Alexis Soyer (1810 – 1858) used to be a French chef who grew to become the main celebrated cook dinner in Victorian England. He additionally attempted to relieve affliction of the Irish bad within the nice Irish Famine and increase the nutrition supplied to British squaddies within the Crimean War.
Soyer used to be born at Meaux-en-Brie in France. through the Trois Glorieuses revolution in 1830, Soyer fled to England and joined the London family of Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge, the place his brother Philippe used to be head chef. In 1837 Soyer turned chef de delicacies on the Reform membership in London. He designed the kitchens with Charles Barry on the newly outfitted membership, the place his wage used to be to be greater than 1,000 kilos a yr. He instituted many inventions, together with cooking with gasoline, fridges cooled by means of chilly water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures. His kitchens have been so recognized that they have been opened for performed tours.
During the good Irish Famine in April 1847, he invented a soup kitchen and was once requested by means of the govt to visit eire to enforce his suggestion. This was once opened in Dublin and his "famine soup" used to be served to millions of the terrible at no cost. whereas in eire he wrote "Soyer's Charitable Cookery." He gave the proceeds of the booklet to numerous charities.
Soyer wrote a few books approximately cooking. His "Gastronomic Regenerator" (1846) principally awarded recipes for the "Table of the Wealthy," notwithstanding an addendum integrated a considerable share of those recipes for his personal "Table at Home." Soyer may proceed to popularize his wisdom of cooking with the book of "Modern Housewife" (1849) for ladies of the aspiring center type, and "A Shilling Cookery for the folks" (1854), for traditional those that couldn't come up with the money for intricate kitchen utensils or quite a lot of unique ingredients.
During the Crimean struggle, Soyer joined the troops at his personal cost to suggest the military on cooking. Later he used to be paid his costs and wages
equivalent to these of a Brigadier-General. He reorganized the provisioning of the military hospitals. He designed his personal box range, the Soyer range, and proficient and put in in each regiment the "Regimental cook dinner" in order that squaddies may get an enough meal and never be afflicted by malnutrition or die of nutrients poisoning. He wrote "A Culinary crusade" as a checklist of his actions within the Crimea.
Alexis Soyer died on fifth August 1858 and used to be buried in Kensal eco-friendly Cemetery.