Soufflé is Paris's risen, twice-baked technique dish: a hot bechamel, separated eggs, the whites whipped to peaks, folded, baked at 200°C for 12 minutes, served immediately or it falls.
The soufflé was codified by Antonin Carême around 1815 in his Palais-Royal patisserie, where he wrote the first recipe to call for separated eggs and gentle folding. Auguste Escoffier expanded the form in Le Guide Culinaire (1903) into both sweet and savoury versions: Grand Marnier, Suzette, cheese, mushroom. Le Soufflé restaurant in the 1er has cooked nothing but the dish since 1961, with 30 sweet and savoury versions on the carte. Le Grand Véfour has kept its Grand Marnier soufflé on the menu unchanged for six decades. The technique is unforgiving: whites to firm peaks, the folding must keep the air in, the oven door cannot open mid-bake.
3 editor picks for Soufflé in Paris, ranked by editorial score. All Paris signature dishes · Soufflé across every city.
Tomy & Co ★ 4.6
7e · 22 Rue Surcouf, 75007 Paris
Tomy Gousset's Tomy & Co in Paris's 7e earned a Michelin star in 2018 and still runs the seasonal kitchen everyone in the embassy quarter books for a long lunch.
Le Grand Véfour ★ 4.3
1er · 17 Rue de Beaujolais, 75001 Paris
Two centuries of dining-room history at Le Grand Véfour, the Palais-Royal mirror-and-velvet salon where Paris cooked dinner for Napoleon, Colette and Cocteau.
La Poule au Pot ★ 4.3
1er · 9 Rue Vauvilliers, 75001 Paris
La Poule au Pot in Paris's Les Halles cooks the Henri IV chicken-in-the-pot at its historical address. The menu of grand-mère bistro classics has not changed.