Onion pie from Zhenya Fogelson

Zhenya Fogelson’s mom worked as a tour guide in the 1970s, collecting recipes from all over the Soviet Union. One special recipe she brought home was a French onion pie, passed on by a fellow traveler. Now, Zhenya makes it for family celebrations.

I have a French onion pie)

In the 70s of the last century, my mother worked as a travel attendant in a travel agency and travelled all over the Soviet Union. On each trip, she tried to learn different recipes from locals. So, on our home menu, aubergine sauté from Georgia, shaltiborshchai from Lithuania, and uzvar from Ukraine appeared - the list is endless. But one recipe was specific: on one of the river cruises, my mother met a woman who told a delicious story about her great-grandmother's onion pie and treated her fellow travellers to it. Its peculiarity was that you cannot deviate from the recipe even a gram - more or less ingredients or replacing them with others completely spoils the taste. My mother wrote this recipe down on a piece of paper, reproduced it at home and was utterly delighted, as was everyone who tried it.

I learned to cook it the same way she did, and now I continue the tradition of onion pie for the holidays.