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 & New York: G.Routledge, 1857. 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). 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). elala5665