Alexis Soyer's Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations

Industrial Exhibition of All Nations. This huge exhibition, the first in a series of international expositions and fairs, brought together a somewhat disjointed collection of industrial innovations, raw materials, and arts and crafts from all over the world. Large numbers of visitors of all classes from Britain and abroad were expected to attend. Novelist and future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli wrote to his friend Lady Londonderry, “You may rely upon it, as a fact.that the ministers are really alarmed about the concourse of foreigners to the Exhibition, & that the Socialists have been making, & are making, extensive arrangements for our regeneration, apropos of that gathering. The affair has been the subject of cabinet councils. ”1 The press was less concerned about potential socialist unrest than about where and how all these visitors would be fed, a genuine concern since London had a paucity of respectable and high-quality public dining establishments. But visionary chef Alexis Soyer believed he had a solution: he would create an enormous dining establishment, Soyer’s Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations. London lagged behind Paris in terms of public dining. Rebecca Spang has argued that by the mid-nineteenth century, French restaurants provided important public spaces that allowed Parisians to explore and display “new possibilities for, and anxieties about, social interaction. ”2 Parisian restaurants shared a fairly standard type of decoration, including mirrored walls that both allowed for the easy observation of other patrons and provided sparkling patterns of light. The restaurant distinguished itself from other dining establishments with a standard menu, service at any time, and the presence of female visitors.3 Taken together, these properties created an ideal forum for the evolution of modern culture toward social interaction centering on consumption and pleasure. By contrast, respectable families in London tended to eat at home; if no domestic table was available, gentlemen dined at their clubs. Less respectable men might partake of a simple meal at a chophouse or public house, or have toast and bacon at a coffeehouse. Street vendors supplied inexpensive precooked meals for the working classes—baked potato carts, fruit sellers, and pie and cake vendors were legion on London’s streets. Taverns prepared entrees of varying quality for those who wished to dine in their lodgings. Apart from the most elegant men’s clubs, the overall quality of meals available to the public was low. Even establishments that served decent food were often dirty and uncomfortable.4 Into this void stepped Alexis Soyer, a French immigrant who became one of nineteenth-century Britain’s best-known chefs. A visionary in the world of food, Soyer had a passion for social justice in addition to his taste for fine dining. Upon his arrival in London in 1831, he immediately went to work to elevate English cuisine. Like most excellent chefs of the time, he cooked for the aristocracy, first for the Duke of Cambridge and later for the Marquis of Alisa. He then became the first chef of the Reform, a leading political and social club, which rapidly took its place as one of the finest places to dine in London. But Soyer was not content to feed only wealthy and powerful men. His invention of a mobile soup kitchen made him a popular hero in Ireland during the famine. Closer to home, he raised money for soup kitchens to relieve the Spitalfields silk weavers, who were starving as a result of lower tariffs on French imports. He also authored popular household management books and wrote letters to the Times advising middleand working-class cooks. His Modern Housewife (1848) was framed as a series of letters between two middleclass wives who provided each other with menus, recipes, and advice.5 Recipes and advice for working-class wives could be found in his Shilling Cookery for the People (1854). Soyer also lent his name to several early mass-market foods. Soyer’s Sauces could be purchased in bottles, and a sparkling beverage known as Soyer’s Nectar was widely advertised. After Soyer left the Reform Club in 1850, he was still called upon to cook for visiting dignitaries from around the world. He upheld his reputation as a premier chef by creating massive public banquets that featured both elaborate Alexis Soyer’s Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations