A SOUFFLÉ CHEF OF SUBSTANCE

 

See Also: CHEFS; CLUBLAND The Reform Club; DEVELOPMENTS Kensington Palace Gardens; GUNS The Maxim Machine Gun; FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE; THE ROYAL INSTITUTION; MENU

    Alexis Soyer was a Frenchman who was born into humble circumstances.  He trained as a chef and then moved to Britain.  In 1839 he was appointed to be the chef de cuisine at The Reform Club.  With the architect Charles Barry, he designed its basement kitchens.  He created Lamb Cutlets Reform; the dish was still on the institution’s daily menu 160 years later.  Soyer became a celebrity in mid-19^thC London.  He had a searching mind and was to become the father of mass catering.  During the Irish Famine he established soup kitchens to help feed the starving.  In 1850 he resigned from his position at the Club.

    The Great Exhibition of 1851 was due to be held in Hyde Park.  In order to sell food and drink to people who were visiting the event, Soyer took over Gore House in Kensington.  There, he created his Universal Symposium To All Nations.  However, it was located to the west of the exhibition site and thus away from London.  Therefore, its footfall fell far short of his projections.  He was left with a deficit of £7000 on the project.  He cleared this by writing the book Shilling Cooker, which proved to be a best-seller, and by devising some new gadgets.

    During the Crimean War of 1854-6, Soyer read an account of how the soldiers were suffering.  He petitioned the War Office for permission to be allowed to visit the theatre to see if he could do anything to improve conditions there.  Authorisation was granted and he travelled to The Crimea.  The Army had no system for training its cooks, such matters being left to the individual regiments, each of which was a law onto itself.  Following his arrival, Soyer addressed the wastage, inefficiency and ineptitude that he found to be prevalent.  His changes were seen to be effective.  To enable troops to be fed in the field, the chef designed a stove that could ensure that 250 men could be served cooked food.  The appliance could run on any fuel that was available and was light enough to be transported upon a single pack animal.¹

    Soyer died in 1858.  His fame evaporated soon afterwards.

    Location: The Reform Club, 104 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5EW (orange, brown)

    The Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP.  (The Hall occupies the site of Gore House Park.) (red, brown)

    Website: www.reformclub.com

¹. The British Army lost most of its remaining Soyer stoves in 1982 when the British Merchant Navy ship Atlantic Conveyor was sunk during the Falklands Conflict.

© David Backhouse 2024