Alexis Soyer

Alexis Soyer

Alexis Soyer, the celebrated chef, volunteered his services at the Crimea after seeing a soldiers letter in The Times asking how best to cook Army rations.

He was born in Meaux-en-Brie on 4th February 1810 and by the age of seventeen, had become a famous chef in France. He came to England and in 1838 was offered the chance to set up a huge kitchen at the new Reform Club in London. The kitchen tested new technology like gas-powered, temperature-controlled ovens and steam-powered dumb waiters.

He published cookery books and devised kitchen gadgets. In 1849 he began to market his 'magic stove', a small spirit-fuelled stove that could cook a full meal but could be stored in your pocket.

On 2 February 1855, he wrote to The Times offering to go to the Crimea at his own expense to advise on cooking for the army. He worked in close liaison with Florence to correct the diets in the hospitals and travelled with her to Balaclava in May 1855. He reorganised hospital kitchens, invented new dishes from standard rations and organised that each regiment had a trained chef who would collect rations and prepare food for the men. He designed more efficient cooking utensils, including the “Scutari teapot” and the “Soyer Field Stove” which the British Army was still using 120 years later.

Like Florence, Soyer caught “Crimean Fever” but remained in the Crimea until the end of the war. He was ill when he returned home and wrote his final book "Culinary Campaign' in 1857. He died of fever on 5 August 1858 and was buried in Kensal Green cemetery.