Recipes from Disaster - Part 2
with 100 patient diets - Alexis had lowered his sights a little - and suggested that the General Hospital would be more suitable for the first kitchen, but when Alexis replied that he would prefer to start in the Barrack, he readily concurred. Dr Rutherford was detailed to show him round the hospital, and he earmarked a possible site for his kitchen, but needing to cross the water back to Pera before dark, he missed Florence Nightingale.
The next morning he crossed again - a house in Cambridge Street near the Barrack Hospital was being prepared to accommodate him - and visited the Hyder Pasha hospital with Roco Vido. This small hospital had previously been one of the Sultan's kiosques, and was treating 20 officers and around 340 men at that time. Though picturesque, the hospital was in an unhealthy location, surrounded by marshy meadows which must have been alive with mosquitoes. The officers complained that the food was atrocious; Alexis found this inevitable as the kitchen was tiny and unventilated, and he made a mental note to have a rough wooden kitchen erected and manned with a civilian cook.
Next stop was the General Hospital. Again the kitchen was hopelessly inadequate, much too small and dark, and he made quick notes about the improvements which he wanted, to be passed to the Engineers. The management of the food side however was a pleasant surprise to him, and when he saw who was in charge he knew the reason why - Dr O'Flaherty, another Soyer disciple from Dublin.
The final call in an exceptionally busy day was the most important; he had earlier fortuitously bumped into Charles Bracebridge - another acquaintance - and had announced his intention to visit Florence Nightingale which Charles, a key member of Flo's immediate entourage, agreed to arrange for late afternoon. When Soyer arrived, she was occupied, but immediately broke off to receive him.
The pair hit it off from the start. Some shrewd conversational sparring assured each that they were on the same wavelength. Flo, who had suffered initially in coming to grips with military medical practices and procedures, advised him to make his mark with Paulet, Cumming and the Purveyor-in-Chief Milton if he wanted to achieve anything at all. Already accomplished with Paulet and Cumming, replied Alexis, Milton was next on the list as soon as he left her. She urged him not to forget Tucker from the
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