Chef Showdown: French Onion Soup Edition

Joël Robuchon vs Julia Child vs Jacques Pépin

Today’s blog pits three French Onion Soup powers against each other; Robuchon, Child, and Pépin.

There are certain dishes which fall perfectly into the puzzles of our personal needs. Think Chicken Noodle Soup when sick, Popcorn at the theatre, or Ted Drewes during a Missouri July. These are food pairings which accompany us through and memorialize moments of our life. Which food guides others? What sonderous cuisine carried others through their childhoods, their distraught nights, their sicknesses? Which foods do others–globally speaking–hold as integral pairings for their livelihoods?

One of these foods is French Onion Soup (Soupe à l’oignon), or, more specifically, Lyonnaise Onion Soup (Gratinée Lyonnaise).

This simple construction of onions, broth, butter, cheese and bread continues to be enjoyed by every late-night bar-goer in France. One can stumble into a bouchon¹ at the latest hours of the night and recover with a mess of melted Comte and baguette over a long-stewed onion soup. A bit different–but no more valid?–than our culture of 3 A.M pizza slices to end the night of drinking.

Each chef has their own version of this special dish, preparing those same ingredients in different orders, with different types of cheeses, with different (I mean very different) quantities of butter, etc.

With this in mind, I thought it would be only right to put Robuchon’s version up against two of the best: Julia Child and Jacques Pépin. This matchup seemed interesting as Julia writes her recipes with the American in mind, and Pépin is a French traditionalist.

And so, I began chopping an absurd quantity of onions and my stove-top space filled as all three recipes began. With the help of my girlfriend, a food nut in her own right, and a rather balanced and unbiased critic––we began a most oniony journey.

Top left; bouillon coming to a boil. Bottom left; Child’s onion soup. Top right: Robuchon’s onion soup. Bottom right; Pépin’s onion soup. All onions have been on the burner for the exact same about of time. Observe the color and caramelization difference between the three.

Let’s talk butter for a moment. Child begins her recipe by browning a few tablespoons of butter before throwing the onions into the mix. Pépin begins with half the amount of butter as Child but adds some oil before the onions are added. Robuchon sees Child’s two and raises her eight for a whopping total of 10 tablespoons of butter to begin the recipe.

This felt, well, just nearly wrong. The onions had no ability to brown in Robuchon’s recipe due to their floating in butter. As seen in the picture, the onions retained their original color. I figured if the onions did not have a chance to color they would also not have the same depth of flavor as the truly caramelized Child or Pépin recipes. I was also worried because where Pépin adds garlic and oil to his onions, and Child adds wine and cognac to her onions, Robuchon adds no other flavor but onion.

I was wrong to worry, though. Robuchon needs no frills, he makes an onion soup in which only the onions shine. And, they do shine. His soup was velvety and purely one-note onion. An almost ridiculously simple recipe to throw in a pot late at night if you are in need of nothing more than a hot and savory fix.

Child is the opposite end of the onion soup spectrum from Robuchon. She sees no need for adherence to tradition and adds quite a bit more than just butter. First, she has her onions caramelizing in butter for about an hour before adding her broth. This is a full 45 minutes longer than Robuchon has his onions cooking! To her gloriously caramelized onions she adds red wine and cognac.² Her soup turns into an experience of total richness. Is there such a thing as “too deep”? If so, I think she may have struck a depth too deep. It tasted as if she wished she was making her famous bœuf bourguignon but only had onions. It was great for a few spoonfuls, after which it felt opulent and too much.

If we continue to put our three Chefs on an onion soup simplicity spectrum, Pépin strikes the middle, if not shading just closer to Robuchon than Child. He adds garlic to flavor the onions and has a cooking time just between that of Child and Robuchon.

Isabel and I sat and tasted each soup. Without doubt, Pépin’s soup was the most balanced and enjoyable while still being complex and flavorful. We could eat an entire bowl compared to just a few spoonfuls from Child.

Now, for arguably the most iconic and important part of the Onion Soup experience; the cheese and bread assembly.

Joël Robuchon reigns highly above both Child and Pépin in this category. While they note that you should lay the bread and cheese down in your ramekin and pour the soup overtop, Robuchon asserts that the best way is to lay the bread and cheese on top of your soup before broiling and browning the cheese.

We can confidently say that laying the bread and cheese over the top of the soup is THE way to get a consistent crusty / crunchy bread. Both Child and Pépin ended with a soppy soggy soft bread which lacked any structure. Robuchon’s bread, on the other hand, made a perfect crusty lid to his onion soup below. While Child and Pépin’s breads both floated to the top during the broiling process, they never took on a crust.

After extensive deliberation, Isabel and I believe that a perfect onion soup would include Pépin’s soup recipe with Robuchon’s bread and cheese assembly.

Below are the final products of each soup. Ordered by Child’s, Robuchon’s, and Pépin’s.

After seeing this picture, my mother has endlessly scolded me for not using parchment paper. “You do not want your baking trays ending up like mine” she says.

This is a first installment of “Chef Showdown”–– a series I think will be quite fun for certain hallmarks of French cuisine. Lookout for another showdown as I head into classics such as Foie Gras, Pot-au-feu, or Soufflé.

Thank you for reading and for caring about food.

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A final note: Between the different cheeses: Comte (Robuchon), Gruyere (Pépin), and Parmesan (Child), We noticed no marked difference in taste. Perhaps only enjoying the Comte more due to its ability to broil and brown on top of the soup.

1. A type of restaurant found in Lyon, France, that serves traditional Lyonnaise cuisine, such as sausages, coq-au-vin, duck pâté or roast pork. Compared to other forms of French cooking such as nouvelle cuisine, the dishes are very hearty.

2. Child cooks off her wine for quite a bit, but adds the cognac at the very end, as to not stifle any of its flavor.