Recipes from Disaster - Conclusion

and he wrote to Soyer 'What do you think? I am now a houseless, homeless wanderer: they have pulled down my house..so I must hang out on Cathcart's Hill, in the old cave where Sir John Campbell lived long ago.' Soyer's reply is not on record, but dare I suspect that if there had been one, it would have been on the lines of 'Tough.'?

Alexis was hanging on in the Crimea to ensure that his precious stoves, which attracted covetous glances from military and locals alike, were all shipped back through official channels to England. There were VIP dinners to give and to enjoy cooking for, but his priority was to make sure that his cooking principles would not die with the ending of the War but would gain sufficient influential support to become the norm throughout the British Army, and hopefully the French as well. His final demonstration to Codrington and the remaining generals had two newly trained soldier cooks from 56th Foot cooking an appetising meal from rations on Soyer stoves for the entire Regiment. As at all Soyer demonstrations, everyone was suitably impressed.

Alexis finally embarked from the Crimea just ahead of the last boatload, but he left his ship at Constantinople, to take time out to visit the region and to write his reminiscences of the campaign. During this 'gap' year he visited much of Asia Minor, Greece and Malta, and spent the final three months in Paris, where he successfully marketed both his stove to the Emperor Napoleon III, and himself to his long time ballerina love Fanny Cerrito, whom he married.

Arriving back in England, doubtless with a feeling of self-fulfillment and satisfaction at his achievements both in public and private life, Alexis could have had little idea that he would have a mere fifteen months more to live. But sadly this was to be the case. His Crimea fever soon returned in the damp climate, and he attempted to throw it off by drinking heavily, with sometimes embarrassing results. He still pressed ahead with his Army culinary reforms; he gave a lecture on the subject to a packed house at the United Services Institute, and promoted his 'cooking carriage' to get hot food to soldiers in the trenches at night. His final act was to install new kitchens at the Guards Depot at Wellington Barracks, incorporating the latest gas ovens. Sadly a week after the inauguration

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