When one thinks of fine dining, it's not often that the humble onion figures as the top of mind—but for Uwe Opocensky, executive chef of Petrus at Island Shangri-La, the multi-layered vegetable has become an obsession ever since he was invited by the House of Krug in 2020 to visit Jaipur, India. The purpose of the trip? To kick off the prestigious champagne label's annual Krug x Single Ingredient programme, which has explored a myriad of overlooked ingredients since its conception: from the potato and egg, to the mushroom, pepper and more.
There, he and 10 other Krug Ambassade Chefs immersed themselves in the sights and sounds of India, scoping out the role the onion plays in the country's cuisine from the neighbourhood market to its vibrant street food scene. In doing so, they were asked to reconsider their relationships to oft-overlooked elements of the dining experience, turning the hierarchy of prestigious ingredients on its head.
For the German native, onions have always featured prominently in his culinary career, given their essential nature in European cuisine. "At my family home growing up, we had onions in the garden, so I have always been around them. I even remember during my apprenticeship at a butcher shop, a colleague and I were tasked with chopping 100kg of onions to make blood sausage—it was intense, and I have never cried so much," he reminisces. "As the onion is the base of so many things—stocks, sauces and dressings—to me, cooking without it is cooking without soul."
Following his return to Hong Kong, Opocensky took this sensory abundance and transformed it into a limited-time dish that celebrated the onion as the title ingredient: an onion tarte tatin made using Roscoff onions and banana shallots, designed to mirror the depth and complexity of the newest edition of the Krug Grande Cuvée 169ème Édition—which itself is made by blending over 120 wines from more than 10 different years, then rested in the cellar for seven years.
In a way, the onion represents Opocensky's turn towards a more vegetable-forward, conscious ethos in the act of cooking. "I am creating more and more vegetarian dishes these days, as my wife and I are both eating less meat. As chefs, we have a voice and can set trends. Vegetables are so beautiful, but they often do not get enough of the limelight."
See the other Krug x Onion dishes that Hong Kong's Krug Ambassade Chefs and Krug Lover Chefs made by clicking here.
