Chef shares dangerous mistake you make when cutting onions

Onions are versatile and can be added to a variety of dishes, so many of us spend a lot of time chopping them to put them into everything from curries to pasta dishes and stews.

The vegetable is known for making our eyes water when we chop it up, but did you also know the technique many of us use to dice an onion could be considered dangerous?

A professional chef and culinary instructor has claimed he doesn't believe the way chefs are taught to cut onions at culinary school is the most efficient way of doing it, and also believes chefs could be at risk of injuring themselves by following the technique.

In a TikTok video, Frank Proto explained that most people have been taught to slice an onion into strips without chopping all the way through and then cut a cross-section through the centre of the onion to make small diced chunks.

While this does work, Frank said he doesn't like the way it encourages people to cut towards themselves when they make the cross cut - which could be very dangerous if they slip.

He said: "I always thought that [cross cut] was a little strange, because we're teaching students and people how to cut towards themselves. This method works, you get a decent dice, but [it's not] the best way."

Instead of cutting the onion towards yourself, Frank recommended placing half an onion down on its flat side, and slicing it "across the grain". This is the opposite way to the way you would normally cut it, against the natural rings of the onion.

You still shouldn't cut the whole way through the onion, in the same way as you wouldn't with the previous method, but once you've made your length-ways cuts, simply "follow the curve of the onion" to cut it into diced cubes.

Frank added: "With the end piece, I just make a couple of cuts, chop it up, and you have an onion diced in basically one third of the time."

Commenters on the video agreed with Frank, as many said they couldn't understand why people cross-cut an onion when it already has layers that separate when you cut it to make the perfect diced shape.

One person said: "I never understood the crosscut. Isn't the onion already segmented? If there is a reason for this, someone please tell me."

Another added: "I don't see the point of doing the crosscut. The onion is already in layers."

Someone else wrote: "I feel so vindicated in always ignoring the culinary school way because it's always felt inefficient."