FIRST IMPRESSIONS: KEN HOM
What are you working on?
I like to keep busy working with my charities, my chilled-meal range and concentrating on my new restaurant at The Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, named Mee. There is also the possibility of a new TV series as well as my memoirs. Not bad for someone who is celebrating their 30th career anniversary.
When were you at your happiest?
I am a happy person by nature and I am at my happiest when cooking, eating and spending time with friends.
What is your greatest fear?
Eating bad food and drinking bad plonk – it doesn’t happen often these days.
What is your earliest memory?
As a young child in Chicago, eating Chinese sausage with rice, simple fried rice, braised spare ribs with black beans and garlic – made by my mother.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
That I can’t sing. I do love to sing but I’m not very good.
Who has been your greatest influence?
I have two: my mother, Ying Fong, was a very strong influence and she passed her values on to me – values that I still live by today. I credit her with my success. Also my uncle Paul, who was an inspiration and mentor. I went to work for him in his restaurant, aged 11; my uncle Paul had a real love of food as well as being very savvy with a good business sense. He left me with a powerful work ethic and a lasting love of cooking.
What is your most treasured possession?
Alas, none. I feel that you arrive in this world with nothing and you should leave with nothing.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
How short I am.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Picky eaters. I don’t like to hear: ‘I don’t like this, or that’.
What is your favourite book?
Life And Death In Shanghai, by Nien Cheng, written when she was in exile in the United States – a fantastic autobiography published in 1989, which details Cheng’s six-year imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution.
Your favourite film?
The Godfather: Part II. I was hooked as soon as I saw the first film.
Your favourite music?
I like all sorts of music, apart from country and western.
And your favourite meal?
Peking duck, but it has to be my Peking duck. When I dine out, duck is the first thing I look for on the menu. It should be full of flavour, with crispy skin and moist meat.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
I would set the table for four and do the cooking myself. I would invite Nelson Mandela, Zhou Enlai and the Queen – what a dinner party that would be.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
It would have to be when I was called a ‘chink’ in the United States.
Do you believe in aliens?
Yes, why not?
What is your secret vice?
Don’t tell anyone but I do enjoy potato crisps.
Do you write thank-you notes?
I do, I am old-fashioned. I like to send, and receive, them.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
I don’t think there is one – not one that I am aware of.
What would most improve the quality of your life?
Peace on earth.
Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I really can dance.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘He tried his best.’ You can’t do any more than that, can you?
Download a copy of Ken Hom’s 30th anniversary booklet at www.kenhom.co.uk
I like to keep busy working with my charities, my chilled-meal range and concentrating on my new restaurant at The Copacabana Palace, Rio de Janeiro, named Mee. There is also the possibility of a new TV series as well as my memoirs. Not bad for someone who is celebrating their 30th career anniversary.
When were you at your happiest?
I am a happy person by nature and I am at my happiest when cooking, eating and spending time with friends.
What is your greatest fear?
Eating bad food and drinking bad plonk – it doesn’t happen often these days.
What is your earliest memory?
As a young child in Chicago, eating Chinese sausage with rice, simple fried rice, braised spare ribs with black beans and garlic – made by my mother.
What do you most dislike about yourself?
That I can’t sing. I do love to sing but I’m not very good.
Who has been your greatest influence?
I have two: my mother, Ying Fong, was a very strong influence and she passed her values on to me – values that I still live by today. I credit her with my success. Also my uncle Paul, who was an inspiration and mentor. I went to work for him in his restaurant, aged 11; my uncle Paul had a real love of food as well as being very savvy with a good business sense. He left me with a powerful work ethic and a lasting love of cooking.
What is your most treasured possession?
Alas, none. I feel that you arrive in this world with nothing and you should leave with nothing.
What do you most dislike about your appearance?
How short I am.
What trait do you most deplore in others?
Picky eaters. I don’t like to hear: ‘I don’t like this, or that’.
What is your favourite book?
Life And Death In Shanghai, by Nien Cheng, written when she was in exile in the United States – a fantastic autobiography published in 1989, which details Cheng’s six-year imprisonment during the Cultural Revolution.
Your favourite film?
The Godfather: Part II. I was hooked as soon as I saw the first film.
I like all sorts of music, apart from country and western.
And your favourite meal?
Peking duck, but it has to be my Peking duck. When I dine out, duck is the first thing I look for on the menu. It should be full of flavour, with crispy skin and moist meat.
Who would you most like to come to dinner?
I would set the table for four and do the cooking myself. I would invite Nelson Mandela, Zhou Enlai and the Queen – what a dinner party that would be.
What is the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to you?
It would have to be when I was called a ‘chink’ in the United States.
Do you believe in aliens?
Yes, why not?
What is your secret vice?
Don’t tell anyone but I do enjoy potato crisps.
Do you write thank-you notes?
I do, I am old-fashioned. I like to send, and receive, them.
Which phrase do you most overuse?
I don’t think there is one – not one that I am aware of.
What would most improve the quality of your life?
Peace on earth.
Tell us something we don’t know about you.
I really can dance.
What would you like your epitaph to read?
‘He tried his best.’ You can’t do any more than that, can you?
Download a copy of Ken Hom’s 30th anniversary booklet at www.kenhom.co.uk