This Should Be Your Go-To Cheese For French Onion Soup

Few dishes straddle the line between fanciness and comfort like French onion soup. Unlike some foods labeled as French, French onion soup is actually from France and as such automatically scans as a bit hifalutin to American diners. As is often the case with French food, the recipe can be a bit fussy if you really want to go all in. (Prepare to caramelize onions for a long, long time.) But it's impossible to argue with the reassuring simplicity of hot, brown onion-y broth with a piece of crusty French bread soaking in it; all topped off by a layer of gooey, decadent cheese. There's a reason it was the last thing Julia Child ever ate: she knew as well as anybody that a good bowl of French onion soup puts you at peace with the world, even if you're soon about to leave it.

But what cheese, or mix of cheeses, is best for your bowl? We asked Michelin-starred chef Matt Baker of 101 Hospitality (Gravitas, Michele's, Bakers Daughter and the forthcoming Lucille's at Kimpton The George), and he gave it to us straight: "My mix of choice is gruyère and low-moisture mozzarella."

One glance at Michele's menu bears that out. Baker's French onion soup is, indeed, topped with gruyère; which is a fine choice for any dish that requires a tangy, complex cheese. Not only is it tasty (it's routinely described as nutty, creamy, and slightly sweet), but it's an excellent melter, making it ideally suited to serve atop a bowl of French onion soup. Low-moisture mozzarella, while not adding much in terms of flavor, is excellent for texture. It becomes stretchy and malleable as it melts, lending French onion soup that irresistible cheese pull.

"Gruyère is a must for French onion soup," Baker asserts. "Emmentaler can be substituted, but [it] is not the same." Emmentaler, or emmental cheese, is an Alpine cheese like gruyère, and they don't taste dissimilar. (Emmental is, in fact, the cheese that Americans know as Swiss cheese.) However, gruyère is much more complex in flavor, and a better choice in this case.

Although Baker is skeptical of using other kinds of cheese atop French onion soup — "what do they add to the dish?", he asks rhetorically. He makes one thing clear: Whatever cheese you use, make sure to grate it the right way. "We grate our own cheese," he said, as "grated cheese helps to provide the best surface to area ratio for the best melt and coverage". Simply put, it covers more of the soup, melting and filling in any gaps that might exist.

He also says that he would never use pre-grated cheese for this purpose. There's a good reason for that. Pre-grated cheese is coated in anti-caking agents to keep it from clumping together in the bag, and those additives do not melt well at all: they break and become a runny, streaky mess. If you grate your own cheese, not only does it melt better, it tastes fresher and more natural. It's the right choice for Baker, and the right choice for you.