His Place in History

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 134, 16 January 1942, Page 2

His Place in History

QNE of the greatest names in the history of nineteenth century eating was that of Alexis Soyer, an eminent Victorian, never mentioned in history books, or immortalised in examination papers. Even soldiers do not know his name, though he did more for the army than dozens of generals. Alexis Soyer

reformed the food of the British Army some ninety years ago, after pioneering work with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea -and hewasalso a famous French chef, at a well-known men’s club, who helped to popularise the French style of cooking in nineteenth century London. At that time outside the world of fashionable London, with its banquets

and its balls, hundreds and thousands of men and women were barely getting enough to eat. Soyer resigned his position at the Reform Club, because, said he, " through the stone walls of that edifice I could not gain the slightest knowledge of cottage life." The terrible Irish potato famine gave him an opportunity to put his philanthropic ideas into practice, and just when peasants were dying by hundreds, he went over to Ireland, and personally superintended schemes to alleviate some of the distress and want. He had public soup kitchens built. The whole plan of feeding thousands of people with an absolute minimum of delay was the product of his brain, and the experience was to stand him in good stead when he went to the Crimea, -(" A Man in the Kitchen: The Career of a Famous Chef." Prepared by Dorothy ,Neal. 2YA, Decermber 31.)