Relish: The Extraordinary Life of Alexis Soyer, Victorian Celebrity Chef - Tapa dura

'I was riveted from start to finish. What a fascinating, endearing, complex, contradictory man Soyer was, and what a life!' (Deborah Moggach)

'a masterly account not only of a Victorian chef but of a Victorian era.' (Martin Gilbert)

'A riveting book with all the elements of a Hollywood Oscar winner' (Clarissa Dickson Wright)

'The most admirable and attractive of all chefs has been given an equally admirable and attractive biography.' (A A Gill)

'engrossing biography... A sybarite and dandy with a social conscience and hustling entrepreneurial streak, Soyer was an intriguing, contradictory figure.' (FINANCIAL TIMES)

'Ruth Cowen has brought Alexis Soyer back to life with the kind of flourish he would have appreciated.' (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

'Chef Alexis Soyer was as famous as Dickens in his day... Cowen explores his amazing life and the reasons behind his obscurity.' (SAINSBURY'S MAGAZINE)

'excellent, entertaining and vivid... colourful, compassionate, generous, inventive, indefatigable. Now at last [Soyer] has the biography he deserves.' (Joanna Simon SUNDAY TIMES)

'[Cowen] has crafted a filling dish... Cowen captures the curious combination of his astute commercial skills... and his selfless philanthropy' (SUNDAY EXPRESS)

'Ruth Cowen guides us elegantly through the turbulent, intoxicating life of this brilliant but flawed man' (Jill Turton www.askmario.co.uk)

Rarely has a man defined the spirit of an age as well as Alexis Soyer: celebrity chef, best-selling author, entrepreneur, inventor, philanthropist and Crimean war hero. Soyer built the world famous kitchens of London's Reform Club - which he filled with such ingenious inventions as the gas stove and steam lifts. He set up the most innovative culinary theme park ever seen in the capital, and devised the sauces and relishes that would make household names of Mr Crosse and Mr Blackwell. In the 1840s he set up revolutionary soup kitchens during the Irish potato famine, and in the following decade risked his life by travelling to the Russian peninsula to reform army catering for the troops - saving thousands of soldiers from the effects malnutrition. Alexis Soyer was one of the most famous names of the early Victorian age, and his legacy lives on through the radical army reforms his work set in train. He was also - in a similar spirit of the age - a secret womaniser, near bankrupt and alcoholic. Yet this brilliant man, who during his lifetime was more famous than the men he regularly brushed shoulders with - men such as Thackeray, Disraeli, Dickens and Palmerston - dropped completely from public view after his untimely death. His friend Florence Nightingale, never one to praise lightly, wrote that his passing was 'a great disaster' for the nation. Yet despite making several fortunes he died virtually penniless, his personal papers were destroyed, his funeral was a hushed-up affair and today his grave lies neglected and rotting in Kensal Green cemetery. This is the first full length, fully researched biography of Alexis Soyer, which explores the life, career and legacy of one of the most enigmatic and extraordinary figures of the Victorian age. In doing so, it seeks to answer the question of why society 'forgot' one of its most favoured sons.