Part 2/10:
Traditional culinary school instruction guides students to cut an onion in a certain cross-hatch pattern, often towards themselves, which can be unsafe. Instead, a more efficient method involves placing the onion on its flat side, cutting across the grain without fully slicing through the root end. Following the contour of the onion, you can produce uniform dice in about one-third the time, with less risk of injury.
For raw onions, soaking them in cold water for 2-3 minutes can mellow their sharpness and reduce the pong of onion breath. This simple step crisps the onion slices slightly and diminishes their pungency, making raw onions more palatable.