As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to right some of the wrongs in some of my past country cooking efforts and France was definitely one of those areas I wanted to revisit. My first attempt was an abomination of a French onion soup. For this redux, I was inspired by a wonderful cacio y pepe souffle at Rose’s Luxury in Washington, DC. In addition, a (fairly) recent deep dive into some Julia Child documentaries and series pointed me to some of her recipes, most notably her cheese souffle.

The part that made me the most anxious about this recipe was getting the egg whites to the right consistently and then quickly, but not forcibly, folding those in to the egg/milk mixture. I read the recipe multiple times and built my efforts and other parts of the meal around not opening the oven at all. However, one element that I think impacted the rise (and color) of the souffle was that I had a pan with vegetables roasting in the rack above the souffle. This dawned on me as a potential problem when I opened the oven after 30 minutes to check on this. I then removed the vegetables and left the souffle in for a bit longer which helped with the color. I think this would definitely be worth attempting again and I’m glad that I redeemed myself a bit with this dish.

Also, a quick note to recognize the death of Julie Powell who famously cooked her way through Julia Child’s original French cookbook. So many people reached out to me with the news as they know that I find inspiration from those like Julie in all the cooking projects I’ve undergone over the years. May she rest in peace.

Overall Level of Effort: 3

Skill Level: Intermediate

Would Make it Again? Yes

Additional Notes: This wasn’t an overcomplicated recipe but you do really need to plan and pay attention to the steps prior to getting the souffle in the oven. At that point, it’s up to the Kitchen Gods.