. . . And for Dessert, Onion Tart

Onions took center stage recently when chef Toribio Prado of Cava Restaurant in the Beverly Plaza Hotel created an all-onion menu to promote a brand of sweet onions from Chile.

There was onion soup; the potato omelet, a heady version of frittata with sweet onion, was served on greens and garnished with caviar. Onion relish rode shotgun with an oven-roasted Chilean sea bass, and before diners could guess about dessert, Prado made his grand entrance.

He made the rounds of tables like a politician, kissing old friends and new. Some guests proclaimed him a fashion plate, not for his kitchen whites but for his colorful headgear and jewelry.

Seven bracelets, count ‘em, said one guest as she inspected the wrists bound with silver bracelets that could double for snow chains.

Doesn’t the open cooking flame on the metal bracelets leave a painful imprint on the skin? “No. I have cooks who do that work,” quipped Prado.

When the dessert course arrived, eyes darted to what was on the plates.

Granny Smith took a backseat to pear, mangoes and onion in Prado’s version of Tarte Tatin. “Onions can do almost everything,” boasted Prado.

One guest, an author from Portland, Ore., was impressed. As she toyed with her portion, Jan Roberts-Dominguez shook her head: “I thought about doing desserts for my book,” she said, referring to “The Onion Book” (Doubleday, $25), “but didn’t want to push the envelope that far.”