Assembling a brunch menu can sometimes feel a repetitive process. If you're looking for an easy yet luxurious way to add a touch of gourmet flair, consider smoked fish. Whether you opt to cold-smoke it yourself or simply pick up smoked salmon, trout, or sablefish at your local grocery store or from your favorite vendor, smoked fish can be a unique addition to many brunch staples.

The beautiful thing about smoked fish is its flexibility with other ingredients. When you pair it with favorites like cream cheese, crème fraîche, chives, caviar, it meshes beautifully. The taste could remind you of the classic bagel-and-lox combination or Eastern European favorites like blini. There are a myriad of brunch dishes you can transform with smoked fish – eggs Benedict, potato pancakes, rösti, crêpes, to name a few.

Take for instance, a twist on a brunch classic - eggs Benedict topped with smoked salmon, and covered in a hollandaise sauce made irresistible with caper-infused butter and brown-butter fried capers. Or a spinach pesto-infused frittata from renowned chef Eric Adjepong that pairs cooked salmon with thin smoked salmon strips added just before serving.

The flexibility of smoked fish even allows for a 'create your own' brunch plate featuring steelhead trout or arctic char, accompanied by various fixings like crackers, hard-cooked eggs, caperberries, cornichons, radishes, and horseradish sour cream.

A twist on a Swedish potato pancake, traditionally served on its own, becomes sublime when crowned with crème fraîche, smoked salmon, onions, and capers. And brunch classics fused with smoked fish yields surprising results – just ask Wolfgang Puck, whose crispy, pancake-like dish comes topped with smoked salmon, smoked sturgeon, dill crème fraiche, caviar, and chives.

With such a spread, your brunch will certainly leave your guests feeling pampered and well-fed. Smoked fish not only offers a broad range of flavors and textures, but it also brings an element of sophistication to your brunch menu, without a significant amount of extra effort. So go ahead and elevate your brunch game with these smoked fish-infused ideas.