What's cooking: Howard Helmer

Egg speedster Howard Helmer.

He's the world's fastest omelette-maker, twice earning the record in the Guinness Book for his high-speed skills. American Howard Helmer can cook a whopping 427 omelettes in a mere 30 minutes. He contends that even a slowpoke can turn out a perfect omelette in 40 to 60 seconds by following his technique.

Helmer has shared his methods with professional culinary groups, in magazines and on TV.

He's been on Oprah, Good Morning America, Live with Regis, This Morning, and Cooking Live on the TV Food Network.

While in New Zealand this week he shared some of his secrets with Viva. What do you most like about your job? Knowing that when I've finished showing people the technique that produces a perfect omelette in under a minute, they'll carry it away with them and actually use it. The second best thing is that, thanks to my record-book credential, I travel all around the world showing people the technique.

What was the first thing you cooked?

Macaroni and cheese, from a box, 68 years ago.

What is your favourite meal?

Thanksgiving dinner. I don't know if it's the meal itself or the traditional family involvement, but I eat that meal until I feel like I'm going to explode. The meal is always roast turkey served with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, a dish of cranberries and pecans in a Jello mold, a casserole of stringbeans, almonds, an undiluted canned cream-of-mushroom soup topped with crispy fried onions and, for dessert, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. My second favourite meal is an omelette Lorraine - an omelette with dry white wine added to the egg mix, filled with bacon and gruyere cheese and topped with hollandaise, served with potato pancakes. Sauteed spinach, too.

What is the best meal you've had overseas?

They have all been in France. I don't think you can find a bad meal in the whole country. The most unusual meal I had was in a small city a three-hour train ride from Hong Kong. I was served goose intestines, boiled chicken feet with the toenails included, a really hideous fish - head and all - and other things I couldn't identify. I dutifully ate the food. I never went back there.

What do you eat when you can't be bothered to cook?

I very seldom cook at home. I live in midtown Manhattan and there must be a dozen restaurants on the block where I live, all of which deliver. I live with a partner who doesn't cook either so every dinner gets delivered. And even if we did cook, we couldn't do it as well - or as cheaply for two - as ordering in.

What do you always have in your fridge and kitchen cupboards?

I always have eggs in my fridge - naturally - cream for my coffee, and orange juice. In the cupboards I always have coffee and instant soup. Is there anything you won't eat? Calamari. I don't like to see the tentacles on my plate, even if they are fried crisp. Besides, it reminds me of that ghastly meal in Hong Kong.

What is your idea of the perfect meal?

Steak tartare with the ingredients mixed tableside so I can supervise, a chop from a grainy mustard-coated crown roast of lamb, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and crepes. Served on a white tablecloth by an attractive server.

What's the secret to cooking the perfect omelette?

A 10in (25cm) hot pan cooks the omelette faster, and adding a tablespoon of water to the egg mix makes the omelette lighter. Adding a teaspoon of any creamy salad dressing - I like ranch dressing - flavours the egg. It's also important to plan ahead - to have everything for the omelette ready to go in front of you, and that includes the eggs beaten up. That way you can cook individual omelettes-to-order quickly without having to stop in between each one to get things ready for the next. If you're going to make one huge omelette to serve more than one person, don't call it an omelette. It would be "scrambled eggs with stuff". Omelettes are individual. One omelette for one person.