What French Onion Soup Taught Me About Eating Well
In the winter of 1988/89, I lived and worked in Oxford, England, so we skipped over to Paris for the week around New Year’s Eve. At the breakfast room in our budget hotel—the long-gone Hotel de Nevers on the Rue de l’Abbé de l’Epée—we met another young American couple, from Alaska, and we decided to spend New Year’s Eve together.
That evening, we took off across town to the Restaurant Chartier, an inexpensive Grand-Boulevard Brasserie; however, when we got there, the Alaskans noticed that the restaurant did not take credit cards. While we had cash, the other couple did not, and they were leaving the next morning. (This was in the days before cash machines on every corner.)
So there we were on New Year’s Eve, left out in the cold and getting turned away from restaurant after restaurant. We were hungry, desperate, and cranky when we finally wandered into a high-end place that had some available tables. Clearly, if we were going to eat, we were going to have to shell out some major francs.
We were not prepared for the cost of the meal, which, of course, turned out to be both exorbitant and mediocre (likely the reason the restaurant had tables to spare). I remember silently thinking that we should have simply treated the Alaskans to a good, solid meal at Chartier; it would have been half the cost of the under-enjoyed overpriced meal we each ended up buying for ourselves.
The next morning, the Alaskans slipped a note under our door, leaving us their address and bidding us farewell; they left well before breakfast and we never saw or heard from them again. Sometimes I wonder if they remember that New Year’s Eve the way we do: as a missed opportunity for something truly memorable. After all, we had been in Paris on New Year’s Eve.
The next day, looking for a meal that might help us get back on budget, we drifted into a little café near our hotel on the Left Bank and ordered Soupe à l’Oignon Gratinée, the classic French onion soup, for our meal. While I cannot remember what was on the menu of the fancy dinner we ate the night before, I’ll always remember how fortifying, satisfying, and warming this soup tasted, and how gladdening it was to know that you could get so much joy out of something so humble.
I now enjoy it almost every New Year’s Day to celebrate the life-affirming truth that dining well doesn’t have to mean dining expensively—a lesson I’ve learned again and again in France, and which I bring to life every day.
UPDATE: A reader asked me to post my recipe, since it disappeared from my previous site. Here it is:
Sorry! I don’t have my own photo of French Onion Soup. This one is by Emi Popova via Flickr. But it looks very much like my soup. Plus, it shows the way I prefer to serve my soup: I like serving it in shallow bowls because it makes it easier to cut into the toast (which you can do with a spoon once the bread softens in the soup.). Enjoy!
French Onion Soup from the Bonne Femme Cookbook
French Onion Soup is all about the cheese (use one of the options mentioned) and the broth. If you can, make your own broth. If not, try a superior product from a place like Whole Foods. This year, avoiding a trip to the market, I’m using a purchased bone broth I have in my pantry—I’ll see how it goes!
P.S. My version calls for toasting the cheese-breads separately from the soup. I do this for many reasons. It’s easier, and you don’t have to worry about buying broiler-safe soup bowls (because the bowls themselves don’t go under the broiler).
Makes 4 hearty first-course servings or 4 light main-dish servings
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for bread
1 1/2 pounds onions, sliced into thin half-moons
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 cups beef broth
1/2 cup dry white wine
4 slices French bread, toasted
1 garlic clove, halved
1 cup shredded Comté, Gruyère, or Emmental cheese (about 4 ounces)
1. In a large Dutch oven, melt the butter in the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until softened but not brown, 4 to 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are slithery, tender, and just starting to take on a lightly golden-brown hue in places, about 40 minutes.
2. Stir in the flour with a wire whisk; cook and stir for 1 minute. Slowly stir in the broth, then the wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover the pan, and simmer the soup for 15 minutes. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed.
3. Preheat the broiler.
4. Rub one side of each slice of toasted French bread with the garlic halves (then discard the garlic); brush that side of the bread with some olive oil. Place the bread slices, oiled sides up, on a baking sheet. Divide the cheese among the slices. Watching carefully, broil 3 to 4 inches from the heat until the cheese is bubbly and light brown in spots, about 1 minute.
5. Divide the soup among four shallow bowls; top each with a cheese-topped bread slice and serve.
