Todd Selby's Breakfast on My Morning Routine

He's a tea man. We've got the low down on his well-worn breakfast habits

October 2, 2012

Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people kick-start the day. And by "people" we mean famous people.

Photographer and illustrator Todd Selby has turned his popular Edible Selby website into a book, called (guess?) Edible Selby. It's out now and it focuses on the kitchens, gardens, homes, and restaurants of more than 40 of the most dynamic figures in the culinary world. That means he's behind-the-scenes with Rene Redzepi, Inaki Aizpitarte, Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food, Fergus Henderson at St. John and more. Each profile comes with Selby's watercolor illustrations, a recipe, and a handwritten questionnaire. So we decided to question the questioner about his morning routine. --Julia Bainbridge

I get up at like 7:30 AM. Then I lie in bed while my girlfriend gets up and puts the kettle on. She makes PG Tips tea for us. We use that Battenkill whole milk and honey and she makes it really strong--they call it a "builder's tea" [in England]. Then she starts yelling that the tea's ready, so I finally get out of bed and drink tea at 8 AM. Then I get wired. That's my caffeine for the day. I have my Barbara Puffins with almond milk. I usually go to the gym. I just lift weights--it's too boring to run. Then I take a shower with Dr. Bronner's lavender soap. That's my jam.

Todd Selby's Breakfast on My Morning Routine

Then I get dressed. I have a lot of clothes--I have way more than my girlfriend and she's a clothing designer [for T by Alexander Wang]. But I'm way too lazy to fold them. I have a walk-in closet and I just pile it all on the floor. Seriously, when you walk in, it's a pile up to my knees--they're all clean!--but I dig for the outfit. And then everything's kinda rumpled.

I'm on perma-tour. When you travel a lot for work, you really appreciate eating at home. Sometimes I bring my PG Tips with me.

On the weekends, I'll make scrambled eggs. I learned from the Breakfast, Lunch, Tea: The Many Little Meals of Rose Bakery cookbook--I do that slow and low, real soft vibe. And we love Roberta's City White bread.

On Sundays, we'll do a Russ and Daughters brunch. Salmon, gravlax, caviar cream cheese--I love that so much. My parents used to have it growing up and I thoughts it was disgusting. Now I just live for it.

I love coffee so much, but I get too addicted and I go totally crazy. My photo assistant purposely hides it and won't let me drink it. When I did a shoot for Blue Bottle, James [Freeman] kept making me coffee and I had nothing to eat--I had to lie down. So I'm just on the tea now. It's better for everyone when I don't drink coffee.

(Credit: Todd Selby)