A poached egg is an egg that has been cooked by poaching, that is, in simmering liquid.

The egg is cracked into a bowl of any size, and then gently slid into a pan of simmering water and cooked until the egg white has mostly solidified, but the yolk remains soft. It is quite common for a small pat of butter or margarine to be added to the container for the egg, to prevent the egg sticking to its container. The 'perfect' poached egg has a runny yolk, with a hardening crust and no raw white remaining.

Fresh eggs will yield the best results. Broken into simmering water, the white will cling to the yolk, resulting in cooked egg white and runny yolk.

To prevent dispersion of the white of the egg, a small amount of vinegar may be added to the boiling water. Stirring the water vigorously to create a vortex may reduce dispersion. Special pans, with several small cups, allow a number of eggs to be poached at the same time. Other methods of producing poached eggs, such as using cling film to keep the egg perfectly formed have been documented.

Curtis Stone (born 4 November 1975) is an Australian celebrity chef, author and television personality, nicknamed "The Quiet Terminator" by fans following his performance on The Celebrity Apprentice 3.

He was born in Melbourne, Australia. Stone began cooking with his grandmother at the age of five. He attended Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School. His father, Bryan Stone, is an accountant.

Stone was studying for his Bachelor of Business before deciding his heart was in food. He worked at some top Australian restaurants before leaving to work at various restaurants in London. In Australia, he debuted his cooking career at age 18 at the Savoy Hotel. On completing his qualifications as a chef, Stone began cooking in London under Marco Pierre White at the Café Royal and Mirabelle. He went on to become head chef at White's Quo Vadis.

Stone returned briefly to Australia to make the traveling cooking show Surfing the Menu (on ABC TV) with another chef, Ben O'Donoghue.

No stranger to television, Stone had appeared in a number of cooking programs in the UK, including Dinner in a Box, Good Food Live and Saturday Kitchen. He also hosted the first season of My Restaurant Rules in Australia. Beginning in May 2006, Stone hosted Take Home Chef on TLC in the United States, which went on to become an international hit for TLC.

Michel Roux (born 19 April 1941) is a French-born chef and restaurateur working in Britain.

Born in Charolles, Saône-et-Loire, Roux moved to Paris with his family after the war, where they set up a charcuterie (delicatessen). At the age of fourteen he became a patissier (pastry chef), and later followed his elder brother Albert back to Paris to work as a chef.

When Albert moved to London, Michel again followed him, and in 1967 they opened their first restaurant, Le Gavroche, which became the first restaurant in Britain to gain one, two and then three Michelin stars. In 1972 they opened the Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire.

Michel was awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France for patisserie in 1976 and an honorary OBE alongside his brother in 2002 and is the recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence.

In a poll of UK chefs carried out by Caterer and Hotelkeeper magazine in 2003, Michel and his brother Albert were voted the most influential chefs in the country. Michel Roux's son, Alain Roux, currently runs the Waterside Inn in Bray.

Ben Starr is an Australian and American radio host, best known for hosting The Ballroom Glitz [1] on America's Music Of Your Life Radio Network. Radio Australasia [2]

Ben grew up in Sydney, Australia, and trained as a competitive Ballroom Dancer from the early age of 5. At 13, he started his radio career for Community Radio Station 2RDJ-FM [3] in Burwood, New South Wales.

For the last nineteen years Ben has worked for some of Australia's premier radio networks in the area of Announcing, Producing, Research and Promotions.

He is now heard by more than a million listeners on his Saturday nights show 5pm - 7pm ET .