The potato omelet ingredient that divides Spain

Potato omelette with or without onion.

It is a fiery debate that could almost be described as a state issue.

So much so that the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) itself surveyed Spaniards to provide data that could portray the photograph of the controversy.

In its report on Tourism and Gastronomy, published last year, it revealed that 70.4% maintain that it should be cooked with onion compared to 20.9% who defend the opposite.

Then there is the 8% who are indifferent and the remaining 0.5% unable to decide.

And you are?

with

The theory

In favor of onion

Borja Beneyto “Matoses”, member of the Board of Directors of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy

Its omnipresence throughout the national territory makes it an integrator of popular Spanish cuisine, a recipe that inevitably triggers the memory of maternal cuisine and constitutes one of the most democratic gastronomic luxuries that exist.

Possibly the most discussed and loved dish;

as simple in its preparation as it is complex in its objective of pleasing all palates universally.

Perhaps that is why the controversy in the aspects that make up the potato omelet extends to the smallest details: Fluid or compact?

Thin or voluminous?

Little or very well done?

Should you display your clear transparent ones?

Is it decisive to use the highest quality potatoes and the best free-range eggs?

Are the Kennebec from Palencia or those from Betanzos better?

The controversy extends into other areas of its preparation: should it be served individually or quartered?

Do you use olive or sunflower oil?

Does it have to be cooked on both sides?

Are the ingredients mixed before pouring into the pan?

How should the eggs be beaten: accelerated or slow?

Is it appropriate to accompany it with green pepper, tomato or mayonnaise?

Does the potato omelet retain its integrity when it is filled with ingredients such as vegetables, sausage, cooked beans, various Iberian meats, pork rinds, blood, garlic or cooked brains?

I have not forgotten the most important debate: how should the potato be cut?

Thin or thick, in sheets, irregularly shaped?

And, of course, what brings me here, as a result of the merciless debate between members of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy: the potato omelette, with onion or without onion?

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Although it does not appear in recipe books until the seventies, the addition of onion to the tortilla occurred in the middle of the last century, scrutinizing a prestigious ingredient that would compensate for the tuber's poor reputation.

“The guy who had the idea of ​​adding onion to the potato omelet is in the hell of gastronomic aberrations, sitting among those who added roquefort to the sirloin, pineapple to the pizza and chorizo ​​to the paella.”

This is something that could be heard in certain culinary circles where it is considered an outrage to popular Spanish cuisine, a gastronomic infidelity, an intellectual affront, a cultural disorder.

Other cooks and fans, behind closed doors, confess their love for the amaryllis.

Its unique and addictive sweet contribution and its succulent texture are issues that are not overlooked in its defense.

It helps when eggs and potatoes are not excellent, favors the standardization of their production on a restaurant scale and even contributes to savings in eggs due to its substitutive effect, achieving similar juiciness.

“The onion is like a vegetable bacon, well used it is like a spice that provides a toast that does not detract from the flavor of either the egg or the potato, an extra layer of depth,” says Andoni Luis Aduriz, who grew up conditioned by the famous Lesaka Casino formula, with onion and green pepper.

A long time ago, the tortilla stopped being used to fill voids, as a dish that was easy and economical to prepare, to become a recipe worthy of respect.

Let's not fool ourselves, in most taverns they insist on reheating a faded yellowish sausage that vaguely reminds us of the idealized potato omelet.

So, why fight over an ingredient that dignifies it instead of admitting that the majority of the specimens presented in the bars and restaurants of our geography barely comply with a minimum of decorum and courtesy?

I would ask those tortillophiles who tear their clothes: where is that tortilla that doesn't need onion? I mean, how many potato tortillas do you know that don't need onion? How many truly exceptional potato tortillas without onion have you eaten?

Because, honestly, the undersigned could barely list thirty in the entire Spanish geography.

The defense of the potato omelette with onion is actually the defense of a decent potato omelet, against those mazacotes that populate our bars and restaurants embracing the synthetic heat of the microwave, widowed, sad, dissected and inert preparations that seem sculpted with cement and concrete.

With or without onion?

Perhaps it is an absurd debate, typical of the first world, where the geography and upbringing of each one weigh in such a way that they avoid any consensus, being able to discuss unlimitedly without reaching conclusive results.

Even the most accredited potato omelette contest—the one run by Rafael García Santos for a quarter of a century—had to bow down, awarding the

ex aequo

prize in 2022 to one copy with onion and another without onion.

For me, the onion is the bandage before the wound, it is the prophylactic against a foreseeable poor execution or a presumed use of unequal ingredients.

It is an element of redemption that confirms the worst omens of the amateur, it is the improver that allows one to eat a tortilla with dignity (anti-onion readers with a turnaround vocation will only have to cut it very thin and poach it—white or not, to their liking—between three or four hours so that it is skillfully imperceptible in the final texture).

Because of its rounded silhouette that invites communion, because of its consumption ceremony and because of its anthropological character, the potato omelet is a food to share, to unite.

Because gastronomic pleasures, Luján already said, “in their culminating perfection, must be shared, because only then will they give us aesthetic enjoyment and the act of eating will be transformed into something spiritual.”

The tortilla with onion or without onion, transcendent discussion or trivial question?

The debate is worth it if it helps spread the culinary fact of the potato omelette;

because the discussion about this blessing of invention makes us, in the end, a little more united.

The practice

without

The theory

Three 'sincebollista' arguments

Luis Suárez de Lezo, president of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy

If the CIS launched in 2023 the question of omelet with onion or without onion?

With the aim of settling the debate, the signatory here, a proud sincebollist, comes with bad news: the discussion continues to have flame.

This is what we experienced at a recent Board of Directors of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy.

We put the dilemma on the table, we uncovered our faces and we enlisted on one side or the other.

It was an agile, intense, interesting debate.

That has ended up materializing in this project, in which, beyond giving one version as the winner, it has allowed us to delve into the history, origin and benefits of one of the most popular dishes rooted in our gastronomy.

The potato omelette is “Spanish” in name and spirit.

We could sweep the map from side to side just by eating this dish.

More or less curdled, like Betanzos's;

pincho in bar or whole at the table;

countryside and royal court, it is a recipe that is irremediably rooted in our culture, although there are dissonant voices that want to take away our honor.

It's like it's something that belongs to all of us.

That's why we take it so seriously.

Because the onion debate is the hottest of the debates but... Oh, if we go into evaluating the cut of the potato or the cooking point!

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It is precisely fidelity to history and gastronomic heritage – which we at the Royal Academy of Gastronomy are committed to defending and perpetuating – that leans me towards the minority side in this culinary debate.

Because?

Because originally it didn't have onions.

And here is the first of my arguments.

Everything indicates that the ingredient that divides us was an addition to the original recipe after the Civil War.

If we are purists, we should respect it, so that it does not get lost along the way.

And defend it, as we do under the same argument with other examples of our gastronomy, such as Valencian paella, with its rabbit, Bajoqueta and Garrofó.

This first argument puts me in front of some of my academic colleagues and renowned chefs like José Andrés.

I know.

And the Asturian is possibly one of the greatest international ambassadors of our tortilla, whose recipe with onion he defended live before thousands of viewers on the Jimmy Fallon show.

However, I share an argument with other names that are not far behind if we talk about references, such as Dabiz Muñoz.

The DiverXO chef raises blisters every time he declares himself sincere.

In 2022 he argued it in the following way: "the poached onion inside the tortilla provides excessive unnecessary sweetness (...) any egg preparation that has a sweet touch is difficult for me and I think that organoleptically they do not match."

Thank you Dabiz, because your words are perfect for me to connect directly with the second of my arguments.

I feel that the pleasure of the mixture of great oil, excellent potatoes and good eggs is simply unbeatable.

The sweetness provided by the onion nuances and even disguises the perfect combination of these three great ingredients.

Onion can mask a mediocre omelet.

TRUE.

And for that we should applaud him?

Maybe we are wasting effort in the wrong battle.

In case the previous two have not had enough weight in this ring, I have reserved for the end a premise that is unquestionable.

A simple and overwhelming reasoning at the same time, which does not speak of flavors or heritage, but of definition.

We previously said that it has the nickname “Spanish”, but we cannot forget that the dish is called potato omelette, that is, it is an omelet with potato and not an omelette with potato and onion.

Three arguments – the historical, the organoleptic and the etymological – are those that support my sincebollist position.

A position that is born of respect and has a vocation for commitment.

The one I have acquired with gastronomy.

Because in addition to pleasure, a meeting point, economy or science, gastronomy is also culture.

And if we look at the debate from that prism, if we understand it as the powerful vehicle of cultural transmission that it is, I am sure that even the most convinced of the concebollistas would allow room for doubt.

More than reasonable.

The practice

More tortilla

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