Alfred Hitchcock's Favorite Breakfast Featured An Ingredient He Was Terrified Of

Alfred Hitchcock was called the "Master of Suspense," but even a lofty moniker like that sells him way short. He was simply a master filmmaker in every single respect, boasting over a dozen unimpeachable classics to his name. Legendary directors like Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and David Lynch all took inspiration from him, and with 1960's "Psycho," Hitchcock helped establish the conventions of the slasher film. But what scared a man like Hitchcock? As it turns out, eggs — although that didn't stop quiche lorraine from being his favorite breakfast dish.

Maybe it's an exaggeration to say that Hitchcock was afraid of eggs, at least in the way Jimmy Stewart was afraid of heights in "Vertigo", or how "Psycho" made us all afraid of showers, but he was powerfully repulsed by them in their raw form. Hitchcock once described the egg as a "white round thing without any holes." He also asked, rhetorically, "Have you ever seen anything more revolting than an egg yolk breaking and spilling its yellow liquid?" (Well, that farmer with his eyes pecked out in "The Birds," for one thing, but we're not going to argue with the Master of Suspense.)

Despite Alfred Hitchcock's aversion to eggs, he was known to enjoy quiche lorraine, a type of quiche (not to be confused with a tart) made from eggs, cheese, and pieces of ham or bacon in a flaky crust. Maybe it was just raw eggs Hitchcock took issue with, or maybe he simply couldn't resist a quiche when his wife, Alma — said to be an excellent cook — prepared it for him. Either way, he enjoyed it enough to give it a memorable cameo in one of his movies.

"To Catch A Thief" is generally considered mid-tier Hitchcock, but even mid-tier Hitchcock has its fair share of pleasures: As far as movies go, you can do a whole lot worse than Cary Grant and Grace Kelly cavorting across the French Riviera. The quiche doesn't actually show up then, though — Grant's character, a onetime jewel thief named John Robie, serves the dish to an insurance inspector at his home. When the inspector comments that the pastries are "light as air," Robie gives his housekeeper credit in a typically Hitchcockian manner. "Germaine has sensitive hands, an exceedingly light touch," he says. "She strangled a German general once, without a sound." Our compliments to the chef? 

(If your hands aren't as sensitive's as Germaine's, you can make use of refrigerated crescent roll dough for your quiches.)