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

Cowen, Ruth

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0297645625 ISBN 13: 9780297645627

Publisher: Orion Publishing, 2008

Synopsis

Unusual book

About this title

About the Author:

Ruth Cowen was born in 1968 and has been a journalist, editor and researcher for twelve years. She has written for the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Financial Times, The Independent, the Guardian, the Daily and Sunday Express, the Sunday Mirror, Metro and the Evening Standard.

Review:

'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 'The story of [Soyer's] vigorous life is a potent one, and Cowen's comprehensive, sensitive recording of it is long overdue.' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Ruth Cowen's lively new biography... is a highly readable account of an important life.' THE GUARDIAN 'Ruth Cowen's excellent biography... is a riveting story... it's also a marvellous portrait of the early Victorian age.' TIME OUT '[Soyer's] colourful life story - he was a bigamist, bankrupt and alcoholic - is told brilliantly by Ruth Cowen.' SOLDIER MAGAZINE 'Sparkling... If only all history were written like this.' SUNDAY BUSINESS POST 'This very well-written and researched book. will serve for some time as the best record that we have on this great chef.' MILITARY HISTORY SOCIETY 'Alexis Soyer deserves a biography of flair, passion and frivolity. Ruth Cowen has delivered just such a book.' THE FIELD

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion Publishing
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0297645625
• ISBN 13: 9780297645627
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352