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Celebrity
chef Ken Hom, widely regarded as one the world's greatest
authorities on oriental cooking, has been awarded with an honorary
OBE for 'services to culinary arts'. The OBE (Order of the British
Empire) recognizes his achievements and the impressive social and
historical impact he has made on the way the UK has 'adopted' Chinese
cuisine, which has now become one of the nation's favourites.
As well as being awarded with
an OBE, 2009 also marks his 60th birthday and the 25th anniversary of
his first television appearance on BBC, Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery,
the show which bore the same name of the book still regarded by many
as the 'bible', reprinted this year in its anniversary edition.
A most notable chef with a
captivating television presence, Ken Hom has excelled at reaching a
wide UK public who had limited appreciation of conventional cooking,
let alone attempting to understand Oriental cuisine, which required a
cultural leap of faith. By encouraging people to experiment with food
through his 'Foolproof' book series and television programmes, Ken
demystified this cuisine, making it approachable and interesting. His
appeal has defied demographics, attracting not just women and men to
cooking the Oriental way, but children in schools too, promoting
healthy Chinese recipes.
His name is also firmly
associated with the Wok - the curved pan and key utensil for all
Chinese cooking. Over seven million Ken Hom Woks and accessories have
been sold in 59 countries worldwide and in the UK alone the brand is
the market leader with over 60 percent brand share. One in eight
Britons owns a Ken Hom wok.
In 2008 he was awarded with an
honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University in recognition of
his 'outstanding success within the international food world', and at
the same time became an ambassador for Action Against Hunger, the
humanitarian charity which works in over 40 countries helping
families to feed their children and build a sustainable life. www.aahuk.org
On receiving the OBE, Ken Hom
simply said: 'I am honoured and humbled by this award'. He was
born in Tucson, Arizona, where his Cantonese parents lived after
emigrating to America in the 1930's. Moving to Chicago, at the age of
11 he went to work in his uncle's restaurant where he earned the
equivalent of 30 pence per day. At 20 he headed off to California and
started to give cookery lessons to fund his university fees. He soon
started teaching at the California Culinary Academy (a school for
professional chefs in San Francisco) and then travelled to France and
Italy to explore gastronomy further.
His first book on Chinese cookery
techniques was published in 1981 to much acclaim and then the New
York Times published a major profile on him. Ken still regards the
book and the NY Times article as one of the turning points in his
career. www.kenhom.com
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