How to slice an onion

Chef Skills

Michelin star Chef Russel Brown takes us through how to slice an onion. A simple process that requires good knife skill and practice, this is used as a basic preparation for young Chefs and industry professionals as part of their basic training.

For this demonstration, I'm going to show you how to peel and slice an onion. So we've got our standard brown onion here and I'm just going to trim off the root, but I'm leaving the root intact still were taking the top off and then were just going to peel down and a lot of this is easiest to do with your fingers just peeling the skin off the onion and just make sure that when you do this if there's a papery layer that feels a bit tough underneath go down one more layer to take that off.

So we've got our peeled onion which I'm just going to wash the onions at this stage because you don't want to wash them after they've been diced or sliced because you'll lose a lot of the flavour so we've got our washed onion and I'm going to show you how to slice this, we're going to cut the onion in half so I'm making a bridge with my fingers and I'm coming between with the knife and we're going to take the root off the onion by slicing at around about a 45 degree angle, just in like that just to take the root off and then we're going to slice and I'm going to hold my fingers in the classic sort of crab shape like this, so that my fingers are there and the knife is running up and down my knuckles.

As we slice I'm going to slide back making sure that my fingertips are out the way all the time so we just up and down keeping the tip of the knife on the board which makes it more stable, when you get to the point where the onion starting to rock just let it fall over like so and carry on slicing. Discard the root and that's our sliced onion.

Find a Chef Job

Whether you're an aspiring Chef soon to be leaving education, or you are an established Chef looking for a new culinary challenge, we have a variety of Chef roles to suit you;
- Head Chef Jobs
- Executive Chef Jobs
- Sous Chef Jobs
- Commis Chef Jobs
- Chef de Parties Jobs
- Pastry Chef Jobs

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 12 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.