Customer Reviews

The Adventurous Chef: Alexis Soyer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

My son and I loved this book. For people who want something more than
the bland products of children's book publishing in the Corporate
Age---*this is it*. It's a leap into history (London of the
mid-nineteenth century, the Crimean War, the Irish potato
famine---even a glimpse of Florence Nightingale...) through one of the
great kitchens of all time: that of the Reform Club in London. There's
a sumptuous two-page spread of this amazing kitchen, which was full of
Soyer's ideas and inventions, and was something of a tourist attraction
in its time. The illustrations are irresistible in beautifully
detailed and luminous watercolors. And the landscapes---scenes of
London, of Balaclava harbor---and period costumes are just as
gorgeously depicted as the spectacular feasts and banquets! A *must
have* for anyone who loves children's picture books...

This book is wonderful. We have bought six of them to give to friends as gifts.

Somehow I thought this book would be for adults. Imagine my surprise when it turns out to be a picture book written at a child's level. What a disappointment. I had expected to learn about the life of the man that "inspired" Pie in the Sky.