Recipes from Disaster - Conclusion - Page: 5

Although Alexis had only been away from the Crimea for a couple of months, a rash of deaths and replacements in senior positions meant that he would have to develop key contacts from scratch again. Commissary-General Filder had been replaced by Sir George Maclean, who greeted him warmly. The meeting went well; Soyer had put into motion with Filder a scheme to replace the local supplier of dried vegetables, as only one variety was provided and it was much over-dried, killing the taste and nutrition. He had proposed the appointment of a new supplier, Messers Chollet of Paris, charged with the provision of 'cakes' of mixed vegetables containing carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions, cabbage, celery and leeks, with aromatic seasoning. Cakes would be sized for 100 men for 3 days, marked in compartments of ten one day rations per man. Since dry rations were issued for 3 days, this would prevent the soldiers eating their complete three-day vegetable ration in one meal as Soyer had previously observed. Sir George informed him that the new vegetable rations were already arriving and had been distributed to some of the troops, with a very positive reaction.

At British Headquarters, where General Simpson had taken over command following the death of Lord Raglan, Soyer was relieved to find Lieut Colonel Steele still Military Secretary; as amenable as ever, Steele arranged a meeting between Alexis and the new Commander-in-Chief soon after his arrival.

Alexis was seeking approval to put on a trial demonstration of his new cooker for an assembly of senior allied officers. Simpson quickly showed a genuine keen interest. A Guardsman by pedigree,he suggested the Guards' camp in First Division area as an ideal location to stage the show. Always one to press forward a fresh initiative in a positive atmosphere, Alexis produced his new bread biscuits which he had tried out successfully in Scutari on the Duke of Newcastle. The atmosphere became rather less positive; but a doubful Simpson, who suffered from bad teeth, was eventually coaxed into a test bite, and was surprised to find the Soyer product much softer than he expected, and more tasty than the issue biscuit. What is more, they keep soft for upwards of three months, added salesman Soyer.

Lieut Colonel Francis Seymour, commanding the Scots Fusilier Guards, was appointed military coordinator of the Stove Trial Event. Quick to enter into the spirit of this unusual and interesting assignment, he shrewdly arranged the trial for the 27th August, the same day that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was to present Orders of the Bath to allied recipients of the honour. That way the captive top brass could be moved seamlessly from the presentation in the morning to the stoves in the afternoon. Seymour and Soyer decided to make it a festive occasion, the theme being a running buffet made from army rations prepared on the stoves. The Band of the Coldstream Guards was booked, fresh meat, ox-heads and ox-feet were ordered, carpenters organised to knock up tables and benches. Refreshments and wines for the VIPs were ordered from Messers Crockford at Donnybrook. Two marquees and four tents were pitched and decorated with flags and bunting. The whole was enclosed by rope attached to decorated posts, lending the site the appearance of a proper arena.

The great day dawned predictably hot and sunny. A variety of dishes were to be prepared: ox-cheek and ox-feet soups; Scotch mutton broth; boiled salt beef, plain or with dumplings; boiled salt pork, plain or with peas-pudding; stewed salt pork and beef with rice;French pot-au-feu; stewed fresh beef with potatoes; stewed fresh mutton with haricot beans; fresh and salt beef curry.

The guests started arriving from 3pm. Their full dress uniforms worn for the morning ceremony added a feel of importance to the occasion. Soyer's stoves, placed in a semi-circle in the open air, were boiling merrily without any fire or smoke being visible. Alexis was in his element extolling their features and benefits. The stoves on view were of the larger, hospital variety. The duplicate though smaller campaign stoves were on order - two of these would cook for a company of 120 men and could be carried on one mule with enough wood packed inside the stove for two days' cooking. They were simple to operate, easy to clean, and most important, represented an enormous economy in fuel (eight ninths, as calculated by the Coldstream Guards!) over the current fragmented cooking practice. To further the message, a soldier cook was discreetly displayed in one corner, preparing rations under the existing method using a camp kettle over an open fire.

The several hundred British French and Sardinian officers present seem to have been greatly impressed. Captain Fred Dallas of the 46th Foot had some practical reservations: 'He certainly made very nice ragouts and soups....but I fear it will be a very long time before we can do it for ourselves. His dishes had the additional advantage of being washed down with iced champagne.'

Final comment on the event to Lieut General Henry Barnard, remarking to Marshal Pelissier: "....this day has been remarkably well spent; we devoted the morning to the Cordon Rouge, and the afternoon to the Cordon Bleu."

Hard to link this festive social occasion with the wholesale carnage of the final assaults on the Malakoff and Redan were to take place less than two weeks later. In the aftermath devoted to dealing with the heavy casualties, Alexis busied himself with supporting the cooks and doing odd jobs in the overworked hospitals. He himself succumbed to tiredness which swiftly degenerated into Crimean fever. Forced to return to Scutari, he was ill for a further period of three months, the fever protracted by his stubborn habit of trying to return to a normal life before he was cured. By the time he had recovered and was able to return to the Crimea, hostilities were over.

He landed at Balaklava at the end of March 1856, a week or so after Florence Nightingale. She had criticised him privately in a letter to Aunt May, concurring with what she had heard - that he was called a 'humbug' who never finished anything that he started. The letter had been written on her last trip the previous October shortly after her arrival and in deep depression at finding obstruction and lack of progress at the hospitals. She had asked Alexis to provide additional extra diet kitchens, but he had been prevented from doing so by his illness. Doubtless this was the reason that he was included in the general condemnation. Whether she had said anything to him subsequently or not, his first priority on return was to sort out the extra diet kitchens, and their friendship and cooperation was quickly restored.

With the news that the war was officially over arriving on 2nd April, Alexis decided his remaining time would best be employed in training soldier cooks to use his stoves - sufficient numbers were now available in the right size. He had to make his mark with yet another Commander-in-Chief - Lord Codrington, who agreed the project, on the understanding that no more stoves should be shipped from England, but the existing stock should be distributed on the basis of a minimum of one per regiment.

Perhaps sharing Fred Dallas' doubts about the ability of the soldiers to cook properly, Alexis decided to give selected men, company by company,individual tuition in all aspects of preparation of his simple recipes. In terms of sheer volume, a monumental task and to be carried out with some urgency, because the embarkation plan would shortly be set in motion, and he wanted the detail of his system to be propagated in all regimental depots at home and overseas.

Had Dallas confided his doubts to Alexis? Quite possibly, because Alexis' accomodation base was on Cathcart Hill, and he was dependant on 4th Division; Dallas was ADC to the Divisional Commander, Major General Robert Garrett (both of the 46th Foot). Bon Viveur Fred, initially sceptical towards the somewhat 'over-the-top' personal presentation of the Frenchman, quickly warmed to him on closer acquaintance. On 16th April he wrote 'Alexis Soyer is living with our Division and is great fun. He dined with us last night. He is a most pleasant amusing man, and great friends with my Chief, with the power of whose stomach he is greatly struck. He has known and met such a variety of people, and tells his anecdotes so well, that he is capital company.' By 29th May, their relationship had warmed to the terms of 'We had a wonderful Soireé a few nights ago at old Soyer's....As you may imagine, Soyer is a most popular man and gets on with everybody.' Russell of The Times was present, as Fred related,'a most amusing vulgar Irishman...and sang some very good Irish songs.'

Russell's attitude to Alexis was two-faced. Hail-fellow-well-met' and eager to praise, and partake of, his culinary skills in public, he was equally quick to make snide comments about him, behind his back,to his editor Delaine: 'Soyer is here eating whatever he can get and obstinately deaf to all hints that he ought to come in time to cook the dinner'. Later, he tucked away in a routine report to the 'Times', a comment to the effect that that it was a pity that the famous Soyer stove could neither bake nor roast. This was made known to Soyer, who replied in a letter published in the 'Times' that an accessory was available, already sent with the stoves to Aldershot, for baking and roasting. The priorities in the Crimea, he explained, had been to pass on the basics of boiling and stewing, and it was unrealistic to try to teach more in a short course to inexperienced soldier cooks. There was no doubt a combattive element in their relationship; Alexis maintained a habit of writing long letters to the Times describing events and background from a personal viewpoint, and which Delaine was happy to publish uncut.

In June both Soyer and Russell were part of a small tourist group visiting Odessa, a trip facilitated by the Russian General Luders. On return they found that Cathcart Hill had been evacuated by 4th Division Headquarters, as vacated premises in Balaklava were now available. General Garrett had also thoughtfully provided accommodation for Soyer's group in the General Hospital area, away from the ravages of the Tartar pillagers who now held sway in the vacated camps. Russell's 'iron castle.. (of) farmhouse, stables, garden and dependencies' was less lucky and he wrote to Soyer 'What do you think? I am now a houseless, homeless wanderer: they have pulled down my house..so I must hang out on Cathcart's Hill, in the old cave where Sir John Campbell lived long ago.' Soyer's reply is not on record, but dare I suspect that if there had been one, it would have been on the lines of 'Tough.'?

Alexis was hanging on in the Crimea to ensure that his precious stoves, which attracted covetous glances from military and locals alike, were all shipped back through official channels to England. There were VIP dinners to give and to enjoy cooking for, but his priority was to make sure that his cooking principles would not die with the ending of the War but would gain sufficient influential support to become the norm throughout the British Army, and hopefully the French as well. His final demonstration to Codrington and the remaining generals had two newly trained soldier cooks from 56th Foot cooking an appetising meal from rations on Soyer stoves for the entire Regiment. As at all Soyer demonstrations, everyone was suitably impressed.

Alexis finally embarked from the Crimea just ahead of the last boatload, but he left his ship at Constantinople, to take time out to visit the region and to write his reminiscences of the campaign. During this 'gap' year he visited much of Asia Minor, Greece and Malta, and spent the final three months in Paris, where he successfully marketed both his stove to the Emperor Napoleon III, and himself to his long time ballerina love Fanny Cerrito, whom he married.

Arriving back in England, doubtless with a feeling of self-fulfillment and satisfaction at his achievements both in public and private life, Alexis could have had little idea that he would have a mere fifteen months more to live. But sadly this was to be the case. His Crimea fever soon returned in the damp climate, and he attempted to throw it off by drinking heavily, with sometimes embarrassing results. He still pressed ahead with his Army culinary reforms; he gave a lecture on the subject to a packed house at the United Services Institute, and promoted his 'cooking carriage' to get hot food to soldiers in the trenches at night. His final act was to install new kitchens at the Guards Depot at Wellington Barracks, incorporating the latest gas ovens. Sadly a week after the inauguration ceremony, he was taken ill again and never recovered, dying on 5th August 1858 at the age of 48.

The achievements of Alexis Soyer in the development of British Army catering were hugely significant. Perhaps his most important success, and also his first priority, was that he converted senior military thinking to the belief that the British soldier would stay far healthier and fight better if he was well fed. Soyer understood the character of the average squaddie enough to know that to guarantee this, his rations needed both to be palatable and to be prepared for him. The methods required to achieve this - the establishment and training of specialist cooks, and the provision of practical, efficient, and soldier-proof cooking equipment - followed on from there. To that extent he is arguably the founder of modern military catering; the fact that an Army Catering Corps was not founded as such until 1941 is unimportant in this context - ACC personnel were always attached to the units of Arms and other Services, and fully integrated into the activities of these units, as Soyer's cooks were.

How did he achieve this, in the ultra conservative strongly change-resistant military climate of the time? Certainly not be sheer force of personality alone, although this definitely helped. But additionally Alexis had credibility. He had an inventive mind, and he kept coming up with ingenious yet simple devices which did what he said they would do - the Soyer stove remained the staple equipment for battalion cooking throughout both World Wars and beyond until well into the 1980s. He had an established prior reputation for effective emergency cooking, acquired through the successful operation of his Dublin soup kitchen. Perhaps most importantly, he was an expert at networking - the fact that he had previously established amicable relationships with many people in key positions in the war zone was an enormous advantage to him over other campaigning innovaters like Florence Nightingale or James Beatty. Finally he was a stickler for detail, and the time he took in England before embarking on his mission to prepare himself for potential pitfalls,and to think through and obtain the references and recommendations that he would need in order to unlock important doors, paid enormous dividends when he arrived on the ground.

It was sad, and unexplained, that for one who knew so many people, his funeral passed largely unheralded and unattended. Perhaps, in the way of 'friends' acquired through networking, the interest is no longer there when that 'friend' ceases to be potentially useful. But public indifference to his passing and memory cannot lessen the stature and importance of his spectacular passage across the bloody stage of the Crimean War.

Sources:

Alexis Soyer (1857) A Culinary Campaign Southover Press (1995 Reprint)

F Clement-Lorford (2001) Alexis Soyer - The First Celebrity Chef
Mail Order only, from http://www.soyer.co.uk

Cecil Woodham-Smith (1950) Florence Nightingale Constable & Co

Florence Nightingale - ed. Sue Goldie (1997) Letters from the Crimea Manchester University Press

ed. Michael Hargreave Mawson (2001) Eyewitness in the Crimea Greenhill Books London

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