Egg on Toastie
The world of food and fire throws up many great characters with a love of cooking. Add comedy, anarchy and the ability to hack any snack and you get George Egg. RUPERT BATES reports
As a teenager, George Egg used to eat fire, which takes devotion to the art of BBQ to a whole new level.
Meet George Egg – not his real surname (the Eggs briefly lived opposite a family called Bacon), but like the man himself, the name immediately elicits a chuckle and a smile and we’re in the presence of a born entertainer; almost a throwback to a less waspish era of comedy – Tommy Cooper without the fez but with a toastie maker and an ironing board. Of which more later.
We are chatting in Brighton, Sussex – home to an eclectic mix of artists and a melting pot of eccentricity and invention. George arrives on his bicycle, complete with pannier, definitely more village parson on the way to communion than Miss Gulch from the Wizard of Oz.
His @georgegg Instagram is approaching 100,000 followers, driven by his Snack Hacker reels, with brilliantly bonkers food hacks, elevating the ordinary to culinary awesomeness. Think Greggs steak bake with wasabi and rocket, or a ‘Mockdonalds’ breakfast muffin and twiglet brownies. He has rustled up a peanut butter banana and peperami toastie for James Acaster and a baked bean daal with Romesh Ranganathan.
Fair to say, most of his creations, despite ingredients accessible to all, are probably not coming to this magazine’s recipe pages any time soon. But words cannot do his ingenuity and execution justice. It is no wonder Egg has been shortlisted for Content Creator of the Year at the Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards.
Amid the snacks, Egg loves to barbecue with a collection of grills at home including a Trangia, Foker cast iron hobs, a portable woodburner – try his baba ganoush overnight in the embers – an EcoZoom rocket stove, a Kadai fire bowl, a Blok Customs grill, a Gozney Roccbox pizza oven, a paella burner, and Grill Chef mini kamados from Lidl.
But the most prized collection of cooking equipment is his sandwich makers, assembled via car boot sales and any other means, for Egg is the king of the toastie, the monsieur of croque – just don’t tell the French. He has over 30 vintage, analogue toastie-makers at the last count.
Originally inspired by the artists of Covent Garden in London, Egg started as a street entertainer – magic, juggling and fire-eating. Further impetus came via Circus Archaos, think chainsaw juggling in overalls, and the Anarchist Cook was taking shape in Egg’s head. ‘Stand-up comedy with props’ became his metier, having studied Performing Arts at the University of Brighton.
“I took part in a show called The Feast at The Albany in Deptford, south-east London. I was doing my stand-up with props as one of the acts, where the hosts were playing mad French chefs,” said Egg.
“The performers cooked a meal during the day. The audience sat on giant picnic tables made from scaffolding and in the interval the cast served the audience the curry they’d cooked. That got me into the idea of mixing performing and food.”
On tour meant lots of budget hotels and room service food. Egg’s restless mind thought what could happen if you took room service food literally and could only cook with what was to hand, be it a kettle (moules mariniere – honest), a hairdryer or an iron. I believe a Gideon bible and a trouser press (toast) have also been put to good use.
“I uploaded the cooking videos on YouTube and they went viral.” Egg, simply armed with a few fliers, sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe and his Movable Feast shows have lit up venues across the country. Comedy cooking is one thing, but the result is gourmet food.
“I have learnt so much about cooking along the way, understanding flavours and combinations.”
‘Making a meal of it’ means something completely different in Egg’s world. Lock him in a shed with garden tools and the DIY Chef will emerge with a three-course dinner served on a lawnmower.
He has converted a laptop into a grill and cooked over a car engine. Egg rocks up in a town centre in his camper van, pops out for a pasty, gathers a collection of sauce sachets and works his magic, creating hilarious but gently and stylishly delivered video content, shot by his son Jem, before sharing with the world.
Send him to a housebuilding site; get the construction workers to hand over
their lunchboxes and Snack Hacker will do the rest; or get him to sift through the tools of the trade and rustle up a barbecue via blowtorches and cement mixers. Maybe lock Health & Safety in the show home first.
If musician and comedian Bill Bailey wanted a soul mate and private chef on tour, George Egg is his man. I’m convinced they’re related anyway.
It is easy to see why Egg is comfortable over the grills and live-fire cooking – forever experimental and quizzical. He is a star of food festivals, including Pub in the Park, working alongside Shropshire Lad Adam Purnell and James Brace over the fires and the Big Feastival in the Cotswolds. Pub in the Park, Brighton saw him cook five different toasties, including a wonderfully decadent cheeseburger baguette and a wagon wheel and dark chocolate sandwich – obviously.
A fusion of comedy genius and culinary excellence makes for an extraordinary, unique talent. As we chat in a Brighton sandwich shop, I imagine an Egg takeover of the menu. Live shows that don’t require wolfing down a meal beforehand, knowing you’re going to be fed but no idea what, also gets my vote, and I’ve got my order in early for the cookbook he is writing. As for what Egg has planned for the book launch, the brain boggles as to what ‘canapes’ might be served.
Food is theatre – the theatre of the absurd in Egg’s case – especially when
fires are lit. His creativity is an omelette of the senses: taste, smell, touch, sight, sound “and most importantly your sense of humour.”
If I ever attempted Egg’s anarchic cooking, I would set off fire alarms.
“I once tried making ice cream using a fire extinguisher.”
With that, he is on his bike, pannier full of BBQ magazines. I imagine a TV cooking series, different to any ever done before, but sense this poet-pragmatist is already well ahead of me. A true one-off. Get him to a barbecue near you.