During my time at the CIA, I was fortunate to compete on a Culinary Olympic team. We competed in Weimer, Germany and were very successful. Although there was very little time for seeing sights, I did get to visit the museum of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, enjoy amazing local sausages & get a wreath of onions during the Weimar Onion Festival. My godmother proudly hung the wreath in her home for years...

   Cooking with Onions

I recently saw a video of a guy planting a the top of a 'used' onion... after about 5 months the onion scrap had grown into a beautiful, whole onion. I'm not sure I'll be growing onions in my garden but I'm very aware of the popularity of onions in so many dishes.

When CIA students begin the curriculum, they spend weeks becoming competent in peeling and slicing onions, chopping onions, mincing shallots etc...  and find the sliced and chopped onions are used in many, many global recipes.

When I worked in R&D for Campbell, I visited onion farms in different parts of the country to learn about sweet onions, different sizes of onions, etc...  to improve some of the soups.


I hear a variety of stories about how to cut an onion without your eyes tearing...   goggles is one of the funniest!

Any chef knows the importance of keeping your knives sharp, and that seems to solve the 'onion eyes' problems.



Paring & Cutting Onions

Prep Time: 5 min

Cooking Time: 0 min

Yield: 1 portion


Ingredients                                          

1  ea           Onion


How to Prepare Sliced & Diced Onions






Place the onion on it's side, on a clean cutting board.







Using a sharp chef's knife, cut each end off (about 1/4 of an inch) and discard.







Using a paring knife, peel all of the skin off and discard. Wipe the cutting board of any soil, skin etc.. (onions grow under the ground and are sometimes dirty)





Using a sharp chef's knife, cut the onion in half, the core and ends should be on the top and bottom when you cut.

If you want onion rings, cut the onion in half with the core and top on left and right.







To slice the onion, lay one half down flat and slice with the grain from end to end, slightly having the blade of your knife at an angle so each slice is the same. Repeat.




To dice the onion, lay one half down, make 2 or 4 slices parallel to the top and bottom-you will hold the onion flat by putting the palm of your (non cutting) hand on top to hold the onion flat and making the slices with your other hand.





Next make even cuts down from the stem side to the core side but do not cut all of the way-the core holds the onion together so make the cuts about 80% of the way, but cutting down through the onion to the bottom.







Now make even cuts down, across the grain where the previous cuts are, to get diced, onion pieces. Cut carefully to the end.








If the onions look uneven, make several chops with the knife to get the size you need.

Soup; Pumpkin Soup

By Tom Griffiths • October 31, 2025
Every culture seems to have its own way of celebrating squash. Years ago, when I was invited to assist the amazing Puerto Rican Chef Alfredo Ayala at Worlds of Flavor at the CIA San Antonio campus. I spent the morning carefully preparing diced pumpkin and other mise en place for Puerto Rican Sofrito, Adobo & Habichuelas Guisadas (Bean Soup) Chef Ayala arrived in the kitchen with a paper bag of Ají dulce, (Rocotillo peppers) from Puerto Rico and the other Latin chefs went wild! When he came to greet me he tossed all of my pumpkin dice into the garbage, poured a few cups of rice onto the table and discussed how to peel garlic. He explained he had eaten this same, exact rice dish every day of his life and shared the pumpkin I had prepared was for Halloween; he needed butternut squash. I had told the procurement chef the same thing earlier but decided to keep that to myself… an absolutely amazing experience learning to cook pumpkin and rice with Chef Ayala, a true master!

'Fines Herbs': Freshness, Balance & Cooking

By Tom Griffiths • October 30, 2025
Fines Herbes: Freshness, Balance, and History Art and Science of Growing & Cooking with 'Fines Herbs'

Seafood; Salmon Fillet

By Tom Griffiths • October 21, 2025
I was very fortunate to spend several months on a cruise ship traveling around Alaska and Canada. I was able to learn how fisherman caught salmon and the native Alaskan people canned salmon. There are five types of salmon, the guides loved to share the 'salmon fingers trick'. King salmon is considered the most flavorful salmon with a fatty, buttery flavor. (This is the longer, middle finger) Coho or Silver salmon is firmer with a milder flavor (ring finger for silver); Sockeye salmon (pointer finger) is lean and has a darker red color. Pink salmon (pinky finger) is most common and used by Alaskan people for canning and Chum (thumb) salmon is mild and seems to be the least popular. I prefer farm raised, Atlantic salmon for forcemeats due to the milder flavor and fatty texture. I spent a week fishing for halibut in Alaska and we rigged up the belly of a chum salmon for bait... it worked really well!

Corn Fritters

By Tom Griffiths • October 17, 2025
My mother liked to cook a variety of fritters, with leftover holiday ham or turkey but in the summer she prepared delicious squash flower or corn fritters which were more like savory pancakes and inspired this recipe.

Beyond Pesto: The Art and Science of Growing & Cooking with Herbs

By Tom Griffiths • October 17, 2025
Beyond Pesto: The Art and Science of Growing & Cooking with Herbs 

Dessert; Fresh Fruit Crostata

By Tom Griffiths • October 8, 2025
I've been growing figs for more than 50 years! In fact, I have about a dozen fig trees in my yard. Several are from cuttings propagated from trees at my parent's home and one fig tree is from a cutting of a fig tree in Monticello! I like to think Thomas Jefferson and I enjoy delicious figs from the same tree...

Beginners recipe: Corn

By Tom Griffiths • October 8, 2025
I liked to begin each class day of Skills Development class at the CIA with a quote. One of my favorites went something like this, 'You can walk to the corn fields but you must run back to the kitchen'. Basically it speaks to the sugars in sweet quickly converting to starch when it's harvested. We Chefs know a thing or two about food chemistry...
image of traditional paella

How Our Kitchens Have Lost Their Soul-What We’re Losing and Why It Matters

By Tom Griffiths • August 13, 2025
More and more the loss of technique and understanding of traditional ingredients is destroying the soul of American kitchens. But there is hope.

Beginners recipe: Pesto

By Tom Griffiths • July 17, 2025
I agreed to be the Chef Advisor for the Gourmet Society at the CIA, an amazing honor to work with some of the best and brightest students. We planned to demonstrate preparing pesto with a mortar and pestle and also with a food processor-then evaluate them both side by side. We all suspected that the food processor would aerate the pesto, possibly the heat generated would be a problem- One student brought in a molcajete, the traditional mortar from Mexico, made from volcanic rock used for grinding spices, making salsas, moles, etc... I'm not sure this was the preferred mortar and pestle to use, these days I often use a marble mortar and pestle and make small batches. The 'mortar and pestle' pesto was much more delicious than the food processor version at the CIA that day.

Beginners Recipe: Chicken Sauté

By Tom Griffiths • July 17, 2025
I was born to sauté... I remember thinking this and smiling when I finally made my way up in the kitchen brigade to the Saucier spot. I loved the pulse of the kitchen, working the saute station with a dozen sauté pans on the flat top, delicious stocks and mother sauces held hot in the steam table and carefully prepared mise en place so I could make delicious meals for the customers... one order or two at the time. Everything was cooked with love and respect.