CHOPPING onions must be a cook's most irritating task. There are plenty of folkloric solutions - from holding the onion under a running tap, to chopping with a handkerchief in the mouth or a peg on the nose - but none offers permanent relief from the invariable, involuntary tears.
''There is no solution,'' said Swire Caterer's manager Adrian Ort decisively. ''Breathing through the mouth sometimes lessens the effect, but that's about all you can do.'' Not all common kitchen irritants are such a lost cause. To keep blood-pressure down, Hongkong's experienced chefs have a wealth of tricks up their long white sleeves.
Yet they use them so often recollection is hard-won. ''It's difficult to think of them because they're done so unconsciously,'' said Mr Ort. ''After many years of use they become second nature.'' Heinz Egli, food and beverage manager at the New World Hotel, offered an alternative explanation. ''Cooking schools never teach shortcuts or tricks,'' he said. ''It compromises a finished dish and is seen as a form of cheating.
''I know many tricks myself, but I never show them to my chefs because I don't want them to learn a substitute for the real thing.'' Mr Egli would therefore disapprove of Lucy Humbert's sauce-making tip; if faced with a lack of cream, others would find it welcome.
''Just whisk in some cream cheese,'' said the private caterer. ''It works just as well in cream sauces.'' Eggs, along with sauces, are the most difficult dishes in a chef's repertoire. Their volatility attracts the greatest number of safety measures.
A scenario familiar to many hosts and hostesses must be the last-minute preparation of a hollandaise sauce. The fish is cooked to perfection when the sauce decides to curdle.