Alexis Soyer with Lindsay Middleton
- Author
- Neil Buttery
- Published
- Thu 06 Feb 2025
- Episode Link
- https://the-british-food-histor.captivate.fm
Today I speak with food historian, podcaster and friend of the show Lindsay Middleton about arguably the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, focusing mainly on two of his books: The Gastronomic Regenerator and The Modern Housewife.
We talk about the kitchens at the Reform Club, Soyer’s literary inspirations, cookery books as entertainment and his meta approach to writing The Modern Housewife, amongst many other things.
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The Scottish Food History Podcast
Find Lindsay on social media: Insta/Threads lindsaymiddleton_ and Bluesky @drlindsaymiddleton.bsky.social
Things mentioned in today’s episode
Neil’s Country Life County Foods series
Podcast episodes pertinent to today’s episode
The Philosophy of Puddings with Neil Buttery, Peter Gilchrist & Lindsay Middleton
Tinned Food with Lindsay Middleton
Invalid Cookery with Lindsay Middleton
A is for Apple: B is for Banana, Banting & Berries
Neil’s blogs:
Neil’s books:
Before Mrs Beeton: Elizabeth Raffald, England’s Most Influential Housekeeper
Knead to Know: a History of Baking
Don’t forget, there will be postbag episodes in the future, so if you have any questions or queries about today’s episode, or indeed any episode, or have a question about the history of British food please email me at [email protected], or on twitter and BlueSky @neilbuttery, or Instagram and Threads dr_neil_buttery. My DMs are open.
You can also join the British Food: a History Facebook discussion page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/britishfoodhistory
Mentioned in this episode:
Fruit Pig are currently sponsoring The British Food History Podcast
Visit fruitpig.co.uk for more details of their products and journey, and to access their shop. Grant and Matthew are very kindly giving listeners to the BFHP a unique special offer: 10% off your order until the end of October 2025 – use the offer code Foodhis in the checkout. Time to fill your boots.
Serve it Forth Food History Festival 18 October 2025
I thought you might want to know about the first Serve it Forth Food History Festival is on 18 October 2025 – it’s online, it’s £16 a ticket but you can get 25% off the price using the offer code SERVE25. Visit the website https://serveitforthfest.wixsite.com/info for more information and links to Eventbrite.
I’ve teamed up with fellow food historians (and friends of the show) Sam Bilton, Thomas Ntinas and Alessandra Pino – we are all presenting a session each. I’m kicking off the day in conversation with food writer and cook Tom Parker Bowles. Brigitte Webster, another friend of the show, will also be appearing. To find out more, check out the recently published bonus episode of the podcast all about the festival to find out more information.
The day is being sponsored by the excellent Netherton Foundry. It’s going to be a really fun and exciting day and I hope you can join us.
