This Is the Year of the Fancy Deviled Egg

At Agi’s Counter in Brooklyn, 40 orders of dill- and pickle-packed “Green Devils” are delivered to tables at every sitting. The deviled eggs at Agi’s, one of BA’s 50 best restaurants of 2022, have become so popular that chef Jeremy Salamon put them on both the daytime and dinner menus. It’s the same story across the country at the Anchovy Bar, which opened in San Francisco late last year. Half of all guests order the deviled egg starter, which is topped with anchovies, Caesar dressing, breadcrumbs, a mountain of Parmesan cheese, bottarga, and chives. “At this point, deviled eggs have arrived and they’re not going anywhere,” says Anchovy Bar’s chef-owner Stuart Brioza.

It’s tempting to chalk the increase of deviled eggs on restaurant menus up to just another hot girl food having its moment in the sun. Indeed, deviled eggs, first made popular in the 1900s, share an elusive je nais se quoi with tinned fish, oysters, and pickles—the kinds of once-sexless foods that have been embraced by a new generation intent on romanticizing simplicity and proving a certain appreciation for laid-back dining. But where hot girl foods lean low-key and unfussy, the deviled eggs of today are luxurious, inventive, and dare I say it: sexy.

At Tuome in New York, you’ll find a textural masterpiece: hollowed-out egg whites that have been covered in panko breadcrumbs, fried until crisp, refilled with their creamy yolks, and topped with a garlic chili sauce. At Manhattan’s Katana Kitten, cloudlike yolks are whipped with Kewpie mayonnaise and miso and then dolloped with red caviar marinated in soy and yuzu. If you’re lucky enough to attend the pizza pop-up JunkMail Pizza in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, you might come face-to-face with Buffalo deviled eggs garnished with intricate, crunchy shards of chicken skin.

While deviled eggs are having a moment right now, there’s nothing new about them. The ones we eat today supposedly evolved from an ancient Roman appetizer. At fancy meals, wealthy guests dined on boiled eggs served with spicy sauces. During the 13th century, cooks living in the region that’s now Spain would pound cooked yolks with cilantro, pepper, onion juice, and a fermented fish sauce before stuffing the mixture back into hollowed-out whites and fastening them together with a small stick. Throughout the 1400s, stuffed egg recipes featuring everything from raisins and cheese to herbs or powdered sugar were commonly found in medieval cookbooks.

By the late 19th century, deviled eggs were ubiquitous in the American South, where few dinners were served without a plate of them. An early recipe published in The Montgomery Advertiser in 1877 recommended rubbing yolks into a “smooth paste” with a little butter, cayenne, mustard, and vinegar—not dissimilar to the ingredients and process of many modern deviled egg recipes. By 1937, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauces came into the mix, according to a Los Angeles Times article titled, “Eggs Have Nothing to Do With the Devil.”

Deviling was commonly used to describe the process of making foods spicy, but the LA Times writer Lona Gilbert was careful to nip any satanic associations in the bud when introducing her recipe. “The devil couldn’t possibly have anything to do with eggs anyway, for he’d be sure to apply too much heat,” she wrote.

The traditional deviled egg formula is ripe for innovation, says Akino West, the executive chef and owner of Miami-based Southern restaurant Rosie’s. West, who ate deviled eggs on special occasions while growing up, started serving them on his brunch menu a few months ago. They’re gussied up with Dijon mustard as well as crispy chicharrones for “a bit of Miami style.” The restaurant sells up to 50 deviled egg orders every brunch shift. They arrive at the table quickly, pack a lot of flavor in each bite, and are “simply fun to eat,” West says.

At NR, a ramen restaurant in Manhattan, head chef Takashi Igarashi put a Japanese-influenced deviled egg on the menu about a year ago. His “Deviled Egg + Egg + Egg” features a decadent, creamy yolk whipped with karashi (Japanese mustard) and wasabi that’s topped with uni, caviar, and an umami dashi jelly. On a busy night, he sells about 50 plates of deviled eggs. “They’re already so popular in the US that it doesn’t take any convincing for guests to order ours,” he says.

Deviled eggs are also a functional appetizer, says Jeff Grey, who runs JunkMail Pizza with his friend and business partner Dan Kane. The starter is well-suited to the gluten- and meat-intolerant crowds, while “still leaving plenty of room for the main course,” Kane says. At JunkMail Pizza’s most recent pop-up in September, Kane made Buffalo chicken deviled eggs with pickled celery, a paprika-heavy seasoning blend, and a sliver of crispy chicken skin that shattered on first bite. “One guest ate 10,” he says.

Even in that 1937 LA Times story, Gilbert seemed to see the deviled egg renaissance coming. “‘Celestial,’ your picnic guests will yum yum,” she wrote about the dish. “‘Divine,’ your family will comment at your next cold supper. ‘Ethereal,’ will remark your gushing friend at luncheon.”

Or as Cyed Adraincem, the chef at Katana Kitten puts it, “Who doesn’t like deviled eggs?”

Simple Does It Deviled Eggs

A coarsely mashed filling, crunchy with celery, scallions, and pickle relish, is the key to the best deviled eggs.

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