The Salzburger Nockerl Pilgrimage

Salzburger Nockerl is a sweet soufflé baked into three towering peaks that represent Salzburg's three hills (Mönchsberg, Kapuzinerberg and Gaisberg), dusted with icing sugar to look like snow-capped mountains. The batter is egg whites, sugar, a little flour and vanilla, whipped stiff and baked fast so it rises spectacularly and arrives at the table still trembling and threatening to collapse. Inside it's airy, warm and gently eggy; the outside is golden and lightly caramelised. It's served with a pool of raspberry or vanilla sauce to dip into. It's showy, it's sweet, and it's entirely Salzburg's own.

Salzburg is Mozart's birthplace, a baroque jewel wedged between mountains and a river, with a fortress on the hill and the Sound of Music lurking around every corner. It's also, quietly, a serious food city - Austrian coffee-house culture, alpine cheese, Salzburger beer, and a dessert tradition that peaks (literally) with the Nockerl. Eating one in a restaurant overlooking the old town, the fortress above you and the soufflé rising between you and whoever you're with, is a meal that's as much about theatre as it is about taste. Worth the flight for the photograph alone.