The Dutch baby is a German pancake that puffs into a hollow dome in a screaming-hot cast-iron skillet, and it is the dish that exposes whether a cook understands steam.
Roy Breiman, the Culinary Director at Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac who oversees Copperleaf Restaurant, brought a Dutch baby to Bobby's kitchen in 2015. The technique is non-negotiable: the pan goes into the oven empty at 425°F for ten minutes, the butter melts and sizzles, and the batter — which has been resting at room temperature so the eggs are loose and the flour has hydrated — gets poured into the hot fat in one motion. Don't open the door. Don't peek. Steam does the work.
Bobby, the broadcast suggests, peeked.