The basic idea of the soufflé—and of egg-leavened cakes as well—dates back at least to the 17th century, when confectioners noticed that a “biscuit” paste of egg whites and sugar worked in a mortar would rise in the oven like a loaf of bread. Sometime around 1700, French cooks began to incorporate foamed whites into the yolks to make a puffy omelette soufflée. At mid-century, Vincent La Chapelle could offer five omelettes soufflées and—under the names timbale and tourte—the first recorded soufflés as we now know them, their foams reinforced with pastry cream, which came to displace the omelette soufflée in restaurants. The great 19th-century chef Antonin Carême called the reinforced soufflé “the queen of hot pastries,” but also saw its success as the triumph of convenience and stability over the omelette soufflée’s incomparable delicacy of texture and flavor. Carême wrote, “The omelette soufflée must be free of the concoction that goes into the soufflé, whether it be rice flour or starch. The gourmet must have the patience to wait if he wishes to eat the omelette soufflée in all its perfection.”