Ken Hom

Ken Hom was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona – his Cantonese parents emigrated to the US in the 1920s. Ken learnt to cook from the age of eleven when he started working in his uncle’s Chinese restaurant in Chicago after school and at weekends. In those days he earned around the equivalent of 30p per hour.In order to help pay his University fees he gave cooking lessons which proved so popular that he was recommended to the Culinary Academy.
When the BBC was looking for a Chinese chef to produce a new series he was recommended by Madhur Jaffrey who had seen him giving lessons in California.Ken is now regarded as the world’s leading authority in Chinese cookery and has cooked for many heads of state.