French word which came into currency in the mid-16th century but had been preceded by other forms, e.g. alumelle, which are littered along a trail leading all the way from the Latin lamella, ‘small thin plate’, suggesting something thin and round. Cotgrave, in his dictionary of 1611, recorded its arrival in England in this entry: ‘Haumelotte: f. An Omelet, or Pancake of egges.’ He thus preferred the spelling which is used in N. America as opposed to the French spelling ending in -ette which is generally used in Britain. It is safe to assume that the word had been around for a while before 1611. It is anyway safe to assume that omelettes had been around in recognizable form in both France and England and elsewhere too from early medieval times, since the concept of frying beaten eggs in butter in a pan is as simple as it is brilliant.
Indeed, since so many dishes are now being found to have their origin in ancient Persia (see Iran) or in early Arab cuisine, it is tempting to suppose that something like an omelette may originally have arrived from that region. If so, the Persian kookoo (or kuku) could be the best representation in the modern world of the original. A kookoo of the plainer sort involves mixing a generous amount of chopped herbs into beaten eggs, frying it in a round pan until it is firm and then (usually) cutting it into wedges for serving. Many versions have a very substantial filling. The same is true of the Middle Eastern eggah, to which Claudia Roden (1985) devotes eight pages, remarking that:
An eggah is firm and sound, rather like an egg cake. It is usually 2 cm (1 inch) or more thick, and generally bursting with a filling of vegetables, or meat, or chicken and noodles, suspended like currants in a cake. The egg is used as a binding for the filling, rather than the filling being an adornment of the egg. For serving, the eggah is turned out on to a serving dish and cut into slices, as one would cut a cake.
The Spanish tortilla (not to be confused with the tortilla of Mexican cookery) resembles these ancestors in being relatively thick, cooked until firm, and often equipped with a generous filling, e.g. of potato. In this connection it is interesting that Sephardi Jews in a number of countries have made a speciality of potato omelettes. Claudia Roden (1996) states that this is referred to in N. Africa as an omelette juive. It could represent a milestone on the long trail from Persia to Spain. The trail could also have had a branch into Sicily leading to the Italian frittata, which again resembles the types already described.
Seen against this background, the light fluffy French omelette, with its runny interior and its non-existent or relatively scant filling, would be a diversion from the mainstream, a diversion which has of course gained wide currency in countries where French cuisine has enjoyed a period of ascendancy: e.g. Britain. It is perhaps not altogether fanciful to suppose that the remarkably large collection of omelettes brought together by the author of Le Pastissier françois (1653) and largely reproduced in translation by Robert May (1660, also 1685, reprinted 1994) contains within itself evidence of an evolution from a Middle Eastern past to a French classical future. It includes some omelettes to be fried well on both sides (the ancestral ones?) besides one which sounds perfectly suitable for a 20th-century French cook; this last reads as follows in May's translation:
Break six, eight, or ten eggs more or less, beat them together in a dish, and put salt to them; then put some butter a melting in a frying pan, and fry it more or less, according to your discretion, only on one side or bottom.
Whatever their history and connections may have been, it is certain that omelettes of both basic kinds, when properly made, score remarkably high marks for being delicious, easy and quick to prepare, and nutritious.
It is also to be noted that in most of its manifestations the omelette may be sweet instead of savoury.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Lallemand, Roger (1986), Les Omelettes, Marseilles: Jeanne Laffitte.
Roden, Claudia (1985), A New Book of Middle Eastern Food, London: Viking.
