Recently a colleague asked me where he might find the best eggs benedict in Cape Town. We both agreed on our loyalty to the Luke Dale-Roberts interpretation at the Neighbourgoods Market but at the time no one restaurant stood out as offering the best. Then I tasted Brad Ball's Eggs Benedict at Steenberg's Bistro Sixteen82.

My personal approach when faced with something as deliciously OTT as eggs benny is go in whole-heartedly, do it properly and relish every last bite. Then I'll aim for balance in the meals that follow with what Nigella refers to as Templefood – denial just seems to result in feeling cheated and eating double the quantity of anything touted as a substitute.

So Brad Ball's Eggs Benedict is one of those breakfasts that deserves to be tackled with unbridled enthusiasm. Brad cures his own belly pork, which is served as a slab of bacon (all tenderness on the inside and crispy edges outside) alongside two perfectly round poached eggs swathed in hollandaise and perched on a potato rosti, not forgetting the sweetness of three roasted baby tomatoes. With a flute of Steenberg’s 1682 Chardonnay MCC it is complete.

Brad welcomes morning guests with warm, honey-laced brioche – served with our coffee – and there is also a very sensible cooked rolled oats with dried fruit compote and Cape gooseberry coulis on the menu. But surely the point of eating out is to have something breathtaking, like the eggs benedict, that would require real skill and expert timing to recreate at home. If you're feeling up for it, however, Brad has very kindly shared his recipe and egg-poaching tips below.

The breakfast was part of a press invitation to experience the Indulgence 1682 Package, which includes breakfast and a 50-minute full body massage (R470) and will run until the end of October. The breakfast alone was enough to lift my mood but along with the massage it was a beautiful start to the weekend.

Booking for the Steenberg Indulgence 1682 Package is advised, +27 21 713 2222 or see www.steenberghotel.com

Chef Brad Ball's Hollandaise Recipe

Makes 200ml

Ingredients
175g unsalted butter
2 free range egg yolks
2 table spoons warm water
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and white pepper
Cayenne pepper

Method
Clarify the butter by melting it, so the solids are separated from the rich yellow oil. Remove from the heat and allow the solids to settle to the bottom of the pan. Any solids floating may be removed with a spoon. Pour the clarified butter into a jug leaving behind the milk solids residue that settled on the bottom of the pan. Place the yolks, water and the juice of half the lemon into a mixing bowl, and place this over a pan of simmering water. Whisk continuously until it reaches ribbon stage. This is very important, as this is what gives you a beautifully aerated hollandaise. Remove the bowl from the heat and, very slowly, start to add the clarified butter while whisking continuously. If the sauce becomes too thick, add another tablespoon of warm water. Continue to add all the clarified butter. Season with a pinch of salt, white pepper and cayenne. Allow to stand in a warm place for two minutes and then pass through a fine sieve. Add more lemon if required.

NB: Use within 1 hour of making

The challenge with Hollandaise is that you must keep it in a fairly narrow temperature range as you make it: Below about 38°C, the sauce will separate because the butter will start to solidify; a little above 48°C, the egg yolks will begin to coagulate and can no longer coat the oil droplets. 10°C sounds like a fair amount of leeway, but if you think about how your home stove probably keeps water simmering at about 93°C, even on its lowest setting, you’ll realize that warming something to such a low temperature on the stove, and holding it there while you work with it for 10 minutes or so, is not always easy. So the key here is control!

My Tips: Use fresh free range eggs for poaching. An old egg will not allow the whites to coagulate and set. You will not be able to poach an old egg properly. Poaching eggs is not as difficult as you may think, bring a pot of water and a few tablespoons of vinegar to the simmer, must not be a rolling boil. Using a spoon or whisk, stir the water to create a little whirlpool. One at a time, crack your fresh egg into the vortex in one quick movement. Simmer for four minutes, remove it from the pot and refresh it in ice water to stop it cooking further. Poach all your eggs this way and then when you need them pop them back into a larger pot of simmering water for 1 minute to reheat and then serve immediately.

Don't worry about what others may think, but the best drink with eggs Benedict at breakfast time is a wooded Chardonnay!