Last evening our friend Mary called in just as we were getting our dinner ready and we persuaded her to stay and eat with us.

I told her we were just having omelettes-with which she was quite happy- and as I said it I was reminded of a story about Gertrude Stein that I knew Elizabeth David quoted in one of her cook books.
I tracked it down this morning in “A Book of Mediterranean Food”

“Regarding the world of subtlety which can be infused into the serving of a dish of eggs, I cannot resist quoting here the lucid opinion of a French cook, as related by Gertrude Stein.
The dinner was cooked by Helene. I must tell you a little about Helene.
Helene had already been three years with Gertrude Stein and her brother. She was one of those admirable Bonnes, in other words maids of all work, good cooks thoroughly occupied with the welfare of their employers and of themselves, firmly convinced that everything purchasable was far too dear. “Oh, but it is too dear!” was her answer to any question.
She wasted nothing and carried on the household at the regular rate of 8 francs a day. She even wanted to include guests at that price, it was her pride, but of course that was difficult since she, for the honour of her house as well as to satisfy her employers, always had to give everyone enough to eat. She was a most excellent cook and she made a very good souffle. In those days most of the guests were living more or less precariously; no one starved, someone always helped, but still most of them did not live in abundance. It was Braque who said about four years later when they were all beginning to be known, with a sigh and a smile, “How life has changed ! We all now have cooks who can make a souffle.”
Helene had her opinions; she did not for example like Matisse. She said a Frenchman should never stay for a meal unexpectedly, particularly if he had asked the servant beforehand what there was for dinner. She said foreigners had a perfect right to do these things but not a Frenchman, and Matisse had once done it. So when Miss Stein said to her, “Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening” she would say “In that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect and he will understand”

So there you are Mary, you were obviously welcome as I stuck to the omelette for you!