What is the most difficult food to cook?

One particularly difficult dish is consommé, a type of clear soup consisting of egg whites, ground meat, boullion, and tomatoes. The earliest types of this soup date to the Middle Ages. These early versions of the soup were forerunners to modern-day gelatinous deserts. The soup has to be prepared by heating the soup so that the egg whites and the other contents slowly rise to the surface forming a raft of material.

After 45 minutes to an hour, the result is a clear amber colored soup. The soup is very difficult for many chefs to master and has been ranked as first of the top 10 most difficult dishes to prepare. This is partly because of the very complex process in getting the impurities to clump together and form the clear soup.

One suggested technique is to simmer the beef with celery, carrots, and onions and then to use a strainer to pour it over seared sirloin steak.