Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. And today's
Speaker 1: topic came about because of our episode on pies. In
Speaker 1: that episode, we talked about chef Alexei Soyer, who became
Speaker 1: a very well known chef both in France and in England,
Speaker 1: and the many recipes for pies that he included in
Speaker 1: his cookbooks, and how he was always pretty happy to
Speaker 1: embrace new methods for cooking if he thought they would
Speaker 1: benefit his work. He was one of the first chefs
Speaker 1: to be like, y'all pie tins, they're great. There was
Speaker 1: also an incident in his life that I had seen
Speaker 1: mentioned in one of the articles I used while I
Speaker 1: was researching pie that made me certain I wanted to
Speaker 1: learn more about him because it was a wild story,
Speaker 1: hard to verify it, it it sure is told over and over.
Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about it and some of
Speaker 1: the things because his life is very fascinating, sometimes wild,
Speaker 1: often innovative, and we're just going to talk about Alexei
Speaker 1: say today. So Alexei ben was Saya's early life is
Speaker 1: very cloudy. As we talk about it, keep in mind
Speaker 1: that most of what we do know about his youth
Speaker 1: is not from any records or even from Alexei's own recollections.
Speaker 1: It's from several friends who published memoirs of Alexei Soyer
Speaker 1: after his death, was based on notes from his life
Speaker 1: and anecdotes that he had told them. So it's like
Speaker 1: things they heard maybe from him. Yes, maybe His friend
Speaker 1: and secretary friend Sis Voila, assembled most of this, although
Speaker 1: they had a falling out before Souy's death, and today
Speaker 1: historians recognize that this memoir includes a lot of tall tales,
Speaker 1: a lot of inaccuracies. Some of these may have been
Speaker 1: included out of spite by his friends over disagreements that
Speaker 1: had come up among them during Sway's lifetime. I I
Speaker 1: can't fault somebody for, you know, things that happen after
Speaker 1: they die. But maybe don't have your freenemies right your memoir. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't think he intended to, That's what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he um. You know, he had secretaries that he employed
Speaker 1: throughout his life, many of whom had been his friends,
Speaker 1: and so you know he was They were keeping general
Speaker 1: records of stuff but yeah, there's a definite shift that
Speaker 1: happens in the larger part of the twentieth century. Any
Speaker 1: accounts of his life are based on those memoirs, and
Speaker 1: so there's a propagation of some of those falsehoods. And
Speaker 1: then things start to shift when more biographers and historians
Speaker 1: get better access to records and can cross check things.
Speaker 1: But there's still some mysteries. So Alexei's birth certificate lists
Speaker 1: his date of birth as February four, eighteen ten, although
Speaker 1: that biography mentioned above states that it was October of
Speaker 1: the preceding year. There is some theory that he may
Speaker 1: not have known his own birthday, or he had just
Speaker 1: picked a different day. He was born in Mombri and
Speaker 1: his parents were Emery and Madeleine Soire, and the Swis
Speaker 1: were quite poor. They had had a shop earlier in
Speaker 1: their marriage, a little grocery that did okay for a while,
Speaker 1: but it failed before Alexei was born, and Emory at
Speaker 1: that point was earning money as a laborer. Alexei had
Speaker 1: two older brothers, Philippe born in sevent and Louis born
Speaker 1: in eighteen o one. Emery and Madeleine had had two
Speaker 1: other children between Louis and Alexei, but those two babies
Speaker 1: did not survive. According to the memoir, Emery and Madeleine
Speaker 1: had a plan in mind for their youngest son's future,
Speaker 1: and that was a life in the clergy. But he
Speaker 1: was so ill behaved at his school that he got
Speaker 1: kicked out. We do not know if that is true,
Speaker 1: and there's also been speculation that the family may have
Speaker 1: really been Protestant rather than Catholic, or possibly Jewish. That's
Speaker 1: based on the rarity of the family name and the
Speaker 1: fact that it matches only with that of Russian Jews
Speaker 1: that have been identified by historians. The story of the
Speaker 1: misbehaving choir boy being kicked out of the cathedral was
Speaker 1: one that Sway himself told people, so this may have
Speaker 1: been truth, may have been an invention, right. This is
Speaker 1: also a time we've talked about on the show before
Speaker 1: when like France, heavily Catholic, like that was the societal norm,
Speaker 1: so that may have been part of why he kind
Speaker 1: of concocted this story. Alexei's older brother Philip had become
Speaker 1: a cook in in eighty one. Alexei moved to Paris
Speaker 1: to learn that trade from him, something neither brother was
Speaker 1: particularly enthused about Alexei, who was a kid at this time,
Speaker 1: wanted to be an actor, not a cook. Philipp had
Speaker 1: no desire to babysit his roombunctious little brother, but they
Speaker 1: did manage to work through their initial issue us and
Speaker 1: when Alexei became an apprentice at the restaurant where Philippe
Speaker 1: worked in TV near Versailles. Apparently, once Alexei actually got
Speaker 1: into the kitchen and focus a little bit, he was
Speaker 1: really good at cooking. Keep in mind though he was
Speaker 1: still very much a kid. He was only eleven at
Speaker 1: the time that he moved to Paris, if we were
Speaker 1: going by that February eighteen ten birthdate. After a five
Speaker 1: year apprenticeship, Alexei was hired to work in Paris eatery
Speaker 1: was called Dui, and obviously he was still just a
Speaker 1: teenager of sixteen. Soon he was moved up to the
Speaker 1: position of second cook and then was running the kitchen.
Speaker 1: There was a staff of twelve under him. He stayed
Speaker 1: at DWI for three years, fine tuning his abilities. Biographer
Speaker 1: Ruth Brandon makes a point in her book The People's
Speaker 1: Chef that say found in the structure of a restaurant
Speaker 1: a stage where he the chef, could fulfill his dreams
Speaker 1: of performing. It was just on a different stage than
Speaker 1: what he had envisioned as a boy. He does seem
Speaker 1: to have been the perfect match for the still relatively
Speaker 1: new restaurant scene of Paris. The city's first restaurant, Champ
Speaker 1: DUIs Out, had opened in the seventeen sixties, and the
Speaker 1: idea of Paris as the global epicenter of culinary excellence
Speaker 1: had quickly been established. Yeah, he got to, you know,
Speaker 1: perform in front of guests, essentially performed for his staff.
Speaker 1: He sort of loved the whole thing, and while he
Speaker 1: was at duty, Alexey was trusted with more and more duties,
Speaker 1: including making catering deliveries. Because he was, by all accounts,
Speaker 1: very handsome, incredibly charming, and also really outgoing, he would
Speaker 1: often end up becoming part of whatever party the restaurant
Speaker 1: had cooked for as he waited for the dishes to
Speaker 1: be emptied throughout the event so that he could carry
Speaker 1: them back to be washed. One such incident allegedly ended
Speaker 1: with sway A passing out on the way home. He
Speaker 1: had had a lot to drink and waking up without
Speaker 1: the restaurants serving tray and without his pants. This led
Speaker 1: to the young chef being given a nickname in the
Speaker 1: Paris papers, the Enfon Terrible of Montmartre. So it seems
Speaker 1: to have had a really good time throughout the eighteen twenties.
Speaker 1: He was a popular chef that clients loved to party with,
Speaker 1: and he clearly enjoyed that life. There's a poem in
Speaker 1: his memoirs which relays various images of Paris nightlife, and
Speaker 1: that ends with the stanza, which is translated as quote,
Speaker 1: but hark in the city of the morning, belt holes
Speaker 1: and workmen grab coffee and hot buttered rolls. The hammer
Speaker 1: and tongs have their work to pursue, But I hurried
Speaker 1: to bed. There's sleeping to do. When Alexei was twenty,
Speaker 1: he was hired away from Due by the kitchen of
Speaker 1: the Prince de Polignac Jules Armand. Armand was an ultra royalist,
Speaker 1: so his story get ready is pretty rocky. He was
Speaker 1: exiled to England during the French Revolution and he was
Speaker 1: imprisoned for nine years when he returned into France, those
Speaker 1: years of imprisonment being eighteen o four to eighteen thirteen
Speaker 1: for his participation in a plot to assassinate Napoleon. Once
Speaker 1: Napoleon abdicated in eighteen fourteen and Louis the eighteenth was
Speaker 1: restored to the throne, Jules Armand became a peer under
Speaker 1: the re establishment of peerage in the Charter of eighteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: and Jules Armand raised concerns at that time that the
Speaker 1: constitutional oath that came with that peerage was disparaging the
Speaker 1: Catholic Church and the papacy, and as a consequence, it
Speaker 1: was the pope who granted him this title of prince.
Speaker 1: When Louis the eighteenth died in eighteen twenty four, his
Speaker 1: brother Charles the tenth took the throne of France, and
Speaker 1: Charles the tenth loved Jules Armand. He had made an
Speaker 1: ambassador to England for six years, and when the Prince
Speaker 1: returned to Paris in eighteen twenty nine, the king named
Speaker 1: him Prime Minister and as head of the French Foreign Office.
Speaker 1: For Soyer, being hired as assistant to the head chef
Speaker 1: for such an illustrious spigure must have seemed like a
Speaker 1: really lucrative career move. Although it was no secret that
Speaker 1: the Prince NAPOLEONAC was not popular with the people of France.
Speaker 1: You can go ahead and prep you're sad trombone for
Speaker 1: this one, although it is also kind of funny. Alexei
Speaker 1: Sayer had been working for the Prime Minister for a
Speaker 1: month when Jules Armand and Charles the Tenth made some
Speaker 1: sweeping political moves that were incredibly unpopular. If you know
Speaker 1: French history, you know what's coming. Remember, Jules Armand believed
Speaker 1: firmly in the absolute power of the monarchy, and tensions
Speaker 1: had been steadily rising in the French political sphere since
Speaker 1: his appointment. On July thirty, he issued four incredibly repressive
Speaker 1: ordinances designed by himself and Charles the Tenth to stop
Speaker 1: the growth of what the two men felt were radical
Speaker 1: elements in France's elected government. There had been no discussion
Speaker 1: about these ordinances with the Chamber of Deputies. Charles the
Speaker 1: Tenth believed that he had the right to govern via
Speaker 1: ordinances as a means to entirely do away with bipartisan bickering.
Speaker 1: This is again a very quick and dirty version of
Speaker 1: all of the nuances that were going down. He'll sometimes
Speaker 1: see these called the July Ordinances or the four Ordinances
Speaker 1: of Saint clu because Jules Armand wrote them while at
Speaker 1: Saint clu and then freedom of the press was revoked.
Speaker 1: The elected legislature, which was the Chamber of Deputies was dissolved.
Speaker 1: New elections were announced and it's changed the rules of
Speaker 1: how the elections worked. These decrees were exactly as popular
Speaker 1: as he might expect, and starting the very next day,
Speaker 1: there were protests which led to the July Revolution. These
Speaker 1: protests instantly impacted Alexei Soyer. His team in the kitchen
Speaker 1: at the Prince de Polignac's home had been tasked with
Speaker 1: cooking a massive banquet to celebrate Jules Armand and what
Speaker 1: he expected was going to be the new era for France.
Speaker 1: And while Soier and his team were prepared this feast,
Speaker 1: a large group of enraged protesters had assembled outside of
Speaker 1: Polignac's home and eventually they broke into the house, and
Speaker 1: specifically they broke into the kitchen. Two of the kitchen
Speaker 1: employees were shot. We've already mentioned the renowned charm that
Speaker 1: Alexei was said to possess. This served him in this
Speaker 1: tense situation. He started singing La Marcillas. According to Alexei's
Speaker 1: recounting of the event. By the time this was over
Speaker 1: the attackers were carrying him on their shoulders out into
Speaker 1: the streets. Yeah, somehow he won them over, made it
Speaker 1: out alive. His employer did not win over the people.
Speaker 1: Protests and riots continued for several days, and on August two,
Speaker 1: Charles the Tenth abdicated. Jules Armand was arrested, and Louis Philippe,
Speaker 1: the Duc de Chat was installed on the throne as
Speaker 1: Louis Philippe the First Polignac was imprisoned for several years
Speaker 1: before being exiled, and Charles was exiled immediately. Both talk
Speaker 1: about the transition and Swaye's life that this episode catalyzed.
Speaker 1: But first you'll take a quick sponsor break. Although Alexei
Speaker 1: Swaye seemed to come through the July Revolution still being
Speaker 1: everybody's party pal, he also was smart enough to know
Speaker 1: that he couldn't count on that good fortune forever. He had,
Speaker 1: after all, taken a job with one of the most
Speaker 1: hated men in France, so he took off for England.
Speaker 1: His brother Philip had already moved there, working for one
Speaker 1: of King George the third son, Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge,
Speaker 1: and just as had been the case when young Alexei
Speaker 1: moved to Paris, Philippe got his baby brother a job
Speaker 1: working alongside him. That was before Alexei started bouncing around
Speaker 1: the finest houses of London as everyone clamored to hire
Speaker 1: this fun, handsome French chef. In eighteen thirty seven, when
Speaker 1: Alexey was twenty seven, he married an rtist from London
Speaker 1: named Elizabeth Emma Jones, who went by Emma. She was
Speaker 1: three years younger than Alexei, and although she was only
Speaker 1: in her early twenties, she'd already really made a name
Speaker 1: for herself. Emma's father had died when she was four.
Speaker 1: Her mother hired a variety of teachers to handle her education,
Speaker 1: including Belgian artist franzism New, who started giving Emma art lessons.
Speaker 1: Emma was good at just about everything she did, but
Speaker 1: she was exceptionally talented and drawing. According to an obituary
Speaker 1: written about her many years later, her artistic talent was
Speaker 1: so strong that her mother offered her teacher enough money
Speaker 1: he would stop taking other pupils and focus exclusively on Emma.
Speaker 1: She really flourished. Her art was exhibited at the Royal
Speaker 1: Academy when she was still just a child. The two
Speaker 1: meant when Alexei was looking for a portraitist. His inquiries
Speaker 1: had led him to seek out friend Swiss Mineau, but
Speaker 1: the Belgian said that his student could take the job instead.
Speaker 1: He was kind of just pawning this guy off. Enter Emma,
Speaker 1: and Alexei was pretty much instantly smitten with her. There
Speaker 1: is a really quite darling story of their early relationship
Speaker 1: in that Alexei had sent Emma tulips and received in return,
Speaker 1: and note that she said that he had been extremely
Speaker 1: forward in doing so. She had not asked him to
Speaker 1: send a gift, and that the box and the flowers
Speaker 1: were going to be returned to him the following week.
Speaker 1: And she did send that box back, but when Alexei
Speaker 1: opened it, expecting to see dead flowers, what he actually
Speaker 1: saw was that she had sent him a painting of
Speaker 1: her tulips. I love that. It's the sweetest thing I've
Speaker 1: ever heard. I love it so much. The same year
Speaker 1: that Alexei and Emma were married, Alexei started a job
Speaker 1: at the newly formed Reform Club of London. The Reform Club,
Speaker 1: which still exists today, was founded as a private club
Speaker 1: for whigs and radicals who supported the Great Reform Act
Speaker 1: of eighteen thirty two. So that act, and just the
Speaker 1: quickest explainer possible, nearly doubled the number of men who
Speaker 1: were eligible to vote in Britain, and it attempted to
Speaker 1: address some of the corruption in the way various voting
Speaker 1: districts were structured. It didn't do a whole lot to
Speaker 1: help the working class, though, and it had its own problems.
Speaker 1: That's a different show, though. I think this came up recently,
Speaker 1: maybe on the Gin episode where we're talking about like
Speaker 1: class differences and reforms that affected some people but not others.
Speaker 1: The Reform Clubs permanent headquarters that one oh four Pall
Speaker 1: Mall were still under renovation when Alexei was hired to
Speaker 1: be the chef, so he gave a lot of input
Speaker 1: to architect Charles Berry to design the kitchen to really
Speaker 1: best suit his needs. And that kitchen is still famous
Speaker 1: and it was toured almost from the moment of completion
Speaker 1: by other chefs who wished to copy it. It had
Speaker 1: a layout that, instead of just kind of being a
Speaker 1: cramped area, enabled the entire staff to move about in
Speaker 1: their duties without constantly knocking into each other. And it
Speaker 1: essentially had every gadget any chef might want, because when
Speaker 1: Soyer couldn't find something that would suit his needs, he
Speaker 1: would just invent it. He was incredibly clever, and if
Speaker 1: you have ever cooked on a gas stove, you can
Speaker 1: thank Alexei Sayer. The building where the Reform Club was
Speaker 1: housed had gas lines that have been used for gas
Speaker 1: lighting for a number of years, and gas had already
Speaker 1: been used by this point in history for roasting ovens,
Speaker 1: but Sway had the gas lines run to the cook
Speaker 1: top because he thought it would be beneficial to have
Speaker 1: greater control over what he was cooking. He also ushered
Speaker 1: in the transition from just cooking in an oven until
Speaker 1: whatever you were working on was done to actually having
Speaker 1: temperature gauges on stoves so that you could set up
Speaker 1: a more precise food prep and know exactly how long
Speaker 1: your food was going to take to cook. I think
Speaker 1: we can also thank the gas industry for thanking king
Speaker 1: on gas stoves, because they have been a big proponent
Speaker 1: of doing that. We should also mention we're not talking
Speaker 1: about one kitchen. We're talking about kitchens plural, because the
Speaker 1: seller of the building where the kitchen we've been describing
Speaker 1: was didn't only have food prep areas that also had
Speaker 1: a seller wine, storage rooms for the various staff, rooms
Speaker 1: for things could be roasted. That kept the staff from
Speaker 1: having to stand in just a broiling kitchen. It was
Speaker 1: really a marvel. When Queen Victoria had her coronation on
Speaker 1: June eight, Alexei's brand new kitchen turned out breakfast for
Speaker 1: two thousand club members in advance of the festivities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's often pointed to is having been possible because he
Speaker 1: had set up all of this like very structured, very
Speaker 1: organized kitchen where he could go, no, it's gonna take
Speaker 1: me ten minutes to make that, twenty minutes to make that,
Speaker 1: and he could balance the whole thing perfectly. Although Alexei
Speaker 1: was really having a banner time at this point in
Speaker 1: his life, he had this new job that was great,
Speaker 1: He had a kitchen of his dreams. He and Emma
Speaker 1: were deeply in love. There were some tragedies ahead. His
Speaker 1: brother Philip Sway died of consumption in eighteen forty and
Speaker 1: two years later his beloved Emma died suddenly. She was
Speaker 1: pregnant at the time, and the baby was also lost.
Speaker 1: The story of this is a little uncertain. The lore
Speaker 1: is that there was a particularly intense thunderstorm the night
Speaker 1: of September one, eighteen forty two, and it had frightened
Speaker 1: her to the point that she went into early labor
Speaker 1: and that something went wrong. We don't actually know what
Speaker 1: caused her death. There are certainly a lot of late
Speaker 1: term complications. She was almost at her due date, but
Speaker 1: we don't know. Alexei, to make matters worse, was away
Speaker 1: at the time in Brussels. He thought he had time
Speaker 1: to make this trip and get back before the baby came,
Speaker 1: and he has described as having gone into shock when
Speaker 1: he heard the news. Alexei chose to honor his wife's
Speaker 1: memory through charity. Several years after her death, he staged
Speaker 1: an exhibition called Says phil and Oropic Gallery. This was
Speaker 1: filled with Emma's work. Soyer had made a habit of
Speaker 1: purchasing any of Emma's works when they went up for sale,
Speaker 1: so he would show them to people and talk about
Speaker 1: her and her talent at every opportunity. The philanthropy of
Speaker 1: the project was how the gallery profits were to be spent,
Speaker 1: which was setting up a soup kitchen for the poor
Speaker 1: of London. The project didn't make enough money to actually
Speaker 1: get that off the ground, though no, but he did
Speaker 1: really innovate in that area, and we'll talk about that
Speaker 1: in just a moment. After Emma, though, Alexei did find
Speaker 1: love again. Francesco Serrito, known more commonly by the name
Speaker 1: Fanny Serrito, was an Italian ballerina who had trained with
Speaker 1: Savatore Talioni and was the principal ballerina at Lascala from
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight to eighteen forty. From eighteen forty to
Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight, she was contracted to dance at Her
Speaker 1: Majesty's Theater in London. In eighteen forty four she met
Speaker 1: Alexei Soyer. The two of them were quite taken with
Speaker 1: one another, although Alexei was not the only man who
Speaker 1: was vying for Fanny's affections. And though Sway is famous
Speaker 1: for his cookbooks, his first published work was a ballet
Speaker 1: scene titled Laffie de Laurente, and that was very obviously
Speaker 1: about Fanny. He also created a rather famous dessert for
Speaker 1: her with a little mini version of his love dancing
Speaker 1: a topic in confection. Alexei's major rival when it came
Speaker 1: to Fanny's heart was Arthur san Leon, a dancer who
Speaker 1: was her leading man. She chose the dancer when it
Speaker 1: came to marriage. Although their relationship was rocky and they separated,
Speaker 1: it appears that Fanny and Alexei may have rekindled their
Speaker 1: relationship and it might have continued off and on for
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. There are some pretty good
Speaker 1: hints in there. There are various doings where they're in
Speaker 1: the same places and whatnot, but we don't have anything
Speaker 1: concrete to prove it. So while he was serving some
Speaker 1: of the wealthiest people in Britain at the Reform Club,
Speaker 1: Sway had also developed a very keen sense of duty
Speaker 1: for feeding the needy, both in London and elsewhere. We
Speaker 1: have talked on the show before about the Great Hunger
Speaker 1: the Irish potato famine. While Alexei Swayer may not have
Speaker 1: been aware of all the politics that had contributed to
Speaker 1: the severity of the situation, he saw hungry people and
Speaker 1: he felt compelled to help. After gaining attention by writing
Speaker 1: letters to various news outlets about this issue, British Prime
Speaker 1: Minister John Russell sent Sway to Ireland with an invitation
Speaker 1: from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, John Ponsonby, fourth Earl
Speaker 1: of Besborough. Once he got to Ireland and assessed the situation.
Speaker 1: Thanks to a leave of absence from his job at
Speaker 1: the Reform Club, Soyer decided to set up a soup
Speaker 1: kitchen and to help get some nutrition to Ireland's starving population.
Speaker 1: This is often described as the first proper soup kitchen,
Speaker 1: not just a place where people gave away leftover food,
Speaker 1: but an actual functioning kitchen where fresh food was prepared,
Speaker 1: specifically for feeding the poor. He had concocted recipes for
Speaker 1: the soup kitchen before he left London, and he had
Speaker 1: tested his recipes on his wealthy and high placed friends
Speaker 1: of England, making it clear that he thought everyone should
Speaker 1: have food that please the palate, no matter their situation.
Speaker 1: One of his recipes for famine soup includes drippings and
Speaker 1: a pound of cubed beef sauteed with two sliced onions,
Speaker 1: and then turnips, cell relieves and leaks are added, and
Speaker 1: that's all sauteed a bit together, and then he adds flour,
Speaker 1: pearl barley, salt and a little brown sugar and water
Speaker 1: and he lets the whole thing simmer for several hours.
Speaker 1: He carefully worked out the cost of making this soup
Speaker 1: to ensure that he could in fact feed as many
Speaker 1: people as possible, as healthily as he possibly could, for
Speaker 1: as little money as possible. His goal had been to
Speaker 1: feed five thousand people a day from this food counter,
Speaker 1: but the actual reported number was closer to eight thousand,
Speaker 1: seven hundred fifty. On the busy days, he set up
Speaker 1: additional kitchens around Ireland, and once he had everything up
Speaker 1: and running, he handed off the management of those soup
Speaker 1: kitchens to local charity workers and returned to his job
Speaker 1: in London in eighteen forty nine. That recipe sounds a
Speaker 1: lot tastier than a lot of the recipes that we
Speaker 1: talked about in our episode on home economics, and like
Speaker 1: the the brochures and things that the government was putting
Speaker 1: out in the US during the Great Depression to like
Speaker 1: encourage people to eat cheaper foods. Yeah, this actually sounds
Speaker 1: pretty tasty. And that when those sounded more like boil
Speaker 1: some cabbage a lot of the times, eat your boiled cabbage.
Speaker 1: If you like boiled cabbage, that's fine. The boiled cabbage
Speaker 1: people are coming for you tube, they are so. Seeing
Speaker 1: that additional fundings was needed for such projects, Alexei used
Speaker 1: his fame as a chef to drum up some of
Speaker 1: that funding. While he was still in Ireland, he wrote
Speaker 1: and published a charity cook book that was titled Simply
Speaker 1: Charitable Cookery. It was written entirely so that all proceeds
Speaker 1: went to groups that aided the poor. The book's first
Speaker 1: printing of ten thousand sold out so quickly that another
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand were printed. Those were all sold within
Speaker 1: four months. After that, new editions were printed as needed
Speaker 1: for the next twenty years. I have in my head
Speaker 1: this vision that the rich patrons of the Reform Club
Speaker 1: were a lot of the people buying these books, and
Speaker 1: they probably never cooked from them, but it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: because the money went to good places. We are going
Speaker 1: to talk about another transition in Alexei Sway's life in
Speaker 1: just a moment, but first you will hear from the
Speaker 1: sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.
Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty, there was a shake up at the
Speaker 1: Reform Club. The decision was made by leadership that not
Speaker 1: members could access the coffee room, and Alexei Swayer was incensed,
Speaker 1: so incensed that he quit. This was not the first
Speaker 1: time that he quit, but the head of the club,
Speaker 1: Lord Marcus Hill had never accepted his resignation before this time.
Speaker 1: The resignation was accepted, So if Alexei had been bluffing
Speaker 1: to try to get his way get backfired. But that
Speaker 1: is only one version of this story. The coffee room
Speaker 1: was opened, it was really the dining room, and the
Speaker 1: decision had been made that two days a week at lunch,
Speaker 1: the public could come in for a meal. This may
Speaker 1: well have affronted Sway his very posh private dining experience
Speaker 1: was being turned into basically just a restaurant. But the
Speaker 1: truth was he had been at the Reform Club for
Speaker 1: thirteen years. During that time he'd had a variety of
Speaker 1: clashes and reconciliations with leadership, and really it seems like
Speaker 1: after his trip to Ireland he realized he wanted something
Speaker 1: different than an his whole job. By all accounts, he
Speaker 1: remained on great terms with Lord Marcus Hill and the
Speaker 1: other members of the club's leadership committee. Yeah, there were
Speaker 1: various problems. Some patrons didn't like that he acted like
Speaker 1: they're equal and not like help, and there were complaints
Speaker 1: about that he really did not care for social structure
Speaker 1: very much at all, but also like he just didn't
Speaker 1: put up with people being jerks, and he would tell
Speaker 1: them off and didn't care how powerful are rich they were,
Speaker 1: so uh, you know, not everyone can stay in service forever.
Speaker 1: By this point, though, his notoriety is a chef and
Speaker 1: his charitable works, his kitchen design, and his inventions had
Speaker 1: given Alexei Soyer the leverage of pretty broad name recognition.
Speaker 1: So he signed a deal with the Cross and Blackwealth
Speaker 1: Food Company to produce a Soy, a branded line of products.
Speaker 1: These were things like sauces and relishes, and the business
Speaker 1: deal really benefited the food company more than Soyer, But
Speaker 1: that doesn't seem to have been a particularly big issue
Speaker 1: for the chef. He had done quite well for himself financially.
Speaker 1: He got paid very well in the thirteen years that
Speaker 1: he worked at the Reform Club. He didn't really ever
Speaker 1: seem to worry about finances once he had become established
Speaker 1: as a chef. He wasn't especially preoccupied with money unless
Speaker 1: it was figuring out ways to finance food programs for
Speaker 1: public assistance. And we should point out that's because he
Speaker 1: was sitting in a place of privilege, where like he
Speaker 1: he wasn't worried about where money was coming from. Sway
Speaker 1: also capitalized on the London Exhibition of eighteen fifty one
Speaker 1: by opening a restaurant across from Hyde Park called Sway's
Speaker 1: Universal Symposium to All Nations. This is where he once
Speaker 1: again invented something we probably think of as a twentieth
Speaker 1: century novelty, and that's a restaurant where every room has
Speaker 1: a different theme. The themes were all based on categories
Speaker 1: from the expo, and Alexei developed a menu with dishes
Speaker 1: that almost anyone could afford, as well as pricier fair
Speaker 1: for the more well to do diners. This all sounds
Speaker 1: kind of amazing, but it was a flop. The restaurant
Speaker 1: had been really expensive to build, decorate, and staff, and
Speaker 1: then after three months he had to close the doors
Speaker 1: for good. Yeah, he really thought people were going to
Speaker 1: come out of the expo, be all excited about things
Speaker 1: and then want to eat food related to the stuff
Speaker 1: they had just seen, which I one hundred percent am
Speaker 1: his customer base, But apparently not everyone was, and although
Speaker 1: the restaurant closed its books with an estimated debt of
Speaker 1: seven thousand pounds. This is the very roughest of conversions.
Speaker 1: But after looking at several different ones, I came up
Speaker 1: with that being roughly equivalent to about seven dred and
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars today, But Sway still had income. His
Speaker 1: books and his branded foods had kept money coming in,
Speaker 1: and he also started working as a consultant during this
Speaker 1: time for events where large scale banquets were needed. He
Speaker 1: only took jobs like that if the organizers of such
Speaker 1: events agreed that all leftover food should be given to
Speaker 1: the poor rather than go to waste. In eighteen fifty one,
Speaker 1: alex He discovered that he had family he had not
Speaker 1: known about, in the form of a son. Jean Alexey
Speaker 1: Lama wrote to Soyer and told him that he was
Speaker 1: the child of a woman named Adelaide Lamin, who Alexey
Speaker 1: had a romance with before leaving France for England. So
Speaker 1: I did not question this young man's word and accepted
Speaker 1: him as his son. He visited Paris two years later
Speaker 1: and gave Jean Alexey all of the legal rights of
Speaker 1: an heir. La Man changed his last name to Soyer.
Speaker 1: There's some evidence that Soyer had always known that he
Speaker 1: had a son. The timing of his exit from Paris
Speaker 1: suggests that Jean Alexey would have been born before the
Speaker 1: chef left for London. Yeah, that's one of those. It
Speaker 1: seems sort of mysterious, But then people are always like
Speaker 1: he never once was like, I don't think I have
Speaker 1: a son. Are you sure? He was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that sounds true. So it seems like he might have known.
Speaker 1: The Crimean War began in eighteen fifty three, and that
Speaker 1: was of course a conflict with the Russian Empire on
Speaker 1: one side, and the United Forces of Britain, France, Sardinia
Speaker 1: and the Ottoman Empire on the other. This is another
Speaker 1: one that's hard to parse quickly in a small paragraph
Speaker 1: about someone's life, but there were multiple causes, including religion,
Speaker 1: Russian expansion, and the occupation of Ottoman territories as that
Speaker 1: dynasty declined. All of the combatants had their own various
Speaker 1: reasons and motivations for participating. This is a huge topic
Speaker 1: well outside the scope of this episode. What is Germane
Speaker 1: to Alexei say a story is that thousands of British
Speaker 1: troops had been sent to the Black Seat to fight,
Speaker 1: and thousands of them landed in hospitals that were understaffed
Speaker 1: and had woefully inadequate supplies. The British hospital at Scutari
Speaker 1: had been the location where Florence Nightingale and her cadro
Speaker 1: of nurses had gone at the end of eighteen fifty
Speaker 1: four to try to improve conditions and medical treatment there.
Speaker 1: But the situation they found was horrifying and dire. There
Speaker 1: were rodent and insect infestations, and patients were sometimes sitting
Speaker 1: on stretchers for days with no one to look after them.
Speaker 1: As news of these horrific conditions were reported in the papers,
Speaker 1: Alexei Sway read about the problems of the hospital and
Speaker 1: he had the same desire that had led to his
Speaker 1: time in Ireland. In early February eight fifty five, he
Speaker 1: wrote a letter to The Times offering his services. It
Speaker 1: read quote to the Editor of the Times, Sir, after
Speaker 1: carefully perusing the letter of your correspondent, dated Scutari in
Speaker 1: your impression of Wednesday last, I perceived that although the
Speaker 1: kitchen under the superintendence of Miss Nightingale affords so much relief,
Speaker 1: the system of management at the large one in the
Speaker 1: Barrack hospital is far from being perfect. I propose offering
Speaker 1: my services gratuitously and proceeding directly to Scutari at my
Speaker 1: own personal expense to regulate that important department. If the
Speaker 1: government will honor me with their confidence and grant me
Speaker 1: the full power of acting according to my knowledge and
Speaker 1: experience in such matters, I have the honor to remain, Sir,
Speaker 1: your obedient servant. A si A, February second, eighteen fifty five.
Speaker 1: And soon, with the help of influential and wealthy friends,
Speaker 1: Alexei had gained permission and authority to do as he
Speaker 1: asked to travel to Crimea and do whatever he felt
Speaker 1: necessary to improve the hospital kitchens and the nutritional care
Speaker 1: of British and French troops. When he arrived, it was
Speaker 1: apparent to him almost instantly that they could cut back
Speaker 1: on illness simply by having good food that was properly prepared,
Speaker 1: because some of the soldiers were falling ill without ever
Speaker 1: having been in combat, just due to malnutrition. Reports of
Speaker 1: Sway's efforts in Crimea describe him in a number of
Speaker 1: fascinating ways. One ambassador's wife wrote to Queen Victoria that
Speaker 1: the chef quote has done much good in the kitchens.
Speaker 1: He is a most ridiculous man, but quite perfect in
Speaker 1: his way. He was well liked by the people. He
Speaker 1: were twin Crimea, and he and Florence Mattingale collaborated as
Speaker 1: they traveled from hospital to hospital, assessing each one and
Speaker 1: improving things and whatever way they could manage. Swayer was
Speaker 1: we should mention, and we kind of referenced this earlier
Speaker 1: an inventor, and that was part of what made him
Speaker 1: able to set up kitchens in places that began essentially
Speaker 1: with nothing. Throughout his work, he had done things like
Speaker 1: cook on a little mini stove that was powered by gas.
Speaker 1: It was something he called a magic stove, and he
Speaker 1: had been working on an apparatus that would come to
Speaker 1: be known as the sway A Field stove, which existed
Speaker 1: for a very long time. This was a portable stove
Speaker 1: that was comprised of what looks like a large metal
Speaker 1: drum that sat atop a burner, and on top of
Speaker 1: it you could place a large cauldron to cook food
Speaker 1: in mass quantities. This stove was incredibly durable. You could
Speaker 1: use it indoors or out and it would work even
Speaker 1: an inclement weather. So I had intended to bring some
Speaker 1: of his stoves with him, and he did bring some,
Speaker 1: but only ten. That was far short of the four
Speaker 1: hundred he had hoped would be ready when he left London,
Speaker 1: but he may do in some locations. He had to
Speaker 1: design and build structures that could house cooking spaces and
Speaker 1: keep the supplies safe from the elements. He arranged that
Speaker 1: each regiment had a trained cook, not one of the
Speaker 1: men on cooking duty, but someone whose sole responsibility was
Speaker 1: beating everyone. He also invented two different types of field
Speaker 1: rations that could keep for longer than standard rations and
Speaker 1: were more nutritionally balanced than what the soldiers had been getting.
Speaker 1: Blood was a dried and seasoned vegetable cake, and the
Speaker 1: other was a biscuit made using pea flour that he
Speaker 1: said could be quote soaked in tea, coffee or soup. And,
Speaker 1: according to some accounts, including those of famous figure Mary Sekel,
Speaker 1: the British Jamaican proprietor of the so called British Hotel
Speaker 1: of the Crimean War, Alexei Sowayer retained that part of
Speaker 1: himself that had always been the convivial life of the party.
Speaker 1: Though se Coel was associated in the writings of Florence
Speaker 1: Nightingale with kindness as well as quote drunkenness and improper conduct,
Speaker 1: her business, which Sequel described as quote a mess table
Speaker 1: and comfortable quarters for sick and convalescent officers. Was kind
Speaker 1: of the perfect place for Swaye to find some respite
Speaker 1: in what was surely a stressful and harrowing trip. Sequel
Speaker 1: called Alexei Quote the Great High Priest in the Mysteries
Speaker 1: of Cookery, and described him as good natured and always
Speaker 1: a source of fun. I think if you're gonna think
Speaker 1: about Florence Nightingale's writing about anyone who was not white,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get you need to take into consideration that
Speaker 1: she had some racist views. Swaye came down with a
Speaker 1: bacterial infection, which was debilitating. During this he spent weeks
Speaker 1: in bed. He never fully recovered, but he did return
Speaker 1: to the various camps where his stoves had been delivered
Speaker 1: to make sure the cooks knew how to set them
Speaker 1: up and use them. He almost certainly pushed himself too hard,
Speaker 1: including serving dinner parties where he could. When the war
Speaker 1: ended in eighteen fifty six, he of course wanted to
Speaker 1: serve up a huge party After a stopping Constantinople, Swaye
Speaker 1: finally returned to London in the late spring of eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty seven, but though he tried to basically go back
Speaker 1: to his usual lifestyle. After returning home, Saya was clearly
Speaker 1: weakened by his illness, and he continued to decline. He
Speaker 1: just never got better. He died on August five, eighteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight, and he was buried next to his wife.
Speaker 1: He left the artwork of Emma's that he had collected
Speaker 1: over the years to the National Gallery, and a portrait
Speaker 1: that she made of him is still on display at
Speaker 1: the Reform Club. I'm glad you did this one, me too,
Speaker 1: not somebody I knew about at all. Do you have
Speaker 1: a listener mail? I do, and since we were talking
Speaker 1: about someone who made his living making food, I thought
Speaker 1: we would have a food related listener mail. This is
Speaker 1: our listener, Rob, who says I was tempted to write
Speaker 1: in based on the pie episode, but I didn't think
Speaker 1: my comments were pie related enough, but the minnisode put
Speaker 1: me over the top. I have a signature dessert that
Speaker 1: is less a pie than a pumpkin pie inspired dump cake.
Speaker 1: I learned it as something called the Great Pie Dessert.
Speaker 1: I started calling it upside down pumpkin pie, and after
Speaker 1: I started sharing with some friends on Broadway, it was
Speaker 1: renamed pumpkin crack. The name is how it has been
Speaker 1: known by at least four different shows as people have
Speaker 1: moved from production to production before the shutdown. One show
Speaker 1: almost had a standing order for it. Sadly, COVID protocols
Speaker 1: means that they cannot accept homemade goods at the stage
Speaker 1: door or shows that do require they be individually wrapped.
Speaker 1: That is beyond my talent level anyway. Attached as the
Speaker 1: recipe with my modifications, and also a picture I got
Speaker 1: with Tracy when I recognized her at the off Broadway
Speaker 1: production of Puffs while you were both in town for
Speaker 1: New York Comic um. Also, he writes, oh, two Christmases ago,
Speaker 1: my sister and I updated our only cookbook. Next time
Speaker 1: I go visit, I will grab two to send you, folks.
Speaker 1: It is clearly my family's cookbook, as our chapters do
Speaker 1: not follow the progressions of a meal like many do. Instead,
Speaker 1: we start with the important recipes and have chapters for cakes, cookies, puddings,
Speaker 1: in candy and pies. Rob this is amazing um for
Speaker 1: our listeners. I will also, just as I did back
Speaker 1: when we got the amazing meat loaf recipe, I will
Speaker 1: ask if he's okay with us sharing this on like
Speaker 1: our social channels, Um, because I'm making it, haven't made
Speaker 1: it yet, but um, this is going to be perhaps
Speaker 1: my downfall. I don't know, We'll see it. Sounds amazing
Speaker 1: and I can see why people want it all the time.
Speaker 1: So thank you for answering my call of people to
Speaker 1: send us recipes for deligious things. And it seemed like
Speaker 1: exactly the right thing to discuss while we were discussing
Speaker 1: Alexei Saye, who loved sharing food with people. If you
Speaker 1: would like to write to us, you could do so
Speaker 1: in History Podcast and I heart radio dot com, and
Speaker 1: you can find us on social media, where, hopefully, with
Speaker 1: Rob's permission, we will share that recipe. And if you
Speaker 1: have not yet subscribed to the show, you can do
Speaker 1: that on the I heart Radio app or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite podcasts. Stuff you missed in History
Speaker 1: Class is a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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