Chocolate soufflé is the dessert that asks you to prove you can do one thing — control air — in front of three people with stopwatches.
Olivier Palazzo, executive chef at Foragers Table in Chelsea, picked it on purpose. The chocolate base is the easy part. The whites are the test. Underwhipped, the soufflé fails to rise; overwhipped, it rises and then collapses on contact with the spoon. The middle window is the whole game.
Palazzo found the window. Bobby, per the broadcast, did not. There is a particular silence that follows a chocolate soufflé that has begun its descent before reaching the table. The studio heard it.