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Note: Each week Kumiko Mitarai will break down simple, but hardly ever explained, cooking techniques. The step-by-step lessons will feature corresponding recipes so you can put that basic technique into practice. This week she caramelizes onions. Take it away, Kumiko! —The Mgmt. Use This Technique Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Onions and Bacon » I used to think that browned onions and caramelized onions were pretty much the same thing. The difference is actually pretty dramatic. Onions can be browned in just a few minutes and have a toasted, sometimes charred taste on the surface. But when onions are caramelized, they develop a deep sweetness and a beautiful amber color that goes all the way through the onion. It's an... More

©iStockPhoto/lbrinck The boy I was seeing last year, a cook, passed on his knives to me before I started my first gig in a restaurant kitchen. They were his set from culinary school--sturdy and unfancy in their utilitarian black case. His nonchalance gave way to unfamiliar gravity as he ceremoniously bestowed them upon me. He demonstrated how to sharpen them, first with stone and then with steel, and looked concerned when I was catching on slowly, if at all. Knives are serious business—any cook knows that. On my first day in the kitchen, the cooks asked to see my knives. "They're hand-me-downs from a friend," I explained. But the chefs proved far more interested in showing off their own. They... More