00:01Encased in a thick, cheesy crust, this special delicacy is not your typical soup.
00:07Both locals and tourists alike delight in breaking through its crispy top and digging in.
00:15I actually had onion soup at a restaurant here.
00:17It had bread soaked in it with melted cheese on top. It was quite delicious.
00:24I like the texture, especially the gratinated top, and the bread makes it very filling.
00:31It's great for when you've been out late, celebrating.
00:37This is Au Chien Qui Fume, a brasserie dating back to 1740, located right in the Les Halles district in
00:45Paris.
00:46Onion soup is even mentioned on its listed façade.
00:52If there's one place where onion soup has been served for a very long time, it's here.
00:56It's made from very simple ingredients, but when you put them all together, you get something really good.
01:03Chef Sianna Potino follows a traditional recipe to prepare the dish.
01:08For onion soup, first of all, you obviously need onions, toasted bread, gruyère cheese, oil, thyme, bay leaves, butter, some
01:22white wine, and veal or beef stock.
01:25Vegetarians can use vegetable stock instead.
01:29The heart of the soup is the onions.
01:32Sianna cuts them into medium-sized slices.
01:36You shouldn't cut them too thick because then they take too long to cook and the texture isn't nice.
01:42And I have a trick to make you cry less.
01:44Wet the knife with water first.
01:49On a gas stove, Sianna fries the onions in a generous amount of oil in a large pot.
01:54She adds fresh thyme, a few bay leaves, and some salt and pepper.
01:59Then, all that's left to do is wait until the onions reach just the right consistency.
02:06They need to be a little soft, not too firm, to make proper onion soup.
02:10And now I'm adding the butter.
02:13You need lots of it because that's what gives it flavor.
02:16The onions need to caramelize well.
02:18That's extra important.
02:22Next, Sianna deglazes the pan with a splash of white wine.
02:26This loosens up the caramelized bits stuck to the bottom, known in French as suc,
02:31which gives the soup its characteristic flavor.
02:34Only then does she add the stalk to the deeply browned caramelized onions,
02:38a rich veal stalk mixed with water.
02:41She lets the soup simmer on low heat while its flavor fully unfolds.
02:48The longer the onion soup simmers, the better it gets.
02:56Now it's ready.
02:58To top things off, Sianna turns the soup into a gratiné by placing a few small slices of white bread
03:04over it
03:04and covering it with grated cheese.
03:09I'm generous with the cheese.
03:11You need plenty of it to get a nice gratinated crust.
03:19Under the grill, the cheese melts into a golden crust.
03:24And voila, Sianna's soup à l'oignon is ready.
03:28It might be garnished with a few herbs, and it's always served piping hot.
03:33The dish doubles as either a starter or a main.
03:39It's really filling. I feel it's a main course, not a starter. Not your typical soup. And delicious.
03:46It's a simple recipe, but it's so representative of France, and it stood the test of time.
03:51The fact that people still eat it shows just how good it is.
03:58Once a food for the poor, made of just onions, bread and water, onion soup has gone down as a
04:04classic.
04:05Today, even Michelin-starred chefs prepare this delicacy.
04:09The typical cheesy gratiné variant didn't come about until the 19th century in the Lesal district.
04:15The site, now home to a shopping center, was once the location of the market halls.
04:25Onion soup was widely eaten at night in the market halls by workers who were out in the cold
04:31and wanted something warm and nourishing that wasn't too expensive.
04:39Rich and poor alike dug into the same dish.
04:43Alongside market workers, fancily dressed party-goers would end their nights with a bowl of soup.
04:49And not much has changed since then, even if the market halls were fully demolished by 1971.
04:59The neighborhood changed completely after Lesals was redeveloped.
05:03But it's still very lively, with plenty going on in the evenings.
05:07That's why we try to stay open until 2 in the morning, so we can serve all those people looking
05:12for a bowl of onion soup.
05:14The market halls may be gone, but onion soup is here to stay.
05:18What was once a humble meal for the working class has morphed into a Parisian specialty.
05:23Learn more tentative-on-p dreamed picks up, so let's go.
05:23Let's see.
