How to (really) chop an onion

Chef David Tiner was nice about it, but the look on his face showed what he really thought about my knife skills. Apparently, the schoolin’ I got at age 15 was pretty much opposite of what you’re supposed to do. I had long suspected this. Like many of us, I get hypnotized watching chefs with great knife skills online and on TV. I just can’t figure out how to replicate them.

So last week, I hit up the Louisiana Culinary Institute for a morning of experiential reporting on exactly how an enthused but unskilled foodie should wield a knife. Chef David’s terrific, patient instruction on four different cutting techniques (rough chop, mince, brunois and chiffonade) gave my culinary life a new lease. Here’s the lesson on how to chop an onion:

First, hone your knife (as you should each time you use it) and make sure cutting board is braced with a towel underneath. Slippage leads to cutting things you don’t want to cut.

Second, slice off the onion’s brown root fibers, but leave enough of the root to hold the onion intact as you cut it. This move is the secret to proper dicing, and seems weird, so it’s often ignored by home chefs like me.

Third, holding the onion with root pointing up, slice all the way through vertically. Peel the skin off each half. The onion’s root will still be intact at one end of each half.

Fourth, (if you’re right-handed), position the onion half flat side down with the root end pointed toward your left hand. Tuck the fingertips of your left hand under, and brace the onion gently. Your knuckles should be pointing straight up. Take the knife and starting at the root end, make a series of even horizontal slices without actually cutting through the root.

Fifth, position the knife sideways, and slice toward the root through the side of the onion. This is what looks so awkward on television, but it’s easy. Tiner recommends a careful, circular motion in which you begin on one side of the root and sweep the knife around to the other side. Just remember, don’t slice through the root.

Finally, now that you’ve successfully made a series of cuts down through the onion and also made a cross-section cut, all you have to do is cut down again, this time with the knife oriented vertically. The result is row after row of uniformly diced onion. Best of all, this method doesn’t require you to keep gathering up slices to be chopped again and again.

Old habits die hard, but since the onion is such a kitchen workhorse I had a lot of opportunity to practice over the weekend. A couple of onions in, I felt like I had it down, perhaps not with the acumen of Chef David, but enough to feel liberated. For anyone who loves to cook, being handy with the knife completes the picture.

The Louisiana Culinary Institute, which opened its new facility on Airline Highway this spring, has added leisure classes for the public, and knife skills will soon be among the classes offered. Please see louisianaculinary.com. Other sources of cooking classes in general include The Panhandler, Kay Ewing and the LSU Leisure Classes.

Generally speaking, knife skills classes aren’t often offered, but they may be included in sessions – just ask.