Cooking With the French Chef: French Onion Soup

Welcome back to Cooking With the French Chef, in which I review episodes of Julia Child’s original show, cook out of the new edition of the French Chef Cookbook and share the results with you. Past posts can be found here.

Yep, this time we’re making one of the Quintessential French recipes, French Onion Soup! Who doesn’t love this sublime culinary concoction? Simple, hearty, and decadent. Apparently French Onion Soup was vegan Natalie Portman’s favorite French dish until she found out it was beef-based, or at least that’s what InStyle said years ago. Me, I used to get it on the regular when there were Mimi’s Cafes in my area, but that’s over with, dangit–the closest one is about an hour away. Oh well.

Anyway, before we go any further, let’s hear from Julia, who made the soup on the show twice. This episode originally ran on February 9, 1963:

Julia revisited French Onion Soup in the first episode of Season Five, originally broadcast on November 25, 1965:

Julia wasn’t the only face I turned to for advice on French Onion Soup. The Anti-Chef also made this recipe twice on his YouTube channel, and while things seemed to come out right both times, it’s interesting to see his progression as a home cook. Initially, he uses bouillon cubes for the broth. The second time he makes homemade beef broth. Plus the wonderful Jacques Pepin recently made a video on French Onion Soup. So yeah, lots of viewpoints going on here and plenty of tempting footage.

And now it’s time for my own attempt. First off, of course, we’re starting with our ingredient round-up:

The beef broth, obviously, was made beforehand, and the recipe I used can be found here.

And now on to the onions. I was surprised to find that while I escaped crying while cutting them, the fumes hit me in the face when I slid the onions into the pot, probably magnified from the heat coming off of the melted butter and oil mixture. Into the pot they went, and I ducked into the bathroom to splash water on my eyes. Meanwhile the onions…

Julia’s method of caramelizing onions is both magical and practical. The onions get sauteed in their oil and butter mixture in a covered pot, and then after about twenty minutes the cover comes off, sugar and salt get added, and in short order the onions go from translucent to gloriously browned, with just a wee bit of char. Frequent stirring is vital.

Did I already mention how insanely good these things smelled?

The onions weren’t the only players on deck, though. While they simmered and so on the broth got heated in a saucepan, plus I grated the Swiss and Parmesan cheese and sliced the bread.

All of this was on standby when the onions were done, after which I added the broth, the chardonnay, and a bay leaf to the pot, which floated merrily amidst the heat particles. The whole pot would simmer for about forty minutes while I worked on the rest of the dinner. My parents were coming, which meant my guys and I weren’t the only tasters, and we were also going to have rotisserie chicken, lemon butter orzo, and sauteed mushrooms.

Oh yeah, and the bread had to be toasted in preparation for the final step.

Time to broil! Julia said to pile on the cheese because the bread would burn otherwise, so I ended up grating more than I thought I would need.

In hindsight, the bread didn’t fit neatly into my ramekins, so next time I think I’ll cut the slices in half.

After a quick trip under the broiler, the soup was finally ready…

Et voilá. On a side note, I really like my new ramiekins.

Now, the soup didn’t brown as much as I would have liked because I forgot to drizzle olive oil over the cheese before sticking it all in the broiler, but the resulting meltiness was tantalizing nonetheless.

And here’s the glamour shot…

I keep hoping that one of Julia’s recipes will be simple and straightforward, and this one really is. Her recipes are always doable, but in this case there isn’t the symphony of pouring, transferring, shuffling, or any of the juggling that seem to characterize a typical Julia Child recipe.

Instead, it’s more a matter of putting the ingredients into the pot, keeping an eye and a spoon on them, and letting them do their things. It was only complicated because I had two other dishes going at the same time, but even then, the soup waited patiently until I was ready for the next step. It was a comforting feeling.

Even better, when it came time to eat, my four testers and I sank into a reverie of onion-y, beefy, cheese-drenched bliss. We almost didn’t need the rest of the meal because the soup was pretty substantial, and we were so busy eating that I forgot to take any more photos, but it was worth it.

(And for those of you who might be looking for the recipes for lemon butter orzo and sauteed mushrooms, there’s an idea I’m turning over in my head that I may unveil in the near future, so watch this space.)

Yay, Julia! French Onion Soup is a great place to start if anyone is looking into learning French cuisine. It’s straightforward, low-maintenance, and the payoff is pretty darned impressive.

Another post is coming out tomorrow. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…

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The French Chef Cookbook, The French Chef, Volume One (DVD) and The French Chef, Volume 2 (DVD) are available to own from Amazon.

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