Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Soyers Culinary Campaign. Being Historical Reminiscences of the Late War. With the Plain Art of Cookery for Military and Civil Institutions, The Army, Navy, Public, Etc. Etc. By Alexis Soyer, G. Routledge & Co., London, 1857, frontispiece of Soyer, illustrated, seven wood-engraved plates by Henry George Hine, original blue cloth, 7.5 x 5, 12mo. In good condition. Ex-library of Sutro Library San Fransisco, California. Antiquarian plate on pastedown. Clemson Box 312 of San Leandro, California on pastedown and title. Silver foil bookplate of Jan Longone Food and Wine Library Ann Arbor, MI on front pastedown. More information below about the importance of her library. Light wear to extremities with minor scuffing to corners and edges. Minor crushing of corners and end bands with light fraying. Interior good with minor age-toning and age stain. Free of known markings. Binding tight and intact. Rear gutter slightly tender, albeit a sound book. Please see photos. Considered the first celebrity chef Soyer (1810-1858) began his career in France and worked at Versailles Paris in their kitchens. Having returned to Britain for political reasons, he began to cook for the British aristocracy and royal family. He cooked the dinner for Queen Victorias coronation! He was the first to popularize cooking with gas and using refrigerators, something no one had truly fortified in any kitchens at the time. He had an emporium across the street from the Crystal Palace in 1851 where he sold his famous Soyer Sauce. He invented for the first portable stove, what he called his Magic Oven, which is seen in a plate of this book where he is depicted cooking on it at the Acropolis. His kitchens were so famous that they were opened for conducted tours. In 1855 Soyer offered to join the troops engaged in the Crimean War at his own expense to act as an advisor on cooking. Soyer Sauce bottles are highly collectible as they havent been manufactured since the late 19th century. Scarce. Important provenance of Jan Longone (1933-2022). Longone was a renowned American food critic and historian. She was curator of the American Culinary History at Special Collections Hatcher Library at the University of Michigan. Julia Child, James Beard and Craig Claiborne were all early fans of her culinary library. The library remains one of the most important culinary libraries in the world.
Seller: ROBIN RARE BOOKS at the Midtown Scholar, Harrisburg, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$350.00 + shipping
Description: The French Chef who worked with Florence Nightingale SOYER, Alexis. Soyer's Culinary Campaign. Being historical reminiscences of the late war. With the plain art of cookery for military and civil institutions, the army, navy, public, etc. etc. London: G. Routledge & Co., 1857. First edition. Small octavo (7 1/4 x 4 5/8 inches) 184 x 117 mm.). viii, [1]-597, [1, imprint], [2, advertisements] pp. Engraved portrait frontispiece, engraved pictorial title and seven wood engraved plates by Henry George Hine. Nine wood engraved illustrations in the text. Rebound ca, 1960 in full blue cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, yellow coated endpapers. Rear paste-down with the small label of Cooks Books, Rottingdean, Sussex, England who in 1985 published a facsimile edition of Memoirs of Soyer A large number of new recipes. [The Memoirs of Chef Alexis Soyer as compiled and edited by his secretaries]. An excellent example. Soyer's famous work on military cooking in which he outlines numerous advancements in culinary science required in the difficult circumstances of war. Soyer wrote this work having recently returned from the Crimea. Alexis Benoît Soyer (1810-1858) was a French chef, writer and inventor who made his reputation in Victorian England. He designed the kitchens at the Reform Club with British architect Charles Barry, and introduced many innovations including cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures. His kitchens were so famous that they were opened to the public for conducted tours. He became a well-known author of cookery books, aimed variously at the grand kitchens of the aristocracy, at middle-class households, and at the poorest families, whose diet he strove to improve. He took a keen interest in public health, and when the Irish potato famine struck in the 1840s he went to Dublin and set up a soup kitchen that could feed 1,000 people an hour; he published recipes for inexpensive and nutritious food and developed cheaper alternatives to bread. He left the Reform Club in 1850 and tried to establish himself independently, but his venture failed and lost him a great deal of money. During the Crimean War, reports reached London of the appalling privations endured by British soldiers, with disease rife and food inadequate. At the request of the British government Soyer traveled to the Crimea in 1855 and worked with the nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale to improve conditions for the troops. He ensured that in all parts of the army there were nominated cooks, useful recipes, and the means to cook food properly in particular, the portable Soyer stove which he invented and which remained in army use, with modifications, for more than a century. In the Crimea, Soyer became seriously ill; he never fully recovered his health. A little over a year after his return to London in 1857, he died of a stroke. Bitting, p. 444; Cagle 1008.
Seller: David Brass Rare Books, Inc., Calabasas, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$555.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo. pp. viii, 597, [3]. steel-engraved frontis. portrait, wood-engraved title & 7 wood-engraved plates by Henry George Hine. several text illus. original blind & gilt-stamped cloth (spine ends chipped, joints frayed, inner hinges cracked, lacking front free-endpaper). First Edition of this interesting work by the most celebrated chef in Victorian England, who reigned over the kitchens at the Reform Club from 1837 to 1850. Soyer designed the kitchens there with British architect Charles Barry, and introduced many innovations including cooking with gas, refrigerators cooled by cold water, and ovens with adjustable temperatures. His kitchens were so famous that they were opened for conducted tours. In 1855 Soyer offered to join the troops engaged in the Crimean War at his own expense to act as an advisor on cooking. "Later he was paid his expenses and wages equivalent to those of a Brigadier-General. He reorganized the provisioning of the army hospitals. He designed his own field stove, the Soyer Stove, and trained and installed in every regiment the "Regimental cook" so that soldiers would get an adequate meal and not suffer from malnutrition or die of food poisoning. He wrote [the present work] as a record of his activities in the Crimea. Catering standards within the British Army would remain inconsistent, however, and there would not be a single Army Catering Corps until 1945. This is now part of the Royal Logistic Corps, whose catering HQ is called Soyer's House. His stove, or adaptions of it, remained in British military service as late as Gulf War One." (Wikipedia)
Seller: D & E LAKE LTD. (ABAC/ILAB), Toronto, ON, Canada