Alexis Soyer

Published: Aug. 16, 2024, 4 a.m.

In this episode, Greg Jenner is joined in the nineteenth century by Dr Annie Gray and comedian Ed Gamble to learn all about French celebrity chef Alexis Soyer. Despite being well-known during his lifetime, Soyer is virtually unknown today. His primary legacy was a portable stove, used by the British army until the Falklands War. But Soyer was a prototypical celebrity chef: he opened the Reform Club kitchen to the public so that they could watch him cook, wrote popular cookbooks, sold kitchen gadgets and branded sauces, and even took part in high-profile charity campaigns. From his birth in France to the success he found in London, via a soup kitchen in Dublin and a hospital during the Crimean War, this episode explores Alexis Soyer\u2019s extraordinary life and culinary innovations.\n \nHosted by: Greg Jenner\nResearch by: Hannah Campbell Hewson\nWritten by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner\nProduced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner\nAudio Producer: Steve Hankey\nProduction Coordinator: Ben Hollands\nSenior Producer: Emma Nagouse\nExecutive Editor: James Cook