Jacques Pépin Dices an Onion

When you peel an onion,

it's not a question of removing one layer.

It's a question of removing enough layer

so the onion is totally clean.

Sometimes you need to remove two, three layer.

So you have to cut on each side.

And pick it up, right now for here

I would remove I think those two layer.

So my onion, again looking at that,

doesn't look too good, so I probably

will remove that layer too.

(jazzy piano music)

And a sharp knife is all right, of course, very good.

So the onion now, I remove the root,

and you can cut it in half or in a piece.

So now it can be sliced.

This way and then I'll shred it this way

and then I'll shred it this way,

to do finely chopped onion.

The finer, the sharper your knife,

the less you're gonna cry.

You won't release too much

of the sulfuric acid in the onion.

And if you want to keep it white like this,

you put it in sieve and rinse it under cold water.

It wash out all the sulfuric acid

and you can keep it like that to serve a roux wis-ta,

a caviar, or a steak tartare, or whatever.