Description

[004346] Volant, F. And Warren, J. R. (Eds) Memoirs of Alexis Soyer; with Unpublished Receipts and Odds and Ends of Gastronomy. London: W. Kent & Co., 1859. First Edition. 12mo. Hardback. Good. [7], viii-xvi, [1], 2-303pp, [1]. Contemporary half calf and marbled paper over boards, smooth back, divided into five panels by gilt single rule

Chipped to head of spine with loss of leather and head band, worn to extremities, paper covering boards rubbed. Light foxing to endpapers, text lightly browned, former owner’s name to head of title, but generally clean

Alexis Benoît Soyer (1810-1858), chef, “in 1837 he was appointed chef to the newly created Reform Club in Pall Mall. At the Reform Club Soyer installed modern kitchens: he was one of the first to use gas for cooking, and his culinary domain became a showplace, and the venue for a number of magnificent displays of his art … Soyer was approached by the government in 1847 and asked to go to Ireland to install soup kitchens, in order to help alleviate the famine. This kind of work suited him well, and he set up a kitchen at the Royal Barracks in Dublin capable of feeding a thousand people an hour; the soup was cheap and tasty even if it did not constitute a balanced diet. On his return to London he published Soyer’s Charitable Cookery, or, The Poor Man’s Regenerator (1848), sold for 6d., 1d. being returned to the poor fund. He also continued his soup kitchens by providing for the Huguenot silk weavers of Spitalfields, who were then being affected by a treaty with France that allowed cheap imported silk into this country” (ODNB)