Prepare the basic mixture by stirring one generous tbsp of flour into 1 oz. of butter melted in a heavy saucepan. Gradually add just under 1/2 pint of warmed milk, stirring until your mixture is quite smooth. Let this sauce cook very gently over an asbestos mat, stirring frequently, for close on 10 minutes. Now stir in 2 oz. of finely grated Parmesan cheese (or if you prefer, 1 oz. each of Parmesan and Gruyère) and then the very thoroughly beaten yolks of 4 large eggs. Remove the mixture from the fire, and continue stirring for a few seconds. Now add a seasoning of salt (always to be added after the cheese) and quite a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper, plus, if you like, a scrap of cayenne. This basic mixture can be made well in advance.

When the time comes to make the soufflé, preheat the oven to Gas No. 6, 400 deg. F. Have the shelf placed fairly low in the oven, and a baking sheet on the shelf. Butter a 1-1/2-pint soufflé dish (the size is important).

Whisk the whites of the eggs, plus one extra, in a large, scrupulously dry and clean bowl, until they will stand in peaks on the whisk and look very creamy. Tip half the whites on top of the basic mixture. With a palette knife cut them into it, slowly rotating the bowl with your left hand, lifting rather than stirring the whole mass. Add the remainder of the whites in the same way. All this should take only a few seconds and as you pour the whole mixture, without delay, into the dish, it should look very bubbly and spongy, but if the whites have been over-beaten or rammed into the main mixture with a heavy hand, it will already begin to look flat. With the palette knife, mark a deep circle an inch or so from the edge, so that the soufflé will come out with a cottage-loaf look to the top. Put it instantly into the oven.