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Vidalia Onion Dishes

Vidalia Onion Dishes

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Jeffrey Buben
Chef / Owner, Vidalia and Bistro Bis Restaurants
www.vidaliadc.com  
202-659-1990 or 202-661-2700

Winner of the James Beard Foundation's "Best Chef Mid-Atlantic 1999", Jeffrey Buben is the chef and owner of two prestigious restaurants in Washington, D.C., Vidalia and Bistro Bis.  Acknowledged by Bon Appétit as one of the "Best New Restaurants of 1993," Vidalia has garnered both local and national recognition with its regional American cooking delivered with Southern hospitality. 

 

Renovated in the summer of 2003, Vidalia has consistently been awarded three stars since October 2003 from the Washington Post food critic, Tom Sietsema and top honors by Washingtonian Magazine's "Top 100" list since 1994.  Vidalia has also been the recipient of the prestigious DiRona award by the Distinguished Restaurants of North America each year since 1996.  The restaurant's wine program has received the Wine Spectator's "Best of Award of Excellence" 2005, 2006 and 2007 and the Wine Enthusiast's "Award of Distinction" in January 2006.   A vote by America Online users named Vidalia as the number one restaurant in the "City's Best Restaurants 2007."

 

The fall of 1998 heralded the arrival of Buben's second restaurant, Bistro Bis located at the Hotel George on Capitol Hill.  Bis features creative contemporary French bistro cooking with updated renditions of classic fare.  Bis was voted one of "Washington's Best New Restaurants to Watch" by Washingtonian Magazine in 1999.  Washingtonian's "Top 100" in 2007 listed Bistro Bis in the top third of the city and the restaurant has been included in the magazine's "Top 100 Restaurants" since 2002. The Washington Post has recognized Bis in numerous years as a top dining destination and applauded for the "best onion soup" in the area.  Nominated since 2005 by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington for "Restaurant Power Spot," Bis continues to be the place "Where Capitol Hill Dines."  The Mobil Travel Guide, AOL City's Best consistently rank Bistro Bis in the top tier as "Best Hot Spot Restaurant" and as a "Power Lunch destination. 

 

Jeffrey Buben is a 1978 graduate of The Culinary Institute of America and has served on the school's alumni board of directors.  With over 20 years in the industry, he has worked in such notable restaurants as The Sign of the Dove, Le Cygne and Le Chantilly in New York and at several distinguished hotels including The Four Seasons, The Mayflower and The Hotel Pierre.  Voted "Chef of the Year" in 1996 by The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, Jeff continues to work tirelessly to contribute to many different charitable organizations including Share Our Strength, Food & Friends and the Wine Advocate Fund for Philanthropy to name a few. 

 

Jeffrey is a partner with his wife Sallie in the Fully-Baked Restaurant Group, which owns and manages Vidalia Restaurant and Bistro Bis in Washington, D.C.

Vidalia Onion Dishes

In this video, Chef Jeff Buben of Vidalia Restaurant will demonstrate how to make several dishes featuring Vidalia onions.

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Vidalia Onion Dishes

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

5 tablespoons butter

¼ cup vidalia onion, minced

1 cup lump crab meat

2 tablespoons chives, minced

3 tablespoons flour, all purpose

1 cup milk, brought to boiling point

½ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon white pepper

pinch cayenne pepper

pinch nutmeg, freshly grated

4 egg yolks

5 egg whites

¼ cup gruyere or swiss cheese, grated

salt and pepper to taste

butter and flour for soufflé mold

Instructions

  1. Butter and flour a 6-cup soufflé mold.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium sauté pan.  Add vidalia onions and cook for two minutes.  Add the crab meat and cook until heated through.  Add chives and a pinch of salt and white pepper to taste.  Set aside.
  3. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a sauce pan.  Whisk in 3 tablespoons flour and cook over moderate heat for about two minutes.  Remove from heat.  Pour in the hot milk and beat with wire whisk until smooth.  Add salt, white pepper, cayenne and nutmeg.  Return to heat and whisk for one minute until thickened.  Remove from heat and beat in egg yolks one at a time.  Stir into the crab meat mixture, correct seasoning and set aside as the base.
  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff.  Gently stir in half of the egg white mixture into the base from step three above.  Stir in the cheese and a pinch of salt.  Fold in the remaining egg whites.  Pour mixture into prepared mold.
  5. Place on middle rack in the oven and bake 25 to 30 minutes until the soufflé is golden brown.  Serve immediately

 

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Transcripts

Jeffrey Buben: Hello, I am Jeff Buben, Chef/owner of Vidalia Restaurant and Bistro Bis in Washington DC. Today we're going to do some demonstrations of Vidalia Onion Recipes. These are some recipes that we've collected over the years of the restaurant. There are some signature dishes and we're going to show you how easy they are to prepare at home.

Our first dish that we're going to do is a Vidalia Onion and Apple Upside Down Cake. This is takeoff of a traditional upside cake made with sweet Vidalia onions. Next is going to a Jumbo Lump Crab and Vidalia Onion Souffl. This captures the best of the mid-Atlantic region with our Jumbo Lump Crab meat and sweet Vidalia Onion. It sounds like it might be hard to do, but we're going to show you just how easy it is.

The next recipe we're going to do for you is Applewood Bacon Vinaigrette made with sweet Vidalia onions and this is a great vinaigrette to use on hearty greens like dandelion greens, ros salad, and wild watercress. Finally, the last recipe we're going to do for you is a roasted Heirloom Beet and Vidalia Onion salad with a great sweet onion vinaigrette.

Before we get started, let's talk about some of the things that we're going to do in the kitchen today. We're going to be using a KitchenAid Mixer for a few of our dishes. We're going to be handling some knifes, always make sure your knifes are sharp. You never get cut with a sharp knife and we're going to be using some whisks, some spoons and a little bit of a mix bowls in our cooking today. But it's all pretty simple and pretty straightforward. So you just want to be sure that you always have anew safety. When you're around the range, you want to make sure that you have the ovens at the right temperature before you get started and you make sure that you turn off your ranges when you're done cooking a particular dish.

Let me tell you a little bit about my background. In 1993, my wife Sallie and I opened Vidalia Restaurant and have been in business there. In 1998 we started Bistro Bis on Capitol Hill which has become a real nice Capitol Hill restaurant, plenty of celebrities and powerbrokers and Senators Congressmen in that restaurant.

When we first started, we really didn't expect to do that many Vidalian recipes. In fact, we didn't have any Vidalian recipes on the menu. We quickly found that people loved Vidalia onions and they all came to us with their particular story about how they first discovered Vidalia onions and that let us to start making recipes and start doing onion dishes on the menu. Today we're going to do onions from appetizer all the way to dessert.

Alright, I think, we're ready to begin. Our first dish is going to be the Vidalia Onion and Apple Upside Down Cake. You're going to love this dish.

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