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That line cook who taught me one thing about onions I'll never forget
Back when I was a prep cook in a busy kitchen in Providence, there was this older line cook named Ray who barely talked. One slow Tuesday he saw me crying over a pile of yellow onions and just shook his head. He grabbed one, kept the root intact, and sliced it perfectly without a single tear. I thought he was just showing off, but then he said 'keep the root, kid, the sulfur stays put.' That little trick saved me hours of stinging eyes over the next 3 years I worked there. Has anyone else had a random moment like that where a senior cook dropped some simple wisdom that changed your whole routine?
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daniel_gonzalez8d agoMost Upvoted
Wait, did he really say 'sulfur stays put'? I remember this old line cook named Mike at the diner I worked at, same kind of thing. He'd always yell at me for cutting onions wrong. One day he yanked the onion out of my hand, pointed at the root, and said 'leave that part alone and you'll stop looking like you just got dumped.' He was right. Took me a few days to get the hang of it but after that I stopped dreading onion prep. Still feel bad for all the onions I ruined before that.
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Three years washing dishes at a place in Portland, a prep cook showed me the same trick but added that you should chill the onions for 15 minutes first. The cold slows down the gas release so even if you nick the root, you buy yourself time before the sting hits. I wonder if that's something Ray would have agreed with, or if he'd say it's just a crutch.
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