Have you ever wondered why chefs in expensive restaurants cut onions without shedding a single tear?
It turns out that it’s all about the technique that is hidden from home cooks.
Chef Maria Gordeeva from the Moscow restaurant White Rabbit admitted in an interview with Esquire:
"We don't use any 'tricky knives.' The secret is to cut the onion... from top to bottom, not along the rings."
Sounds crazy? Cook's Illustrated magazine conducted an experiment: when cutting traditionally (across the grain), 40% more sulfur dioxide is released, which causes tears.
“If you cut vertically, from the top to the root, the cells are destroyed less, and the caustic enzymes do not evaporate as actively,” explained biochemist Alexey Kovalev in the Scientific Kitchen podcast.
But that's only half the truth. Chef Heston Blumenthal revealed another trick on In Search of Perfection:
"Put the onion in the freezer for 15 minutes before cutting it. The cold slows down the reaction between allinase and the amino acids that cause tears."
Blogger Irina from the YouTube channel Food without pain checked:
"I chilled the onion, put on my swimming goggles and cut vertically. The result: zero tears! My husband now calls me the onion ninja."
But chef Konstantin Ivlev on the show Hell's Kitchen recommended a radical method:
"Heat the knife over a flame before cutting. Heat neutralizes volatile compounds - tested under extreme conditions."
The most unexpected life hack came from Japan. The documentary Ramen Universe showed chefs at the Ichiran restaurant chewing mint-flavored gum while chopping onions.
"Menthol blocks the receptors responsible for irritation," explained chef Takuro Yamada .
User Dmitry from Omsk wrote on the forum Cooking without tears:
"I tried it with menthol gum - it works! Now I'm cutting onions to the track "Smells Like Teen Spirit", like in the video."
Scientists from the Journal of Food Science confirmed:
"Cooling onions to 4°C reduces the release of propanethial-S-oxide by 70%, and menthol masks the remaining odor."
But the main surprise was waiting for those who dared to break all the rules. Blogger Max from the TikTok channel Food Hacks showed a "forbidden technique":
"I cut the onion lengthwise, leaving the root intact, and turned the halves inside out. It took twice as long to cut, but there were zero tears!"
Chef Jamie Oliver commented in his book 5 Ingredients:
"This method is used in molecular gastronomy to preserve structure, but at home it is too complicated."
However, user Svetlana from Krasnodar on the Instagram account Kitchen Without Rules said: “I trained for a week - now I cut onions faster than chefs on TV!”
Author: Sergey Tumanov