Dijon Mustard Is the Ultimate Breakfast Condiment

When I was a kid, I didn’t like mustard. I thought it was weirdly potent and couldn’t possibly compete with ketchup or mayonnaise. Flash forward 20 years and I can’t get enough of it. Now you can catch me spreading a thick layer of mustard on everything from home fries to BLTs. Of course, at this point in my mustard-journey I wouldn’t turn down a hot dog covered with standard yellow mustard, but that’s not exactly what I’m looking for. I want a spicy, robust, butter-yellow dijon.

Naturally, when Maille, one of my favorite brands of mustard, offered to share a few ways chefs use dijon in breakfast, I was over the moon. More ways to use my new go-to condiment in the morning? Yes, please.

Most of the chefs I heard from mentioned something about eggs, and I get it. Sure, ketchup on scrambled eggs is great, but dijon is like a French hot sauce you’ve been waiting for all your life. Mason Hereford, Chef and Owner of Turkey and the Wolf in New Orleans, talks some pretty big game about his mom’s egg salad BLT, which is served on a everything bagel. “Maille dijon, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and a good Louisiana hot sauce are my go-to ingredients for a quick egg salad to please mom,” Hereford told me in an email. “She is a very nice lady."

For “a little bite and glamour,” Chef Shawn Cirkiel, a restaurateur and chef of several restaurants within Parkside Projects in Austin, likes to smear dijon over an egg in a hole. As a major eggs in a hole fan who has never thought to do this, you better believe I gave this a go as soon as possible. Guys, mustard, butter, and runny egg yolk might be the answer to all our problems.

Mustard is spicy enough to bring a bit of heat to a sauce, yet somehow mild enough that it won’t overpower a sauce or dressing. “I'm a salad for breakfast guy,” said Ethan Speizer, Executive Chef of Ashes & Diamonds Winery in Napa Valley, California. “I make a quick vinaigrette featuring dijon, shallots, lemon juice, and olive oil. Toss it with some fresh greens and speckle in some smoked trout or ham—or both!”

Eric Joppie, Executive Chef of Olympia Provisions Northwest, uses a dijon mustard cream sauce on a version of a croque madame; and Paul Denamiel, Chef and Owner of Le Rivage in Manhattan, swears by a bit of dijon in his hollandaise.

Since we’re on the subject, I had to toss in my personal favorite way to use mustard at breakfast—on potatoes. I’ll just as easily dip a hash brown in Dijon as I would a French fry, but I think the best way is to spread a thick layer of mustard over a crunchy on the outside, creamy on the inside pommes Darphin.

“We always add a little dijon to the egg wash when we are coating something in panko,” said Mark Dommen, Partner and Chef of One Market in San Francisco. I imagine this trick would be a killer addition to avocado fries.

Jason Dady, a restaurateur and chef based in San Antonio, Texas, uses dijon in his candied bacon glaze with brown sugar and maple syrup, which he says “adds just the right amount of zing.”

But perhaps my favorite use for dijon at breakfast came from Ben Jacobsen, Founder and CEO of Jacobsen Salt Company: “I dip string cheese in Dijon right out of the jar.” Mr. Jacobsen, I salute you.