How Directing Duo PEDEN+MUNK Convinced Their Son to Love Eggs

PEDEN+MUNK, the husband-and-wife directing duo whose signature food and lifestyle work has graced magazine covers, billboards, best-selling cookbooks, and TV commercials, had a notion.

Their six-year-old son Ollie hates eggs. For foodies like father Taylor Peden and mother Jen Munkvold, this was unthinkable. Sure, kids have very specific food preferences, but their son’s disavowal of eggs - a foodstuff that mom and dad adore - was not okay.

In an effort to change their son’s mind, they decided to take Ollie on a journey through Paris and the French countryside to acquire a taste for his least favourite food. But with one small catch: the ‘experiment’ would be documented for The New York Times Magazine - specifically, as the cover story for the Food Voyages Issue.

“This was a risk from the beginning, a silly idea yes, but also a bold one (as any parent might gather). No matter the outcome, some core memories were going to be made. The impossible was at hand. With a glimmer of hope and backpacks full of camera gear, we embarked on a week-long journey to discover restaurants, egg dishes and parts of France we had never visited,” explains Jen Munkvold.

Over the course of the humorous and sentimental trip, Ollie explores both traditional and creative egg-centric plates at the region's finest restaurants such as La Buvette, La Bagarre, Deviant, Chez George, and Le Doyenne, amongst many others. Through cooking alongside some of Paris’s brightest culinary minds, each chef and experience played a part in opening Ollie's mind and palate, teaching him how amazing and truly delicious an egg can be. This special, unscripted story explores culinary traditions and communities hands-on, all through the unpolished, honest lens of a child’s perspective.

With that, we have proof positive that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And if you’re able to document the creation of egg excellence as practiced by those whose mastery of the egg is nothing short of artistic, all the better. Vive la France! Vive le egg! Vive Ollie! - can we get this boy a Napoleon?

Written, directed, and photographed by PEDEN+MUNK, the story is published in The New York Times Magazine, Food Voyages Issue.