Omelette Fire Starters: Schexnaider men responsible for getting fire nice and hot to cook eggs

For the last 35 years, Elray Schexnaider has been responsible for keeping the fire nice and hot to cook the eggs in the 12-foot wide skillet for the Giant Omelette Festival.
The cooking of the eggs takes place Sunday afternoon in downtown Abbeville in front of the courthouse.
While most people will arrive around 1 p.m. to witness the precession before the egg preparation begins, preparation for the cooking starts at 7:30 in the morning.
Schexnaider, 86, has prepared the fire that the 12-foot wide skillet sits on top. His job is to get a hot flame to cook the 5,038 eggs.
However, preparation begins two years before the fire is started.
Elray and his son, Lee, search for the best pecan and oak wood. First, they chop it into pieces and then let it dry for two years in Lee’s barn.
“Over the years, not much has changed,” said Schexnaider. “Every year, we replenish the firewood in the barn.”
Around 7:30 a.m., city workers will help build a sand pit on Sunday morning. The skillet is brought to the location by a police escort. It has been stored at Toups Propeller in Abbeville for the last year. Jerry Terpening is in charge of caring for the skillet and bringing it to the location.
By 9 a.m., the sand pit will be built, and then the firewood will be placed into the sand pit.
A special mass is held at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church at 9 a.m. After mass, the Schexnaider men, including Elray’s grandson Phillip, will begin preparing the fire.
They light it around 10 a.m. and babysit it until it is time for the skillet to be placed on top.
“We want a good bed of hot coal,” said Schexnaider. “By 1 o’clock, the fire is usually ready.”
He said there is no science behind when the fire is ready. Schexnaider said he uses his 35 years of experience to know when it’s the right time to set the skillet on top.
What is Schexnaider’s biggest fear on Sunday?
“Rain,” he said.
He said around four years ago, it started to rain, but that did not stop the Schexnaider men from keeping the fire going. They kept throwing wood on the fire just in case the rain would stop. By 2:30, the rain had stopped and the people showed up to see the eggs cooking.
This Sunday, there is a slim chance of rain.
Do not look for Schexnaider to stop cooking with firewood. He has attended other Omelette Celebrations in different countries, and they use butane or propane for cooking. However, Schexnaider using butane or propane would be too dangerous in a closed location like Abbeville’s Omellete Celebration.
Over the last four years, the 86-year-old Elray Schexnaider has been letting his son, Lee (55 years old), and grandson, Phillip (17 years old) do more and more fire duties. When the day comes that Elray decides to call it quits, Lee is expected to take over.
“I have no plans to quit anytime soon,” said Elray. “But I am giving more duties to my son.”