A Culinary Campaign

by Alexis Soyer

Soyer's brilliant memoir, published in 1856 and never since reprinted. A vivid account of the Crimean War and of Soyer's inventions and recipes for feeding armies in the field. He was as important in the Crimea as Florence Nightingale, for his influence on the reform of army feeding enabled wounded soldiers to survive. A modified version of the Soyer stove was still in use in the Gulf War. Introductions by Elizabeth Ray and military historian Michael Barthorp.

356 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Alexis Benoît Soyer was a French chef who became the most celebrated cook in Victorian England. He also tried to alleviate suffering of the Irish poor in the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849), and contributed a penny for the relief of the poor for every copy sold of his pamphlet The Poor Man's Regenerator (1847). He worked to improve the food provided to British soldiers in the Crimean War. A variant of the field stove he invented at that time, known as the "Soyer stove", remained in use with the British army until 1982