French Onion Soup

“Throughout Covid, comfort food for me has been anything I can get my hands on,” jokes Chef James Paré. “I have been cooking a lot at home, though, just relaxing things that I don’t have to give a ton of thought (to). I made chicken piccata one night, and I just taught my wife to make schnitzel. We’ve been eating pasta, soup with really good bread — all of that is comforting for me.”

Chef Paré and I talk about the role that nostalgia and memory play when it comes to serving up a piledhigh plate of comfort in the kitchen. “It always needs to remind you of something that you had in the past,” says Paré. “It’s all about flavour, texture and consistency.”

For this story, Paré reached back into his past at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he was executive chef at Kaspar’s at The Savoy. There was a traditional

French onion soup on the menu, and it’s this recipe that he’s been making for the past 15 years that’s back by popular demand on Caramba’s winter menu.

Like all good soups, this takes time… the stock (a meaty blend of beef and chicken) bubbles away for 24 hours. Red and white onions are sautéed slowly in grapeseed oil, star anise added to boost the aromatics and meaty flavour, a bouquet garni of thyme; white wine and sherry deglaze the pan and stock is added a little at a time before it slowly simmers for a few hours and it’s then given an extra kiss of sherry. The final touch? Paré leaves the soup to chill for 48 hours in the fridge for the flavours to develop.

Even the bread-and-cheese topping gets an upgrade in this superior soup. With slices of Brie and nutty Comté adding creaminess and richness, “it turns it from a soup to a meal,” Paré says. “Crusty on the outside, warm and comforting on the inside, it’s a no-brainer!”

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