(Excerpts from Essays, Compliments of Seattle's Chef Congdon)

"......With this fresh and exciting opportunity for a life change, I had the added bonus of spending many hours with my aunt, who, years earlier, had purchased half the land on grandma Georgie’s property for a dollar so that she and her husband could build a home right behind her mother.  As she was getting up there in age, it was for the best of everyone involved if more eyes kept watch on grandma Georgie and her home.

My time spent in Bradenton would be divided amongst jobs such as spending time with grandma Georgie, keeping her house and clearing the clutter, maintaining the yard, assisting my aunt and uncle with chores around their own home and occasionally cooking for them.  However, the most important, and most difficult, task was to just listen to my aunt talk.  It didn’t take long for me to realize that with my uncle, her talking landed on deaf ears.  In his own personal hell, he had shut down and shut her out a long time ago.  All of their children lived across the country and had their own families to support and manage, so they rarely had time to visit Bradenton.  Most of the people my aunt knew when she was growing up in Bradenton, were either long gone or quite dead.  Since there was no one, I filled the void.

I can listen.  I am a good listener.  I can even respond if so desired.  What I cannot do is listen while a television is on.  If a real live person in the same room with me must contend for my attention against a television’s chatter, the real life person will lose, I will grow agitated and I will not remember anything about the conversation.  Unfortunately, I found this to be the situation every time I was at my aunt and uncle’s house.  It was then I knew I needed to find a job.

Shortly after this epiphany, I found myself working in a seafood restaurant called, The Pier.  Oddly enough, it was located on an actual pier that jutted out onto the Manatee River, which was home, oddly enough, to manatees.  The Pier catered to the retired residents of Bradenton.  Thus it was always busy.  I was hired on as a fry cook – as which I would deep fry various objects.  Within a couple weeks of me joining the team, The Pier’s management hired a new cook.  Since the position as fry cook is the lowest rung on that kitchen’s ladder, I was immediately moved to the sauté station.  Hallelujah!  Apart from sautéing various fish-esque food-like substances, I was required to learn the recipe for French Onion soup.  The chef demonstrated, one time only, how he expected it to be made.  I was shocked with its simplicity and had it immediately memorized.

While the quality of the stock is important, what is vital to making an excellent French Onion soup are the caramelized onions.  If they aren’t cooked long enough they don’t impart enough flavor to the stock.  If they are cooked to long, they go beyond sweet and tender to the point of melting in your mouth to burnt and crisp, yet, at the same time, mushy.  Coming from a situation where I was making gallons of beef stock based French Onion Soup, I knew immediately that one could not just use vegetable stock and expect the same result.  Adjusting the stock was necessary to make this soup a success.  It needed to be salty, heady, rich and slightly sweet – it needed serious depth.  What I ended up with was an instant success.  At least I considered it a compliment when customers were shocked to find out that they were eating a vegetarian version of an old familiar that tasted just like that old familiar.

I must thank The Pier for the valuable experiences and discoveries I gained while working there.  I learned the fish called grouper is actually unidentifiable white fish. I learned that two sliced black olives on top of a deep fried soft shell crab look like eyes staring at you.  I learned that Thousand Island Dressing is basically mayonnaise and ketchup.  I learned that teens under the age of 15 are not allowed to wrestle alligators without adult supervision.  I learned that one can deep fry just about anything, but pickles and pineapple are the best.  I learned what a Monte Cristo is and exactly how repellant it is.  I learned that old white people consider black pepper and anything beyond it in flavor is too spicy.  However, most importantly, I learned how to make French Onion Soup. "

2 HOURS PREP TIME • YIELDS EIGHT 1-CUP SERVINGS

1⁄4 cup unsalted butter
2 pounds yellow onions, finely sliced (or more, depending only on how much you like onions)
2 medium sized shallots, finely sliced
1⁄4 cup soy sauce
1⁄4 cup balsamic vinegar
11⁄2 cups burgundy, old vine zinfandel, or a juicy robust cabernet
4 sprigs thyme
4 bay leaves
4 cups Basic Vegetable Stock (page 31)
Croutons (page xx)
Gruyère cheese thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400˚F.  Put the butter in a roasting pan that is large and deep enough to hold all the sliced onions and place it in the oven. Add the onions, shallots, thyme and bay, mix well, coating them with the melted butter. Cover the roasting pan with a lid or aluminum foil, return the pan to the oven and let cook for 30 minutes.
2. Combine the soy sauce and red wine and set aside.
3. Take the pan from the oven and carefully remove the lid or aluminum foil.  (If a billow of steam is released, you don’t want to experience the possibility of steam burns.) Stir the onions and shallots, by this point they should have become translucent and began to release their juices. If not, cover the pan and return it to the oven for another 15 minutes and then check again.  
4. Once the onions and shallots are translucent return the uncovered pan to the oven and continue roasting them, stirring occasionally, until they start sticking to the bottom of the pan and have turned a dark brown, and begin to smell sweeter (almost like burnt sugar), at which point add the balsamic vinegar.  Use the vinegar to deglaze the pan and remove the sticking onions.  Stir well to coat the onions.  The contents of the pan should have a glistening sheen.  
5. Return the uncovered pan to the oven.  Continue roasting the onions until most of the liquid has evaporated.  By this point the onions should be extremely shiny. Add the soy sauce and wine mixture to the pan, stir well, cover and return the pan to the oven. Reduce the ovens temperature to 200˚F and cook for another 15 minutes.
6. Add the stock to the onion mixture, mix well, cover, and let cook until the soup is simmering.
7. Remove the pan from the oven.  Remove the lid from the pan and allow the soup to cool down at room temperature for 1 hour, at which point, pour the soup into a sturdy sealable container, and place in your refrigerator.  Allow the soup to sit for one day so that all the flavors can marry.
8. To serve, bring the soup to a simmer in a pot over medium heat.  Preheat your oven to broil and adjust the oven’s rack so that the soup crocks will be a couple inches below the heating element.  Put just enough croutons to cover the bottoms of your soup crocks.  Stir the soup well then ladle it over the croutons.  Fill each crock a quarter inch below its rim and make a seal with a couple slices of gruyere hanging over the edge.  Place the crocks under the broiler and broil until the cheese forms a golden-brown crust on top of the soup.  Make sure you use oven mitts to remove the soups from the oven and when taking them to the table.  Inform your guests the bowls are quite hot before they start grabbing at them.