After Dinner Speakers: Ken Hom, Carl Hahn, Mark Porter

As he grew up, he found American food unpalatable compared to his mother’s cooking so she used to send him to school with a hot flask of rice and stir-fried vegetables, much to the envy of his friends with their sandwich boxes. At the age of 11 he went to work in his uncle’s restaurant which he remembers vividly: ‘I did everything and it became my culinary education.’ In 1969, he went to California, ‘Things were happening there and I wanted to be a flower child!’ He studied art history and french history but, after a year abroad in France, he started giving cooking lessons to supplement his scholarship. His first lessons were in the house of a wealthy congressman’s wife where he taught Italian pasta dishes, though he soon reverted to his passion for Chinese cooking. His first book was about Chinese cookery techniques and this led to an article in the New York Times, which Ken sees as a turning point in his life. From there he landed his first television series which was an almost instant success. He has gone on from strength to strength with no fewer than 12 books and four television series. His passion for food is deeply ingrained in Chinese cooking: as the Chinese proverb states: 'To the people food is heaven.'