Denmark State Dinner Dessert - 1991: Hot Raspberry Souffle
"President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush were entertaining Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik of Denmark in the State Dining Room . . . I planned to produce twenty-two large raspberry souffles . . . A three-course dinner usually took about 1 hour to serve. The souffles took 1 hour and 20 minutes to bake. So I knew I'd have to have them in the oven before the guests had even entered the dining room . . . I had tested and retested my recipe, watching the clock every time. All of my ingredients were premeasured, and at just the right moment I began to whip my egg whites, eighty at a time. But something was wrong: they weren't coming up the way they should have . . . I cleaned the bowl and beaters and starting again. Again, my whites refused to cooperate.
While I was cleaning the bowl for the third time, I overheard the executive chef and the sous chef discussing the mayonnaise they had made earlier in the day. They must have prepared it in this machine! If even a trace of oil remained behind in the openings where the beaters were inserted into the machine, it would drip back into the bowl when they were reinserted after cleaning. Now I clean these spots, too, and was finally on my way. But I had lost so much time that I was worried I wouldn't make it . . . I turned the oven up higher and placed the souffles on trays that I put right on top of the gas burner to preheat them before baking. I was able to make up the time . . . They started coming out of the oven looking great. And just as the first ones were ready, I heard the first of twenty-two calls of, "Pick up!" "Let's rock and roll!" I was able to reply." - Excerpt from "A Sweet World of White House Desserts" by Roland Mesnier.
- Date of Work
- 1991
- Medium
- Photo
- Credit
- Collection of Roland Mesnier
