Seeking the Perfect Soup

Seth Goldschlager, an American in Paris

Seth Goldschlager

Photo : dr

“The onion soup experience can make or break a visit to Paris, depending on the taste, consistency, and even price.”

You have heard about surfers who scour the world’s coasts to ride the perfect wave. You know about weather trackers who scan the heavens for the perfect storm. Now let me tell you about the search for the perfect soup—onion soup, that is. Why should you care? Because a major source of Franco-American misunderstanding can be found in the bitter (sorry) disappointment which my countrymen and women feel when they realize that great onion soup is not served in every French restaurant at all hours.

Actually, I have never understood why the salty, cheesy, crusty concoction is such a symbol of glorious French cooking to Americans visitors here. Or why there is such disappointment when they can’t find it on the menu. Perhaps the attraction lies in symbolically sampling the taste of Paris’ famed Les Halles. That was where onion soup was on the menu of the all-night bistros that ringed the colorful central market before it moved to Rungis.

Whatever is the reason, the onion soup experience can make or break a visit to Paris, depending on the taste, consistency — and even price. In fact, one of my favorite barometers of the ‘Cost of Paris Tourism’ is the price of onion soup at a certain café on the Place du Trocadero across from the Eiffel Tower. There, I once saw onion soup for ten euros a serving. (Funny how onions are more expensive when there are more tourists around :--))

As it is rare to be able to improve Franco-American relations in a way that everyone can benefit, I would like to propose an idea to mobilize France’s great chefs and all of you great cooks to make sure that there is more, better, and more affordable onion soup everywhere in France. First, I call upon France’s chefs and restaurant owners to include onion soup on their menus. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful symbol if super-chef Alain Ducasse, for example, took the onion soup pledge to make that earthy potage available at least some of the time at all of his restaurants ?

And perhaps we can ask Daniel Rose, a young American chef making waves at his Spring restaurant in Paris, to offer his own version of onion soup. Finally, here’s a contest to mobilize all of Metro’s readers: the best and most unusual recipes for onion soup will win a free subscription to this newspaper and maybe even a free mention on the website www.metrofrance.com :--)