The History of the Souflee

Here is what The Penguin Companion to food has to say about the Soufflé

Souflee is a French word for “puffed up”

The Souflee was an invention of the French in the late 18 th century, possibly around 1782.
Antoine Beuvilliers, was making them as early as 1782 but his first published book with them is 1814.

http://www.foodreference.com/html/wantoinebeauvilliers.html

However …for centuries eggs have been around and souflee like dishes were made by all cultures.
The use of beating the eggs as in a meringue, does not seem to be a practice until the late 16 th century.

It seems they used a whisk fashioned from birch twigs to whisk the eggs. Ohh well that is the subject of another discussion.

The term Crème Anglaise is a French term …Anglaise meaning England of course. This would denote that it was first done in England before it went to France .

I don't have any knowledge of the first person to invent it. However the term custard is probably from the old English word crustade, or baked in a crust.
In the middle ages in England it became popular to make a pie with custard after the bread had been baked and the oven was cooling down. The also had side ovens that made it good for baking custards, or a device like a chafing dish which had coals under it.