I was so impressed with my recent visit to the restaurant Searsucker in San Diego, I wanted to recreate one of the dishes, Bacon + Eggs on Toast.

I'm pleased with the results from the pork belly, as this is the first time I've cooked it in this style. Caramelized pork belly fat is a true love of mine.

While my first-run re-creation wasn't perfect, the elements I chose are close to the original. A country gravy that was more cream-based bechamel than American greasy-spoon-diner paste. I didn't poach the egg in water, I slowed poached it in butter (I know how to poach an egg!). I used arugula instead of frisee', so my dish had more pepper flavor than the bitterness of frisee'. And I did have brioche on-hand (thankfully).

It's critical that a country gravy is made. As I mentioned, I made a bechamel sauce for this dish. The gravy brings all the elements together and carries the flavor of the entire dish. Without the gravy, the dish falls a little flat.

Cooking recipe notes: The basis for cooking the pork belly was taken from Gordon Ramsay's F Word series on BBC. Otherwise, there are no recipes to follow. Toast bread. Make Bechamel. Fry or Poach Egg. Arrange Lettuce. This is so simple, it's beautiful. But to make it great, each element has to be near-perfect for the dish to really come together.