THE OMELETTE THAT changed the world can be found listed in red type in the “Eggs Cellent” (honest) section of the menu at Norma’s, the all-breakfast all-the-time high-class diner decorated like the state dining room of an ocean liner at Le Parker Meridien on 57th Street, Manhattan.

It is called the Zillion Dollar Frittata, and at $1,000 it is the highest priced single item on any menu in New York. Add sales tax of $85 and 17 per cent service and the fancy omelette comes out at $1,255. The poor man’s version costs just $100, but then it is topped with only one ounce (28g) of Sevruga caviar, at $65 an ounce, not ten.

The next most expensive dish on the list is a comparatively reasonable $28 for Foie Gras Brioche French Toast, with asparagus and mushrooms. A garden variety omelette “with any selection of meat, veggies or cheese” is a risible $18.

So what makes the big frittata so special? Emile Castillo, 51, the hotel’s executive chef, takes me back to his clattering kitchen where since news broke that he was making the world’s most expensive omelette he has been cracking eggs without a break for two days to feed the world’s press.

Castillo came to New York 13 years ago after a cuisine career which began in his native Toulouse then took him to Sri Lanka, the Bahamas and the Waldorf Hotel in London.

“I worked it out,” he says with pride. “I wondered, how can you make an omelette really special? It took me several tries.

“We already had an all-whites-of-egg frittata on the menu and I was looking to make a more up-scale version. So I came up with the idea of adding pieces of lobster tail. But it wasn’t enough. So then I thought, why not add caviar on top?”

He showed me how. First he makes a creamy lobster sauce from the inedible parts most people throw away. Then he slices a boiled lobster tail and fries it in butter. He cracks six eggs in a bowl and adds salt, pepper and chopped chives, which he whisks and pours over the frying lobster. He stirs constantly with a spatula, making sure the eggs don't stick to the side, then puts the pan in the oven to bake.

Potatoes are cut into large slices, blanched, then roasted to provide a plinth for the finished frittata, which is finally dressed with more slices of lobster tail and more lobster sauce, then smothered in caviar. A few chive stalks are added for decoration. When complete it looks like a blackberry cheesecake.

“So, voilà!” says Castillo, taking up the dish and marching to a table in the dining room. “It is really silly, isn’t it? I love coming up with crazy ideas. Bon appetit!”

So, is this super-omelette all it is cracked up to be? Many expensive wines are so subtle they leave the cheaper palates wondering what all the fuss is about. Not so the Zillion Dollar Frittata, which aims straight for the taste buds. The eggs and the lobster tail, saturated in lobster sauce, make for a rich mouthful offset by the blandness of the potato. But the star element is the thick layer of black caviar which bursts at the bite to release its black flavoursome bubbles.

The frittata is undoubtedly delicious, but since it went on the menu on May 5 its exorbitant price tag has deterred all comers, with two exceptions. “We have now sold two, both to the press. Does that count?” says the hotel manager, Steven Pipes.

The manager of Norma’s, named after the wife of Jack Parker, the hotel’s proprietor, is Ailbhe Mullen, 32, who thinks that maybe this weekend, when she will serve 650 customers each day and the queues will last two hours, some may be tempted to buy one.

The restaurant staff watched in amazement as a man from the Mirror gave a single forkful of the heart-stopper to his photographer, then wolfed down the rest. “I asked him, ‘Are you going to eat all of that?’” says Pipes. “He said, ‘For Queen and Country!’ and ate the lot.”

Mullen gives a broad laugh: “I think he was probably as sick as a dog last night.”

How would you make the perfect omelette? E-mail debate@thetimes.co.uk