

A finely chopped onion is an ingredient in so many recipes
My knife skills have been honed over my years of working as a professional chef. Being able to chop finely is, in my opinion, a very important skill to have in the kitchen. When I make a sauce containing onion – whether it’s a gravy or a classic onion sauce – I want that onion to be finely chopped.
Golden rules:
- Make sure your knife is sharp – a blunt knife is actually more dangerous than a sharp one. As you can see, I like using a large knife rather than a small one; I find large knives much easier to handle.
- Treat your knife with respect for yourself and those around you. This is a tool that needs to be handled responsibly.
- Chop carefully, keeping an eye on what you’re doing. It’s important to look at what you’re doing and focus on it.
Chopping an onion finely:
- Peel the onion and cut it into quarters. Pull off a segment of the onion, place it on the chopping board and hold it firmly in place with one hand.
- First chop the onion segment lengthways, then turn the onion slices round and chop them across into very little pieces.
- When you watch the video you’ll see that I use the hand holding the onion to guide my knife, making sure that my thumb is tucked in behind your fingers so that it is protected.
- When I chop, I keep the tip of the blade on the board and rock the rest of the blade up and down, rather than lifting the whole blade up off the surface.
- Don’t rush when you chop – that’s the way accidents happen. Chop your onion patiently a segment at a time into very small pieces. That’s the way to chop an onion finely.