Two individual souffles - chocolate pear and hot raspberry - were sublime.

Recommended dishes: Eggplant terrine, butternut squash soup, panache of three salads, ragout of clams, langoustines and scallops, rack and loin of lamb in port sauce, sea scallops with fettuccine and black olives, roast lobster in Sancerre wine sauce, individual souffles, green apple conversation, trio of chocolates.

An individual soufflé, with hidden black cherries, into which custard sauce was poured was delightful, but the chocolate lovers favored the "duomo," a cupola of excellent chocolate-covered chocolate mousse.

On top of that, to be able to serve twenty-four individual souffles was a tour de force.

The waiter's description of the signature dessert is difficult to resist: two individual souffles, one with raspberries, the other chocolate with raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream.

The individual soufflés I devised are light enough to follow an elaborate dinner, even one served late, for New Year's Eve.

These days, you can even buy individual hot souffles, made with the richest dark chocolate, sold frozen and ready to bake.

The individual soufflé had a perfect consistency, crisp outside, cloudlike within.

"It's also hard for consumers to find or prepare the kind of fruit desserts served in restaurants, like individual souffles and gratins," Mr. Nieporent added.