I guess it goes back to the days of disguising inferior cuts of meat – the gentleman’s club equivalent of the fish finger or fried chicken, I suppose.The recipe has been altered over time – I’ve even seen black truffle included – but this is pretty close to the original. Strain the soup through a medium meshed sieve, pushing it through with the back of a ladle and discarding the debris.Remove any bones from the fish pieces you took from the pot earlier. Add the chopped parsley to the soup and simmer for 5 minutes, reseasoning if necessary.Put the fish pieces into warmed soup bowls and pour the hot soup over. Serve with crusty or toasted bread.Lamb cutlets Reform Serves 4 Soyer invented this dish at the Reform Club – the late arrival of a tricky and hungry club member and an ingenious chef who had to make the most of what he had in his kitchen might explain the creation of this somewhat strange concoction. Add the potatoes, parsley stalks, wine and stock, season, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove the chunkiest bits of fish, put to one side and leave to cool. Simmer the soup for 45 minutes, stirring every so often.Ladle out about one third of the soup, bones, vegetables and all, and blend until smooth in a liquidiser.

Add it back to the soup and return to the heat for another 10 minutes. You can make it with cheap species like flounder and whiting to achieve a white-fish British version of soupe de poisson.60g butter 1kg whole whiting, chopped into pieces, washed 1 leek, trimmed, roughly chopped and washed 1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped 1 small head of fennel 2 cloves of garlic 250g floury potatoes, peeled and chopped 100ml white wine 2.5 litres fish stock (use good quality stock cubes if you haven’t any other stock) 1 small bunch of parsley, stalks removed and reserved and leaves chopped Salt and freshly ground white pepperMelt the butter in a large, thick bottomed pan and cook the whiting, vegetables and garlic on a low heat with a lid on for 4-5 minutes. He invented the clever campaign stove – so small that soldiers were able to carry it on their backs and set it up in the trenches to steam, boil and bake food without sending up clouds of smoke alerting the enemy to their presence.
I’m proud to own a few first and second editions of his books Menag? and Pantropheon and pay tribute to him this week with recipes of his adapted for today’s cooks.Water souchetServes 4-6 In the days of whitebait feasts in Greenwich and along the Thames, a soup called water souchet – made with the larger fish such as flounder caught in the whitebait nets – formed part of the meal.In all the recipes I’ve found, even fairly recent ones, it seems a watery affair with lots of parsley. I’ve played around with the recipe, adding vegetables like leek and fennel and a few potatoes to thicken it a little, and served the improved result as part of a whitebait feast at our newish restaurant the Rivington in Greenwich. I had never been there, but recently made my first visit for the launch of Relish, The Extraordinary Life of Alexis Soyer, Victorian Celebrity Chef, by Ruth Cowen.This biography tells the story of Soyer, whose influence on what we eat and on catering remains to this day. After his mercy mission to Ireland, he risked his life travelling to the Russian Peninsula to sort out catering for troops in the Crimean war, which saved thousands of soldiers from malnutrition. He designed the Reform Club’s kitchens, installing advanced technology gas ovens, which became a bit of a tourist attraction and source of envy among his peers.

Like high-profile chefs today he was often asked to cook for large numbers at prestigious events and in June 1838 rose to the challenge of cooking breakfast for 2,000 people for Queen Victoria’s coronation. Celebrity chefs are nothing new. One who really was the Jamie Oliver of his time, was Alexis Soyer. He was involved with charity work as well as being a popular figure on the culinary circuit, chef de cuisine of the Reform Club and author of many cookery books. During the potato famine of 1847 he went to Ireland to help victims by setting up soup kitchens – he claimed he could provide 100 gallons of soup for £1 including expenses. Look over to St Paul’s and Blackfriars as you tuck into successful but not too distracting rib-eye steak and Valrhona chocolate ice cream.Oxo Tower Wharf, Coin Street, London SE1 (020-7633 0088).