I'm a huge fan of scrambled eggs and omelettes when I'm dieting (which I currently am) but try not to use full eggs all the time due to the fat content and cholesterol contained within the yolk of the egg. An egg white omelette, using three egg whites plus one full egg, is absolutely delicious when made with a splash of milk and good sprinkling of ground black pepper - the advantage (other than the lower fat content) being that leaving the rest of the yolks out gives the omelette a less strong flavour, meaning that whatever goodies I pop inside as fillers can release their own flavours to their full potential without it being masked by the creaminess of too many yolks.

Of course, the method of using the eggshells themselves to separate the yolk from the white works a treat but sometimes the shell breaks funny and you end up with one end which is too small to hold the yolk, or the movement of sliding the yolk from shell to shell causes it to break and mix in with your white anyway. I'm pretty much a dab hand at egg separation myself, but recently my thirteen year old daughter has started making meringue 'blobs' with a view to packaging them up as Christmas pressies for the Nans and older relatives - they're coming along really nicely actually, but after Mark almost sliced his gum open on an errant piece of eggshell I realised the eggshell method wasn't working terribly well for her so looked into alternatives. As it turned out I didn't have to look far - in fact when I mentioned the issue to my lovely next door neighbour she pulled an 'ahhhhh' face, walked into the kitchen and came back with this still wrapped Yolky Egg Separator.

Yolky, as you can see, is a chicken. Or a round seagull. Or even an egg with feet and facial features. Whatever he is, he's mega cute and so lovely to both use and look at. I call him Julian, he looks like a Julian. The idea is that you break your egg into the middle and the yolk will automatically gravitate to the small bowl, leaving the egg white to drip through the large gaps. It's so simple as to be brilliant, and works well too which is always a bonus. Of course sometimes the yolk will break and you'll have to start again, but this isn't a massive issue as frankly the job of separating two parts of an egg is a fiddly job so whichever method you're using you can pretty much guarantee a point where your luck runs out and the yolk falls apart!

Julian's feet can be used as a handle or they will clip onto the side of a bowl or mug so that you can break your eggs using two hands; it's not exactly a universal fit so you really need to find a bowl that fits and stick to it, he doesn't fit on my bulky Pyrex mixing bowl but I have a thinner plastic jug which I find creates a snug and secure fit so I tend to use that for separating and beating my eggs and then simply transfer them into the main bowl afterwards. To clip Julian into place you just push down on his feet, you'll know immediately if he's not going to be suitable for the bowl you've chosen as he'll either fall straight off or sag downwards to the point where the yolk won't sit where it should and this renders him useless as an egg separator. When you've found the correct bowl Julian will lie completely flat and stable, allowing you to break the egg into his tummy and leave him where he is for the white to drain through while I get on with something else - if you need to separate more than one egg you can simply lift the yolk out with a spoon and continue on with the next egg.

When you've finished separating your eggs, cleaning Julian is a doddle. He's dishwasher safe so just pop him in with the rest of your dirty dishes, I haven't got a dishwasher and a quick scrub with the dish brush is enough to have him sparkling clean again. A tip is to rinse him off in cold water before washing properly in hot soapy water, the cold rinse removing the majority of the egg residue which would otherwise begin to 'scramble' if you placed it immediately into hot water - and believe me, runny egg is much easier to remove from plastic than semi-scrambled egg!

I'm completely impressed with Julian and use him very regularly, at least three or four times a week for various reasons. Alice has absolutely no trouble handling him and its made the separation of eggs for her meringues much easier (and less gum slicing), my neighbour tells me she paid around £10 for him in a local cookware shop and in my opinion this is cheap at half the price considering he's such a useful little kitchen implement.