Ken  Hom

Making wok cookery an art form, Ken Hom is regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on Chinese cookery.

Ken was born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where his Cantonese parents lived after emigrating to the USA. Growing up he refused to eat American school food and his mother would send him in with a packed lunch box filled with Chinese delicacies. At the age of eleven Ken started work at his uncle's Chinese restaurant in Chicago after school and at weekends, about which he says, 'I did everything and it became my culinary education.'

His passion for cooking continued during his time studying art and French history at the University of California, when he gave cooking lessons to help pay his fees. As part of his degree, he travelled to France and immediately recognised the French love of good food: one reason why he has now made the country his home. BBC produced a series and that was the start of his TV career with the series Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery in 1984. He has gone from strength to strength with over 12 books and four TV series.