And that in turn might be based on the story of the tired and hungry French aristocrat who, desperately trying to get to England to escape the Revolution, stopped into an inn for something to eat.
Ordering an omelette, something he thought to be sufficiently common and wouldn't give him away, the conversation went similarly to the one in this comic when he was asked by the suspicious innkeeper how many eggs he'd like in that omelette.
He did not make it to England.
(Soft-handed aristos have staff who know these things, but they themselves don't. The innkeeper, of course, knew this.)