page_title: Alexis Soyer
section_title: Innovations
hierarchical_section_title: Alexis Soyer / Innovations
caption_attribution_description: Image of "Soyer's Magic Stove"
context_page_description: Alexis Benoît Soyer was a French chef who became the most celebrated cook in Victorian England. He also tried to alleviate suffering of the Irish poor in the Great Irish Famine, and contributed a penny for the relief of the poor for every copy sold of his pamphlet The Poor Man's Regenerator. He worked to improve the food provided to British soldiers in the Crimean War. A variant of the field stove he invented at that time, known as the "Soyer stove", remained in use with the British army until 1982.
context_section_description: In 1837 Soyer became chef de cuisine at the Reform Club in London. He designed the kitchens with Charles Barry at the newly built Club, where his salary was to be more than £1,000 a year. He instituted many innovations, including cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures.  His kitchens were so famous that they were opened for conducted tours.  When Queen Victoria was crowned on 28 June 1838, he prepared a breakfast for 2,000 people at the Club. Soyer's eponymous Lamb Cutlets Reform are still on the Club menu. Soyer was an able self-promoter. "Soyer's Sultana's Sauce" was marketed for him through Crosse & Blackwell in an exotic bottle with a label featuring Soyer himself, unmistakable in his trademark cocked hat.
  During the Great Irish Famine in April 1847, he invented a soup kitchen and was asked by the Government to go to Ireland to implement his idea. This was opened in Dublin and his "famine soup" was served to thousands of the poor for free. Unfortunately for the starving Irish, this selection by the Government was primarily based on low cost of the ingredients of the soups Soyer proposed, rather than on their nutritional value. While in Ireland he wrote Soyer's Charitable Cookery. He gave the proceeds of the book to various charities.  He also opened an art gallery in London, and donated the entrance fees to charity to feed the poor.
  In 1849 Soyer began to market his "magic stove" which allowed people to cook food wherever they were. It was designed to be a tabletop stove.
  Soyer resigned from the Reform Club in May 1850. Knowing that the Great Exhibition was going to be staged he submitted a design for it, which was not accepted. The Reform Club member Joseph Patton was awarded the job for his Glass House. He had one of his friends, George Warrener, exhibit his Osmazone soup. He was also offered the drink and beverage franchise but turned it down. Instead he opened, in 1851, his Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations in Gore House opposite the gates of the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, a site now occupied by the Royal Albert Hall. Prior to its grand opening on 17 May 1851, on 15 May a banquet was held to which every European newspaper had been invited. Later that year Soyer was forced to close his great venture after losing £7,000.
  Soyer wrote a number of books about cooking, possibly with assistance. His 1854 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, Soyer joined the troops at his own expense to advise the army on cooking. Later he was paid his expenses and wages equivalent to those of a Brigadier-General. He 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 or die of food poisoning. He wrote A Culinary Campaign as a record of his activities in the Crimea.  Catering standards within the British Army would remain inconsistent, however, and there would not be a single Army Catering Corps until 1945. This is now part of the Royal Logistic Corps, whose catering HQ is called Soyer's House. His stove, or adaptions of it, remained in British military service as late as Gulf War One.
  Soyer returned to London on 3 May 1857 and on 18 March 1858, he lectured at the United Service Institution on army cooking. He also built a model kitchen at the Wellington Barracks in London.
caption: Soyer's Magic Stove[18]
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