Although I’ve “had” soufflé, I’ve apparently never eaten it before! OMG was this place delicious! We had read all the excellent reviews about Le Soufflé, and I have to admit I wondered: “how great can it be?” Out of this world great, is the answer! To start, I had the cheese soufflé and Andrew had the garlic butter snails. Both were TO DIE FOR! I don’t eat fish, but the garlic butter Andrew’s snails were in was outstanding. And the cheese soufflé? So light and airy, I swear it was like eating a cloud! I have some SERIOUS recipe testing to do when I get home to try and replicate this dish. The soufflé was like eating air! I have three theories on how they do this:
- Whisk the eggs until the stiffest peaks possible
- Use very little, super fine flour like 00 or cake flour with less gluten
- Under bake it
When you eat soufflé in America, it’s light but has a sort of bread-y texture. This was so light and airy, my only thought is the above three tricks to make it. I didn’t dare ask the waiter their secret – I figured a restaurant predicated on soufflé would throw me out!
For dinner, Andrew’s came with the boeuf bourguignon with pasta which was outstanding. I ordered the boeuf bourguignon soufflé, thinking: ” how the hell do you make boeuf bourguignon soufflé? Well, what they seem to have done is taken a basic soufflé, put sauce from boeuf bourguignon in the bottom of the dish, added onions and red wine and baked it. Then, table side, the waiter poked holes in it and filled the soufflé with boeuf bourguignon. Amazing! I wish I could say I ate it all, but I only made it about half-way through before I was about to burst! And still dessert!
For dessert, Andrew ordered the chocolate soufflé, which came like mine below but with cocoa powder in it and then the waiter poured warm chocolate ganache all over the top. I ordered the Grand Marnier soufflé which was an orange and vanilla base soufflé, served table side by poking holes with a fork and pouring over Grand Marnier – and they left the bottle for you to add as much or as little as you want! I have to admit – as full as I was, I ate the whole thing!
I think whenever you travel somewhere, it’s important to choose restaurants that offer things you just can’t get at home. When else have I had a three course soufflé dinner? Never, and it was totally worth it! I hope the 12 miles we walked offset the calories, but somehow I doubt it! Tonight we have a six-course dinner cruise on the Seine – I’m sure it will be amazing! Bon appetit!
The Homemade Chef 