Soufflé

This wildly popular French dessert is beloved all over the world – known to gourmets for its soft, airy texture, and infamous among chefs for its unforgiving nature, which leaves little to no room for error during the cooking process. This delicate cake consists of two elements: a pudding or cream base, and a meringue made of egg whites. Soufflés can be either sweet or savory. Sweet soufflés typically have a sauce in the middle, and are served almost exclusively as a dessert. Savory soufflés often include ingredients such as cheese, crab, or onions, and they are usually served as an appetizer. The dish received its name from the French word souffler, meaning to puff up, and both sweet and savory versions of this delicacy were first created in 18th-century France. The first recipe for the dish is found in Vincent La Chapelle’s 1742 book Le Cuisinier Moderne. Today, there are numerous variations of the dish, containing creative ingredients such as figs, kiwi, chicken, vegetables, broccoli, corn, pineapple, and sweet potato.