Alexis Benoist Soyer (4 February 1810 – 5 August 1858)

Now it does not matter what you want to say about the chef of to day probably will not archive what this man archived in his lifetime. But having said that if he lived today he would have lived a lot longer than he actually did , just think what he could have achieved .

The strange thing is that I did not get to here about him until I saw a television detective show called “Pie In The Sky”. It was a show about a detective who wanted to retire but could not and he wanted to open a restaurant . Who you would thing retirement would be a relaxing thing and work full time in a restaurant kitchen I do not know but that is the wonder of T.V.  However, he had a hero chef who he quoted in the first couple of episodes, Alexis Soyer.  In some of the cuff monologue, his career was delivered and then never referred to again.  So out of curiosity I started to see if I could find out more.

Alexis Benoist Soyer was born in france in a place called  Meaux-en-Brie . His father was amongst other things a grocer so he must have been around food from an early age.  In 1821 he was expelled from school, What for I am not sure but it was all good because he went to live with his elder brother in Paris.

While in Paris he became a apprentice at the Grignon restaurant in Paris. Later, in 1826 he moved to Boulevard des Italiens restaurant, where he became a chief cook. Now think about that he was born in 1810 so in 1826 he was 16 years old , just a boy and most chefs no would be just going to collage , I know that I was just about to leave school and was washing pots and pans in the kitchen of a local hotel at that time in my life. Not bad, well by 1830 he was the second cook to Prince Polignac, who was the French prime minister.  Now in any ones eyes you would look at this as being impressive.

Now France was not as politically stable as it is now, so here we go .  So after the defeat of  Napoleon I and the Allied powers agreed  in 1824, Charles X ascended to the throne he was the younger brother of Louis XVIII .  The only problem with this was He was a king, and you do not have a revolution and go back to a monarchy, not with out the will of the people. So in July1830 the “Les Trois Glorieuses,” or the "Three Glorious Days" of the Revolution.

Now I am not sure but I have read that Alexis was dragged from the kitchen and in fear of his life joined the revolutionaries. If this is true or not I do not know but what did happen is that he made his way over the channel to work with his brother Philippe, working in London for Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge. He then worked for a number of British noble families and in 1837 he became chef de cuisine at the Reform Club in London.

Now you would think that he had done all that you could do but he still had a lot to achieve. By staring to designed the kitchens at the new club with Charles Barry.  He installed such innovations as cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and adjustable temperatures on ovens. The kitchens were so famous and you could even have a conducted tour around them.  His salary was to be more than £1,000 a year, I do not know what actual would be in today’s money but it must be like a footballer or rock star.

Now being at the top of his game, he also took time to do other things as well.  During the Great Irish Famine in April 1847, he invented a soup kitchen. He was asked by the Government of the day to go to Ireland and put this idea into action.  In Dublin  his "famine soup" was served to thousands of the poor for free. Then he wrote Soyer's Charitable Cookery, all the proceeds of the book went to charity. Then he opened an art gallery in London, and donated the entrance fees to feed the poor.

Soyer began to market his "magic stove" this was designed to be a tabletop stove allowing you to cook wherever you were.  It was this that lead to one of his other great know adventures.

During the Crimean War he joined the troops at his own expense to advise the army on cooking. He reorganized the provisioning of the army hospitals, made a bigger "magic stove" to be used as a field stove, and trained every regiment to have “Regimental cook" making sure that soldiers would get adequate meals and try to stamp out malnutrition and food poisoning. His work being recognised as be valuable he was paid equivalent of a Brigadier-General.

After this he wrote “A Culinary Campaign” a record of his activities in the Crimea. This gave the British Army catering standards and would eventually lead to Army Catering Corps . Whose catering HQ is called Soyer's House.  His stove remained in use with the military until the late 20th century.

He wrote 8 books Délassements Culinaires, The Gastronomic Regenerator, Soyer's Charitable Cookery, The Poorman's Regenerator, The Modern Housewife of Menagere, The Pantropheon or A history of food and its preparation in ancient times , 1853, réédition ,A Shilling Cookery Book for the People, Soyer's Culinary Campaign .

This is all what he was bet know foe but did a number of other things as well but on 5 August 1858 he died . At the time he was working on a mobile cooking carriage for the Army. He was buried on 11 August in Kensal Green Cemetery.

At the age of 48 he had done more than most people will do in a life time now and out of any one in the history of catering I thing he has really deserves his place in the hall of fame.