French Onion Soup Pizza with Chef Jason McKinney

Last Wednesday I hosted a pizza class with Chef Jason McKinney. More than 100 of you showed up.

Jason is traveling the world right now, cooking as he goes. Last Wednesday he was in South Africa, outdoors at Creation Wines on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge outside Hermanus, making pizza on a Baking Steel in the late afternoon light while we watched from our kitchens. I have been running these classes for a while and that was a first.

He travels with them. I think Jason has some of the most traveled Baking Steels in the world.

Jason is a French Laundry alum. He co-founded Truffle Shuffle, took it on Shark Tank, and later sold it. Now he is traveling full time as Where Is Chef Jason, cooking with chefs and hospitality teams around the world, before he opens Restaurant Elizabeth in New York in 2027.

He could be doing anything. He spent an hour making pizza with us.

That was the part I did not expect. He brought all of it, the knowledge and the technique, and none of the attitude. He answered every question. He weighed everything. He wrote the recipe out properly, which tells you something about him.

He made a French Onion Soup Pizza. Gruyère béchamel, caramelized onions, parmesan, chives. No red sauce anywhere.

Here it is, in his words.

 

---

French Onion Soup Pizza

Béchamel, gruyère, caramelized onion, parmesan, chives

Yield: One 30 cm pizza Active: 35 min Total: 2 hr Oven: 500F or hotter

Equipment: Baking Steel, wide heavy pan, heavy saucepan, whisk, fine sieve, pizza peel, microplane

Make ahead

The onions and the béchamel both hold. Onions keep 5 days covered in the fridge. Béchamel keeps 3 days with film flush to the surface, and warms back gently with a splash of milk. The béchamel batch covers three pizzas.

---

Caramelized Onions

Makes 120 g, all of it goes on the pizza

600 g	Sweet onion, halved, sliced 3 mm with the grain
25 g	Butter
10 g	Olive oil
4 g	Kosher salt
2 g	Thyme, picked
30 g	Water, for deglazing, in three stages

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a wide heavy pan over medium low heat.
2. Add the onion and salt. Cover and sweat 15 min, until the onion collapses and releases its water.
3. Take the lid off and lower the heat. Cook 45 min, stirring every few minutes.
4. Each time a brown fond builds on the base of the pan, add 10 g of water and scrape it up. You will do this about three times across the cook.
5. Add the thyme for the last 5 min.
6. Cool. 600 g of raw onion gives about 120 g finished.

---

Gruyère Béchamel

Makes 300 g, you need 90 g. TFL béchamel, David Breeden 1.14.15, scaled and finished with gruyère.

25 g	Butter
15 g	Sweet onion, diced medium
1 ea	Bay leaf
25 g	Flour
110 g	Milk
110 g	Cream
75 g	Gruyère, grated, off the heat
2 g	Kosher salt
1 g	White pepper

1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Add the onion and bay leaf and cook 5 min.
2. Add the flour and stir well. Cook 5 min more, stirring frequently.
3. Add the milk and cream. Bring to a simmer, whisking.
4. Simmer 20 min over the lowest heat, on a diffuser if you have one.
5. Pass through a fine sieve, pressing lightly on the solids. Discard the onion and bay.
6. Off the heat, whisk in the gruyère in three additions until it is fully melted and smooth.
7. Season with the salt and white pepper. Cool if you are not building straight away.

---

Build and Bake

One pizza, 30 cm

1 ball	Pizza dough, your favourite recipe, about 250 g, at room temperature 1 hr
90 g	Gruyère béchamel, from above
120 g	Caramelized onions, from above
60 g	Parmesan, grated fine
8 g	Chives, cut 2 mm, after the bake
	Semolina for the peel

1. Put the Baking Steel on the upper middle rack and preheat the oven at 500F or hotter for a full hour.
2. Stretch the dough to 30 cm. Dust the peel with semolina and lay the dough on it.
3. Spread the béchamel over the base, leaving a 1 cm border.
4. Scatter half the parmesan over the béchamel.
5. Spread the caramelized onions in an even layer.
6. Scatter the remaining parmesan over the onions.
7. Slide onto the steel. Bake 6 to 8 min, until the crust is charred at the edge and the top is bubbling.
8. Scatter the chives over as it comes out of the oven. Cut and serve.

Thank you to Jason for making the time, and to Creation Wines for the kitchen and that view.

Find Jason @whereischefjason

Our pizza classes are free and we run them every week. Come to the next one.