Stratford's Michelin star chef Paul Foster shares his recipe for French onion soup
THE start of the year always seems like the perfect time to make an adjustment, whether it’s a temporary detox to cancel out all those Christmas treats and tipples or a full lifestyle change to start the year on a good path.
As a chef, at the turn of every year I have been inundated with all kinds of dietary requirements that are often quickly changed upon arrival at the restaurant. The biggest flexible trend is a vegan diet led by the now popular ‘Veganuary’. It’s diets like these that do make chefs incredibly cynical. So many times, have my team and I spent extra working hours creating a beautiful tasting menu to then watch a “vegan” tuck into their partner’s dessert or cheese board.
While I must stress, I do admire the values of an ethical vegan, I feel the philosophy has been hijacked and somewhat bastardised by huge corporations and inconsistent false messages.
The main marketing tactic is guilting the consumer with messages of how it is better for the environment and your diet and animal welfare, all of which aren’t necessarily correct.
You see, any healthy diet is about balance, the correct number of calories and a very limited amount of processed food. For the environment the focus needs to be on low food miles, proper farming, and minimal waste. Veganuary poses a problem for both issues, as we are a small island with cold winters, January is the worst time of year for growing crops which means a restricted diet relies on importing vegetables and forces people towards heavily processed foods.
Every supermarket now has vegan fridge isles stacked with fake meat products which send the wrong message. The plant sources for these products are often sourced from developing countries around the world. Animal welfare is a difficult one as bad information and propaganda tends to divide people. The message from Veganuary is that no animals will be harmed, which is false as there is no way to produce food without it impacting on wildlife in some way. The directive needs to be around how can we best feed the world without unnecessary welfare practices.
We clearly must come together for the future of our planet, catchy marketing names like Veganuary need to be replaced with good quality information, education, and consistent messages.
As a society we do need to reduce our meat intake, badly practised factory farming is very detrimental to our environment and not always welfare friendly. A very simple way to have a big impact is by purchasing the best quality meat from ethical butchers less often than buying cheaper supermarket meat. I like to balance my family’s diet with a mixture of vegetarian, red meat, white meat, and fish dinners at home through the week.
Proper animal agriculture plays an important part in the eco system, to remove all animal farming from the world and replace it with vegetables would be catastrophic.
In this overly commercialised world, we have lost balance in our food systems, one way to get back to a more harmonious way of producing food would be by supporting regenerative farming practices that promote biodiversity and focus on the health of the ecological system, these principles can in time help to reverse damage already done to the environment.
This can be supported whether you are a meat eater, vegetarian or vegan. It’s not easy to do from the off but little steps can quickly bring about change, start by building relationships with butchers, grocers, farmers, or chefs, buy the best and most local whole food you can afford and above all ask questions and seek to understand what is on your plate and why.
French onion soup, beef dripping rarebit:
French onions soup is a classic humble dish that is great for a cold winters day. The recipe can be easily adjusted with vegetable or chicken stock, and the beef dripping can be switched out for butter to make it vegetarian, although the beef dripping rarebit is a real treat.
Soup
• 2-3 large white onions (peeled)
• 1 clove garlic (peeled)
• 6 sprigs of thyme
• 500g good quality beef stock
• 50g white wine
• 75g salted butter
• salt
Rarebit
• 50g Beef dripping
• 50g plain flour
• 165g good quality IPA beer
• 85g water
• 2 egg yolk
• 10g English mustard
• Small dash of Worcestershire sauce
• 40g good quality cheddar cheese
• 1 small baguette
Method
• For the soup, heat a large heavy based pan over a medium to high heat, add the butter and melt.
• Finely slice the onions, crush the garlic and add to the pan of foaming butter and season with a tsp of salt.
• Reduce the heat slightly and allow to cook down for around 50-60 minutes (stirring and scraping regularly), until the onions are a deep golden brown.
• Remove the thyme leaves from the stalks and finely chop the leaves, stir into the onions.
• Add the white wine and reduce by half.
• Add the beef stock and bring to a very gentle simmer, allow to cook for a further 30 minutes.
• For the rarebit, melt the bone marrow in a pan over a medium heat and pass, through a sieve into a clean pan, reserve only the liquid fat.
• Add the flour and mix into a roux, cook out gently 3-4 minutes.
• In a separate pan, warm the beer and the water, gradually add to the roux, whilst slowly stiring to make a thick sauce.
• Once all of the liquid has been added to the bone marrow and flour mix and it is fully cooked and thickened, remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly.
• Mix in the English mustard, cheese and a small dash of Worcestershire.
• Whisk in the egg yolks.
• Cut the baguette in half and generously spread on the mix.
• Place onto a baking tray and place under the grill on a high heat, cook until the glaze has started to bubble and caramelise.
• Serve along side a hot bowl of the French onion soup
