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Soufflé Suissesse

Le Gavroche is a British culinary institution like no other. It opened in 1967 under the leadership of brothers Albert and Michel Roux. At that time, there was really nothing in Britain anything quite like it. So remarkable was Le Gavroche, that it went on to win Britain’s first Michelin star in 1974. In 1977, it became the first two-star restaurant in the UK; and finally, in 1982, it completed the hat trick with first past the post to three Michelin stars.

The restaurant menu contained a slew of classic French dishes adapted for the discerning diners of Le Gavroche. Among these were Le Caneton Gavroche (which was a meltingly rare duck poached in consommé), tarte au citron, and the famous soufflé Suissesse.

In 1993, Le Gavroche underwent change, and the old guard of customers used to the cooking of Albert Roux were very hesitant. Old Man Roux had decided that the time was right to hand the restaurant over to his son Michel Roux Jnr. Michel was (and remains) a bright spark in the world of food, and he had a bunch of new ideas to try out on the guests of Le Gavroche. But, it has to be said, there was some resistance to all this – both from the customers and the staff. Michel stood his ground and cooked his food.

When Michelin came knocking, Le Gavroche lost a star, but Roux Jnr has always maintained that, while this was disappointing, the style of food he likes to cook will not tick all the boxes that Michelin are looking for:

” … recognition would be wonderful. But I am not cooking that style of food. There are dishes that are worthy of it but my style really doesn’t suit that status.”

Michel Roux Jnr, 2007

However, despite ringing in the changes, there was one thing that Le Gavroche could not shake off – there were still some customers who wanted to visit and enjoy their soufflé Suissesse. So it remains on the menu to this day as something of an anachronistic ‘signature’ that has little in common with the rest of the modern menu.

Sample menu, Le Gavroche, 2019

Making soufflé Suissesse

When The Times’ Adam Coghlan asked Michel Roux Jnr the ‘secret’ to the soufflé Suissesse, the answer was a succinct:

“A lot of practice – trial and error.”

Michel Roux Jnr

And you know what? He’s right. Even faced with the recipe and a video of both Albert Roux and Michel Roux Jnr (in French) cooking the dish, I was still not sure on the correct route. I did the sensible thing and went straight to source. I asked Chef Michel where exactly the cheese was supposed to go:

Nigel clarifies the cheese addition with Chef Michel

Even with help from the man whose team cooks hundreds of these soufflés a week, I messed up the turning out four times before I managed to get a single tower of soufflé to plop satisfyingly into its moat of warm cream. The key to this part was to use a hell of a lot of butter in the mould – so much of it that a liquid puddle of it remains on the top when turned out.

Once the soufflé was on the plate looking like a cheesy Iron Age hill fort surrounded by a river of dairy, the technical challenges were not over. The recipe asks that the dish goes back in the oven for 5 minutes to brown. Albert Roux would use a salamander. Michel Roux Jnr uses an oven in the kitchen at Le Gavroche, but has used a grill in demos. I opted for the oven for the even re-rise, followed by a gentle tickle with a blowtorch for the colour. Chef Michel was very happy with my effort:

Michel Roux Jnr takes time out to let me know I did OK

All this faff is great fun, but the result has to be worth it. And yes, it is. This dish kicks the puffy stuffing out of a standard, un-sauced cheese soufflé. That said, I would probably not order it in Le Gavroche because there are so many more interesting things to try, and I stand by the idea that the restaurant needs to have the freedom to move on from hand-me-downs from the House of Boneparte. I say make it at home, and have one of Chef Michel’s own dishes if you visit Mayfair.

Le Gavroche can be found at 43 Upper Brook St, Mayfair, London W1K 7QR. Evening booking is essential and needs to be done three months in advance to the day. Call +44 20 7408 0881.

Soufflé Suissesse

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Serves: 4
Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

  • 45g butter
  • 45g plain flour
  • 500ml milk
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 6 egg whites
  • 600ml double cream
  • 200g Gruyére cheese, grated
  • Salt and freshly ground white pepper

Instructions

1

Heat an oven to 220˚C.

2

Butter 4 8cm tartlet moulds (we actually used teacups) with really an awful lot of butter (see the Albert Roux video linked above).

3

Melt the butter in a saucepan, whisk in the flour and cook off for about a minute. Whisk in the milk bit by bit to create a béchamel sauce. Once combined, cook for 3 mins, whisking to prevent lumps. Remove from the heat and beat in the egg yolks (to create an enriched béchamel). Season. Cover with some cling wrap or greaseproof paper in contact with the surface to prevent skinning.

4

Next, whisk up the egg whites with a pinch of salt into peaks that are past soft, but in no way stiff. Add one third of the whites to the enriched béchamel and combine completely. Use your soufflé mixing skills to fold (not stir) the rest of the egg whites into the béchamel until no uncombined egg white can be seen. The mixture should still be quite light and airy.

5

Spoon the mixture into the buttered moulds and bake on a tray in the oven for 3–4 mins until the tops start to go golden.

6

Meanwhile, season and heat the cream in a saucepan, and pour it into a gratin dish or into individual soup dishes.

7

To turn the soufflés out, loosen the edges with a small palette knife (if needed), and then turn out onto the warm, seasoned cream. Sprinkle the soufflés with the cheese, and put them back in the oven for about 5 minutes to re-rise. In a domestic setting, this will not brown them like a commercial oven will, so you can either finish them under the grill, or show them the business end of a blowtorch.

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11 Comments

  • Reply
    Dicko
    09/01/2021 at 9:52 am

    The reason theirs ‘turns out’ is because they use a pot that has outward turning sides iv noticed this on both their videos

    • Reply
      Nigel Eastmond
      09/01/2021 at 6:20 pm

      And … a metric butt-tonne of butter.

  • Reply
    Ben
    15/06/2021 at 9:11 pm

    Thank you. 3rd attempt now and getting better. The other recipes have the oven at 200C and this was not working very well for me so glad to see you’ve upped the temperature.
    The other tricky issue is getting the right sized mould so the soufflé is evenly cooked in first psd in oven. If the moulds are too big the centre remains a gooey mess.
    It does need a lot of butter doesn’t it?
    Of to the Gavroche next week and will ask the chef if I can see the mould size.

    • Reply
      Nigel Eastmond
      17/06/2021 at 9:07 am

      This recipe is so hard to do I had to contact Michel Roux Jnr directly for advice on it. Yes. it needs a biblical amount of butter. It took me about 5 or 6 tries to get this right. The mould size is, as you say, critical. There is another eggs recipe on here for refs en cocotte Jacques Pepin that is also very sensitive to mould size. Enjoy your trip to La Gavroche – it is a special place.

  • Reply
    Matt
    28/06/2021 at 11:37 am

    I went to Le Gavroche on Saturday and had this dish. Absolutely loved it. I’m seriously tempted to try it at home but I’ve never cooked a souffle before let alone this one, so I envision it ending badly.

    Thanks for all the information, this is a really good article!

  • Reply
    Ben Thuriaux
    19/07/2021 at 8:53 pm

    Hi. Rereading step 4 “Next, whisk up the egg whites with a pinch of salt into peaks that are past soft, but in no way stiff. Add one third of the enriched béchamel to the whites and combine completely. Use your soufflé mixing skills to fold (not stir) the rest of the béchamel into the egg whites until no uncombined egg white can be seen”.
    Most other recipes call for mixing a ***third of the egg whites into the béchamel*** and then to fold in the remaining. But here the instructions are the opposite. And also I think different from the video.
    (this is attempt 5 tonight… I have the right size moulds I think and the hotter oven temperature you suggest should help – wish me luck).

    • Reply
      Nigel Eastmond
      19/07/2021 at 10:04 pm

      You are completely correct. It was the wrong way about. I fixed it. Good luck!

  • Reply
    Ben
    16/08/2021 at 11:58 pm

    A quick note about the “difficult to describe” amount of butter for the soufflé dishes. On an 8cm dish I am now using g 15-18g of butter. I find that I can melt the butter in 39 seconds in the oven and return the dishes to the table ready for the soufflé mixture and that works well (3 out of 4 dishes released the soufflé easily). Maybe I need more?

    • Reply
      Nigel Eastmond
      18/08/2021 at 1:00 pm

      Ben, if you have got this to work, then you are already a hero. This is one of those dishes you make once to prove you can. 🙂

  • Reply
    Ottoline Dahling
    11/12/2023 at 8:31 am

    I have eaten a lot of this! 4x a week at one point! It is simply divine! Nothing comes close!

    • Reply
      Nigel Eastmond
      11/12/2023 at 9:49 am

      Hang on. To be eating four of these a week means you are either a Park Lane millionaire, or on the staff at La Gavroché. Or, was this made elsewhere also? It is a proper pain in the arse to make.

      BTW, I love the .mac email addy. I have one too. It marks us out as old-school iClouders before anyone knew it existed.

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