Information AboutKen Hom |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KEN HOM | |
| 1949 births | |
| hom, ken | |
| american chefs | |
| living people | |
| chinese americans | |
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Ken Hom (born May 3 1949 in Tucson, Arizona , USA ) is a notable Chinese American Chef . Raised in Chicago, Illinois , by his widowed mother, he first learned cooking at age eleven when he worked in his uncle's Chinese restaurant. He went out to California to study History of Art from the University Of California, Berkeley . During this time he was invited to teach Italian cooking lessons at weekends, which he did to supplement his college fees. He actually taught the participants how to make their own Pasta . This led to him going on to teach Chinese cookery, and in 1977 he was invited to join San Francisco 's new California Culinary Academy as an instructor. In 1982, the BBC were looking to find a good Chinese presenter and chef to do a series on Chinese cookery following the success of Madhur Jaffrey 's Indian cookery series. She had met Ken in New York and suggested that the BBC should audition him. The BBC then commissioned him to star in a new TV series on Chinese cooking named: ''Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery''. The success of this series and the companion book broke all records. It became one of the best-selling cookbooks ever published by BBC Books, selling well over 1.2 million copies. As of 2007, the book is still in print. In 1984, after the TV series was distributed all over the world, there was intense interest from many leading cookware companies for Ken to launch a wok, as it had generated so much interest from the public. He chose to work with William Levene Ltd, since they allowed him to liaise on the design and function of the wok and they developed a flat-bottomed wok, which was launched in 1986. This wok suited the western types of hob with electric flat surfaces, as opposed to just the round bottomed woks that could only be used on gas hobs. These woks have been market leaders, and have sold over 7 million worldwide to date in over 50 countries {Link without Title} . He also has a full range of oriental accessories also available from William Levene (www.williamlevene.com) Although Ken has had a base in Paris since 1986, in 1997 Ken moved permanently to Europe, settling in southwest France where he restored a 13th century tower in the Lot. Now after ten years he made the decision to sell in order to spend more time in his adopted homeland of Thailand . He has since written over 20 cookbooks which include different oriental types of cookery, such as Singaporean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Cambodian, Thai and, of course, Chinese dishes. Ken is one of the leading authorities worldwide on Chinese cuisine. Ken has consulted in restaurants all over the world and some of his former pupils have also opened leading restaurants all over the world. Previously, Ken was consultant to the Oriental Restaurant Group and Noble House restaurants who launched the Yellow River chain of cafes and a further 8 individual restaurants. These were all sold to the Orchid Group and Ken now consults with them on 4 of the signature restaurants. He has cooked for over 30 Heads of State including presidents and royalty. There is also a range of Ken Hom cooking sauces, noodles and rice developed with Ken and Costa (part of Associated British Foods). These are available only in the UK but it is hoped that they will be distributed further afield in the future. However, he now divides his time between Paris, Bangkok and is semi-retired. He still makes frequent trips to the UK and travels extensively worldwide. TV SHOWS
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