Memoirs of Alexis Soyer

Perhaps the first celebrity chef Alexis Soyer (181058) was a flamboyant larger-than-life character who nonetheless took his profession very seriously. As the chef of the Reform Club he modernised its kitchens installing refrigerators and gas cookers. In 1851 during the Great Exhibition he prepared spectacular (but financially ruinous) culinary extravaganzas at his restaurant the Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations. In stark contrast he organised soup kitchens during the Great Famine in Ireland and volunteered his services in the Crimea in 1855 to improve military catering. He was also a prolific inventor of kitchen gadgets notably promoting the Magic Stove used for cooking food at the table. Several of his highly popular cookery books have been reissued in this series. Following his death his secretaries Franois Volant and James Warren published this anecdotal and admiring biography in 1859 together with recipes and other cookery writings.