Do you adhere to the advice by chefs, that you should only ever crack eggs on a flat surface?

No.

Forehead.

Edge of the bowl.

Nope.

I crack them on the counter top

I do now.

My wife and I made eggs Benedict for both of our parents to celebrate something (maybe a birthday?). We had it all planned out so everything would be ready at the same time: Hollandaise in the thermos trick, and it was just down to the egg poaching. We were using a trick to pre-poach them in custard cups and then finish them all simultaneously at the end. The problem came when I was cracking the eggs to go into the custard cups for individual poaching. I broke yoke after yoke using the edge of the bowl.

I finally got shut down because we were down to our last egg before we weren’t going to have enough. I’ve never cracked an egg on the edge of something since… flat surfaces only henceforth.

I crack on my electric frying pan. I have to scoop shell bits every so often. I squish with the tips of my finger. Push down, and remove at the edge. It works 100% of the time.

Edge of the sink.

Never heard that one before! I use the edge of the bowl or pan. RARELY break a yoke!

Flat surface one to open . . .

I use the side of a bowl for a raw egg.

I use a flat surface for boiled eggs.

I use a jar, that might be six times the volume, for a hard boiled egg; shake them around to break-up the shell ! Peel under running water.

I’ve watched many cooking shows and have never seen it nor heard of it. Interesting.

Nope, always side of bowl or jug. agree with @JLeslie for the boiled egg tho.

Never heard that advice, and I had no idea why that would be best.

I just googled it and this is what I found: “The best way to crack an egg is on a flat surface so that the membrane stays intact, allowing the small shell fragments to stick to it without mixing with the rest of the egg. Many chefs also crack their eggs into separate bowls since it’s easier to find bits of shell in a translucent raw egg than in a floury batter.”

I always did it on the side of the bowl, as this was what my grandmother and mother did. Sometimes I get a piece of shell in the bowl, and then I would of course take it out. I may start doing it on a flat surface from now on, as per the advice by the pros.

In Home Ec in Junior High the teacher taught us to break eggs in a separate bowl one at a time before adding it to a batter or some other mix. She talked about blood spots in eggs or shells, or if you are separating eggs you don’t want to separate three perfectly and then the fourth you mess it up and yolk gets into the already three perfectly good egg whites.

Commercial eggs almost never have blood spots. I don’t think people throw out an egg if one has one. Do people even bother to try to remove the spot before cooking? I guess it wouldn’t be pretty for a sunny side up egg.

Chefs and food prep recommendations. pffff, what do they know.

Perfectly said, @Forever_Free. Really, I never have had what I would consider a problem with smacking the egg on whatever not-flat thing is handy.

Chefs try to make a mystique about everything. Hit the friggin’ egg how ever you want. Next time try something odd like tossing it to the ceiling to crack it. ZOINKS!

People seemingly love these chefs and shows and tips because collectivily people don’t cook or prepare their own meals like Mom and Grandma used to do. They did it EVERY day of the week. Multiple times a day.
They WERE the IRON CHEFS!!! This is what is great about cooking as well as remembering how Grandma used to make that amazing comforting thing.
Forget the Chef Tricks. Get in the kitchen and make:
Something new
Something old
Something comforting
Something bold.

Yes. The egg gets a “smile” break and is easy to open. This method avoids broken pieces of eggshell.

I was an egg slinger for some of my younger years, and yes, I absolutely picked up that method. It definitely improves your odds of keeping the yolk whole, and the whole operation tends to be less messy, but, as with all “chef tricks”, technique is everything.

I also find the clang of an egg on a metal bowl edge to be rather awful.

@Tropical_Willie – try steaming your boiled eggs instead. Bring an inch of water to a boil, reduce heat so as not to evaporate it all, but keeping it boiling. Add 1–3 eggs, cover and steam for 8 minutes. The speed of the cooking will help release the membrane from the shell, and will give you something easy to peel by hand without the whole jar thing.