Corby Kummer Plays Deviled Advocate

Speak of the deviled.

On Monday, food and policy writer Corby Kummer returned to Boston Public Radio to herald a resurgence in popularity for deviled eggs, per the staff writers over at Bon Appetit Magazine.

It’s not your standard deviled eggs that are getting all this attention, though. “Fancy” eggs, with ingredients like Kewpie mayonnaise, miso, and caviar are apparently the hors d’oeuvre célèbre.

“It’s kind of the ingredients of the moment and the seasonings of the moment that are making their way into deviled eggs,” Kummer explained, commenting on the article dubbing 2022 the “year of the fancy deviled egg.”

“Fat is a wonderful carrier of flavor. Egg yolks are fat. You puree and mash in… you know, it used to be mustard and Worcestershire sauce, and paprika! Those were the flavoring components, that was as exotic as it got,” Kummer said.

“Now it’s Kewpie mayonnaise and anchovies and fish sauce – and Sriracha if you can find it.”

During his weekly conversation with hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, Kummer also touched on rising restaurant prices, poor taste jokes on “The Great British Baking Show,” and the late Sylvia Wu of Madame Wu’s Garden restaurant in Los Angeles.

Corby Kummer is executive director of the Food and Society policy program at the Aspen Institute, a senior editor at The Atlantic and a senior lecturer at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.