My first week of culinary school was both exhilarating and overwhelming.  I learned so much and also accepted that this will be one of the most challenging experiences of my life.  We arrive every day at around 6:30am, lecture begins promptly at 7. At 9 we move into the kitchen and cook until 11:30, when our kitchen must be spotless and set up for lunch (which is whatever we happened to be cooking that morning).  After eating we all have chores and then our afternoon lecture begins at 12:30pm.  Our final 2 hours are either lecture or lecture/cooking.  Dismissed at 2:30pm.

We’re assigned a new workspace in the kitchen every day at random, 3 to a table.  I quickly learned that some students are good at working together and others won’t hesitate to grab your equipment if it gets them ahead.  My sautoir, which I initialed and set on a burner, was moved to a different burner when I wasn’t looking.  When three of us were rolling out dough, we suddenly found ourselves with only one rolling pin. It was frustrating, but I realized this is how it is and I’m going to have to assert myself.  Everyone is nervous and not necessarily on their best behavior.  At culinary school you have to stay alert at all times if you want to get things done efficiently.  And no complaining.

I loved every second. I was constantly moving on adrenaline and ready to learn from each success or mistake.  Chef expects a lot of us.  He is very kind and humorous, yet won’t hesitate to give our hands a light smack and bark “NO!” if he sees the knife being used improperly.  In addition to school protocol, this week I learned proper knife skills, knife cuts, kitchen equipment, la soupe a l’oignon (French onion soup), pate brisee (a versatile dough which we used for an amazingly decadent quiche lorraine), stock, and several salads and vinaigrettes.  Sounds simple enough, but some challenges for me are relearning techniques I considered myself already familiar with, precision, and speed.  A dice is expected to be perfectly square.  I have over 20 pages of notes already, with 3 chapters of reading per night.  It’s important to practice what we’ve learned at home.

Last night I prepared la soupe a l’oignon, something I failed at miserably on the first day and and succeeded at on the second.  Like risotto, it requires patience and attention, but the ingredients are simple and the final product is delicious.  I’m offering a lot of technique detail here. Like many recipes we will learn, it’s all in the technique.  We aren’t given many measurements, unless we’re baking.  It’s about smelling, tasting and seeing.

When made correctly, French onion soup can be the perfect meal.  It’s hits all of your senses:

  • Sweet: Onions
  • Sour: Wine
  • Salty: Salt
  • Bitter: Fond

Fond is the concentration of juices, drippings, and bits of food on the bottom of the pan.  Fond (aka glaze) is the key to making good sauces.  You deglaze the pan by adding liquid and then scraping the bits off the bottom.

When making this soup, think 1 onion per person.  Yellow onions have the most flavor, but any variety will work.  As with many French recipes, the soup is seasoned with a Bouquet Garni- fresh parsley, thyme & a bay leaf tied together with butcher’s twine or a cheesecloth.

French Onion Soup

These amounts are approximate.

  • 2 onions
  • 2 T butter
  • white wine (we used chardonnay) for deglazing
  • 2-3 cups of chicken stock
  • bouquet garni
  • optional: small baguette, sliced
  • optional: gruyere cheese, grated

Method

  • Sweat the onions.  First you want to slice the onions in half, remove the outer layer and then slice into thin semicircles.  To sweat the onions, add them to the pan with some butter and a sprinkle of salt on low heat.  Stir periodically with a wood spoon.  Sweating removes all water and leaves the onions sweet with condensed flavor.  Salt pulls water out of ingredients and will speed up the process.  You cannot caramelize them until the water has been removed.  This will take around 20 minutes.
  • Caramelize the onions.  Turn up the heat.  We used a stainless steel sautoir (straight side pan).  I used a Le Cruset at home which worked just as well.  Basically you need a non-stick surface that will develop fond which you continuously deglaze with wine and then water.  This is what gives the onions their caramelized brown color.  It will also add bitterness, which will balance the sweetness of the onions.  Don’t over stir.  Let them sit, brown on the bottom, and then deglaze with around 1/4 of wine.  After deglazing with wine, switch to water so the wine flavor won’t overpower.   Don’t rush.  Think of the deep brown color of onion soup.  This is the color you’re working toward.  If you add stock too soon, your soup will be too sweet.  You want a lot of fond.  Stir, leave the onions alone until you see a nice fond developing, deglaze, stir.  It will take some time.
  • Add liquids and simmer.  Begin adding hot chicken stock, one or two cups at a time.  Once the stock has been added, add your bouquet garni.   Let the soup simmer for awhile.  Season with salt and pepper as needed.  You can either serve it in warm bowls at this point, or finish it restaurant style:
  • Ladle soup into crocks, top with 2 thinly sliced pieces of toasted baguette, and then a large handful of Gruyere.  Put the crocks under the broiler until brown and bubbly on top.  Serve!