During the first half of the nineteenth century, Alexis Soyer (1809-1858), a Frenchman, was the most famous cook--and one of the most famous men--in London. A combination of chance, talent and energetic social conscience took him into many of the great events of his times, and Brandon uses each phase of his meteoric career to explore a different aspect of nineteenth-century life, including the destruction of the English peasantry, the growth of London's private clubs, the Irish famine, the Great Exhibition and Britain's disastrous involvement in the Crimea. Soyer rose from obscure origins to early fame in his 20s, as private chef to England's nobility and then as chef de cuisine at London's new Reform Club. A combination of chef, inventor and cookbook author, Soyer designed a kitchen so innovative at the club that it became a tourist attraction, filled with his clever inventions: the first to use gas for stove-top cookery (preventing the carbon monoxide poisoning by charcoal cooking that had killed previous chefs such as Carê me), to the drainer and the multi-egg poacher. He went on to open London's first real restaurant in conjunction with the Great Exhibition in 1851. A dashing figure (wearing clothes in flamboyant colors, cut on the bias, or in his parlance, a la zoug-zoug), who never remarried after the tragic death of his first wife and child during childbirth, Soyer was linked to some of the most famous and beautiful actresses and dancers of the day. For all his flamboyance, Soyer was practical and large-hearted, writing cookbooks for the poor (despite being virtually illiterate) and designing a model soup-kitchen which he took to Ireland during the potato famine. In 1855he went to the Crimea to take over the running of the kitchens in Florence Nightingale's hospital at Scutari, having first designed a new army cook-stove, a design that remained in use until very recently. When he died in 1858, he was helping Florence Nightingale reform British army catering. The People's Chef is arranged as a dinner party, the different courses (all cooked by the author) taken from Soyer's various recipe books. Each course is correct for its place in the dinner, but is also chosen for its relevance to the subjects discussed in the chapter in question. What were the differences between French and English food at this time, and what caused them? Why did the French favor restaurants, while the English preferred clubs? What did the very poor eat, and why did the Irish starve rather than eat the fish that teemed all around them? What was the position of a chef in society--was he an artist, which was how Soyer saw himself, or just a servant? Why did Soyer so energetically take up the cause of the poor? Soyer's influence remains today, with three of his bestselling books still in print: Soyer's Shilling Cookery for the People, A Culinary Campaign, and Food, Cookery, and Dining in Ancient Times: Alexis Soyer's Pantropheon. The People's Chef is the only biography in print of this remarkable man who was determined to revolutionize the culinary world and who remains one of the greatest cooks of the nineteenth century.

"Brandon follows the extraordinary career of the first celebrity chef in England, providing an illuminating glimpse into 19th-century living; revealing the differences between French galit, fraternit and libert and English class-consciousness; and showing how Soyer maneuvered his way through the latter with the attitude of the former. The author of Singer and the Sewing Machine structures her book as a menu, beginning each chapter with her own often humorous attempt to realize one of Soyer's elaborate, archaic recipes. Born to a rural French working-class family in 1809 or 1810, Soyer went to Paris at age 11 to learn the chef's trade and soon emigrated to England. He lived his short life (he died at 48) to the fullest, building a reputation for theatricality and culinary genius writing cookbooks for the wealthy and the poor alike, designing soup kitchens for the Irish during the potato famine, creating the first restaurant 'theme park' and traveling to Constantinople during the Crimean War to help the disheveled British Army pull itself together through better cooking and Soyer-designed camp stoves (which were so successful their design was still being used 140 years later in the first Gulf War). Drawing on a biography written by Soyer's secretaries and Soyer's own writings, Brandon engagingly depicts the flamboyant, self-made Soyer as a daring entrepreneur, brilliant inventor and compassionate philanthropist. Illus. Agent, Clare Alexander. (Apr.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A combination of chance, talent, and energetic social conscience took famous cook Alexis Soyer into many of the great events of his times, and Brandon uses each phase of his meteoric career to explore a different aspect of 19th-century life.