Portrait of a Chef The Life of Alexis Soyer, Sometime Chef to the Reform Club [Paperback]

A 1938 biography of the flamboyant Alexis Soyer (181058), arguably the greatest chef of the nineteenth century.Alexis Soyer (181058) was perhaps the first celebrity chef. A flamboyant, larger-than-life figure, he nonetheless took his profession very seriously. This biography, first published in 1938, is based on Volant and Warren's anecdotal account of 1859 (also reissued in this series), and faithfully conveys the adulation he engendered in his lifetime.Alexis Soyer (181058) was perhaps the first celebrity chef. A flamboyant, larger-than-life figure, he nonetheless took his profession very seriously. This biography, first published in 1938, is based on Volant and Warren's anecdotal account of 1859 (also reissued in this series), and faithfully conveys the adulation he engendered in his lifetime.Perhaps the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer (181058) was a flamboyant, larger-than-life character who nonetheless took his profession very seriously. As the chef of the Reform Club, he modernised its kitchens, installing refrigerators and gas cookers. In 1851, during the Great Exhibition, he prepared spectacular (but financially ruinous) culinary extravaganzas at his restaurant, the Gastronomic Symposium of All Nations. In stark contrast, he organised soup kitchens during the Great Famine in Ireland and volunteered his services in the Crimea in 1855 to improve military catering. He was also a prolific inventor of kitchen gadgets, notably promoting the Magic Stove, used for cooking food at the table. First published in 1938, this biography by Helen Soutar Morris (190995) is based on Fran?ois Volant and James Warren's anecdotal account of 1859 (also reissued in this series), and it faithfully conveys the adulation that Soyer engendered in his lifetime.Prologue; 1. Early life; 2. Emma Jones; 3. Chef de cuisine to the Reform Club; 4. The Gastronomic Regenerator; 5. Inventions; 6. Banquets; 7. Soup-kitchens: Ireland and Spitalfields; 8. The Modern Housewife; 9. Resignatiol#/