Julia Child's Favorite Dessert Will Make You The Star Of Every Dinner Party

When it comes to American culinary icons, Julia Child is at the top of the list. She taught a generation of home cooks to embrace gourmet ingredients and French cooking techniques — all without ever taking herself too seriously — and paved the way for the celebrity chefs of today. Child is remembered best for recipes like coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon, but she also made it a point to elevate sweet dishes, lest people think her life was strictly about quiche Lorraine. One of her most favorite desserts, île flottante (or "floating island" in English) is a timeless treat that's elegant enough to make you the star of any dinner party, but easy enough to make at home even if you're not a confident cook.

A floating island dessert is made up of three common pastry components, which you can make separately and then assemble when it's time to serve. Essentially, it's comprised of a batch of custard or crème anglaise, baked French meringue soufflé, and any kind of spun sugar, although you can also get away with a little caramel sauce if sugar work is out of your wheelhouse. All being said, île flottante is basically an egg lover's dream.

Julia Child was such a proponent of the floating island dessert that she included it in her cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1," which brought French techniques into millions of American kitchens. That being said, she's not the only one who loved this classic dish. During its heyday in the United States, île flottante was once on the menu at Le Cirque, considered one of New York City's preeminent, taste-making restaurants during its decades-long run. Former New York Times food critic Craig Claiborne was also a fan. 

If you're in search of a recipe, most modern iterations of île flottante are made with meringue, but sometimes you might find a version that is made with a piece of floating cake. Child, ever the pragmatist, felt that both approaches were fair game. As she noted in "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," either cake or meringue is fine, but the latter is preferred, thanks to its light, airy quality. (Not to mention that meringue is now relatively more convenient to whip up with the help of an electric mixer.) Just make sure to brown the outside of the meringue with either a broiler or a torch before serving so that you get toasty, marshmallow-y flavors — the same crispy texture Julia Child herself would have preferred. (After all, as she once famously said, "every woman should have a blowtorch.")