| Alexis Soyer |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT ALEXIS SOYER | |
| 1810 births | |
| 1858 deaths | |
| anglo-french people | |
| people from marne | |
| french chefs | |
| french people of the crimean war | |
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Alexis Benoist Soyer was born on February 4 1810 at Meaux-en-Brie on the Marne in France . His father had several jobs, one of them a grocer. 1821 he was expelled from school and went to live with his brother in Paris. He became an apprentice at ''G Rignon'' restaurant in Paris . 1826 he moved to restaurant ''Boulevard des Italiens'', where he became a chief cook of the kitchens. By June 1830 Soyer was a second cook to prince Polignac at the French foreign office. During the July Revolution of 1830 Soyer fled to England and the next year joined the London household of the Duke Of Cambridge were his brother worked. Later he worked for various other British notables like Duke Of Sutherland , the Marquis Of Waterford , William Lloyd of Aston Hall and the Marquis of Ailsa at Isleworth. In 1837 Soyer became a chef to the Reform Club in London. He designed the kitchens with Charles Barry at the newly built Reform Club. When Queen Victoria was crowned June 28 1838 , he prepared a breakfast for 2000 people in the Club. His salary was more than £1000 a year. During the Irish Potato Famine in April 1847 Alexis Soyer was asked by the Government to go to Ireland with his newly designed soup-kitchen. This was opened in Dublin and his various famine soup was served to the poor for free. Whilst in Ireland wrote ''Soyer's Charitable Cookery''. He gave the proceeds of the book to various charities. In 1849 Soyer began to market his "magic stove" which allowed people to cook food wherever they were. It was designed to be a portable stove or a stove that can be used in crammed conditions. In May 1850 Soyer resigned from the Reform Club. The next year, during the Great Exhibition , he opened his'Universal Symposium' restaurant opposite Hyde-Park. The Albert Hall stands there now Hiwever he closed it with a £7000 loss. Soyer wrote a number of books about cooking, possibly with assistance. His 1855 book ''A Shilling Cookery for the People'' was a recipe book for ordinary people who could not afford elaborate kitchen utensils or large amounts of exotic ingredients. During the Crimean War in 1855 Soyer joined the troops on his own expense to advise on the army cooking. He and Florence Nightingale reorganized the provisioning of the army hospitals. He designed his own field Stove , the Soyer Stove and trained and installed in every Regiment the "Regimental cook" so that soldiers would get an adequate meal and not suffer from malnutrition nor die of food poisoning. Catering standards within the British Army would remain inconsistent however and would not be turned into a single Army Catering Corps until 1945 his ideas. His stove remained in British military service into the late 20th century. Soyer returned to London in May 3 1857 . On March 18 1858 he lectured at the United Service Institution on army cooking. He also built a model kitchen at the Wellington Barracks in London. Soyer died in August 5 1858 . At the time he was designing a mobile cooking cariage for the army. He was buried on August 11 in Kensal Green Cemetery . BOOKS OF SOYER
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