I was watching a Gordon Ramsay chop an onion on his timesonline video podcast earlier today and it occurred to me that I don’t chop onions very sensibly. Chopping onions really irks some people due to getting teary and chopping in general is generally considered the most boring part of cooking.
If you just whip off both ends and halve it – as I do normally – it gets very difficult to keep it all together. Whereas, if you just take of the stem end and then peel it – leaving on the root end – then its easier to dice or slice it. Here’s a video demonstration by another budding chef.
Update: in retrospect, this was a pretty logical place to start my blog, particularly seeing that onions are the basis for most recipes 
You should get Mum to show you ho to chop an onion. She taught me (and you I’m sure, I expect you can’t remember!) and it’s definitely the best way I’ve ever seen