East meets West. (Industry Spotlight).

Name: Ken Hom

Home: London, England

Occupation: Authority on Chinese foods.

Mottoes by which I work: "Keep it simple."

If I weren't involved in food: I'd probably be a musician.

The one tool no chef should be without: A well-seasoned work.

For over 20 years, Ken Hom has been a respected authority on the subject of Chinese foods. He is considered by many to be the father of melding Eastern and Western cooking ideals and is known for the concept of "fusion" before it became a "bad" word.

Born in China and raised by his widowed mother in the U.S., Ken grew up in a melting pot of American culture, but ate from a traditional Chinese rice bowl. Having penned over 20 books on China and Asian cooking, he is still going strong.

After his book, The Taste of China, was published, the BBC approached him to create cookbooks in conjunction with a cooking series for the national television station. Airing prime time on one of only four channels at that time, Ken attracted a huge viewer audience in the United Kingdom. To a country of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding eaters, the idea of velveting chicken or stir frying, and certainly using such products as squid and scallions (spring onions) was foreign. Soy sauce was known as a "packet" in the take-out bag of Chow Mein. Ken slowly and persistently convinced an entire nation to appreciate Chinese food in its truest form.

In order to do so, he had to patiently convince the "sweet and sour" eating crowd to first try black bean and garlic or plum sauce, almost like coaxing children to like eating vegetables. His persuasive techniques worked, and he managed to win over an entire nation and the world.

Today, Ken has an impressive list of accomplishments and claims to fame. He can be found entertaining British Prime Minister Tony Blair and family or French President Jacques Chirac. He has his own line of cookware, has written multiple books in many languages, consults for many restaurants, and endorses a line of prepared foods and sauces--the list goes on and on.

What does he do that his peers don't? He constantly seeks to learn and grow, yet he does so with humility. Inspired by people who are passionate about what they do and who do it well, Ken is able to recognize and appreciate those qualities in others.

Q: You have done so many things; how do you describe what you do?

A: Many people interview me, and they ask me what I do. Obviously, I'm a chef but I don't have a restaurant; I cook, but I don't have a regular job; I write, but not regularly; I eat, but I'm not always a restaurant critic. I'm beginning to be recognized as a food authority on a subject that I've done for a very long time. Many people use me as a consultant.

Q: What is your most vivid food memory?

A: On a very cold day when I was five years old, eating something in my mom's kitchen. She'd be making Chinese sausage cooked with rice and a fried egg, with just a dab of oyster sauce. It was so well done. To my mind, it's still one of the greatest dishes because it was so simple.

Q: What was your first job in this business and how did you get there?

A: I started working in restaurants when I was very young, but my first serious job in this industry was when I started teaching cooking in my home in the seventies. My first real job was when I began teaching at the California Culinary Academy. It was a quantitative professional leap to another level. It was one of the first cooking schools that started along with the CIA at that time. I was asked along with people like Wolfgang Puck and Jeremiah Tower to be the first professors in the school as specialists in our fields. Actually, it was Jeremiah Towers that suggested they contact me.

Q: What were the students like at that time in California?

A: This story is applicable only to your magazine: In the mid-seventies, for my first lecture, I asked the Dean, "Are you sure these people are really serious about cooking?" He said, "Yes." So for the first class, I came in with a live chicken. Immediately, when I killed the chicken, half of the class nearly fainted. Most of the men went to the bathroom to vomit. I showed them how to butcher the chicken. I explained to them that we could not eat the chicken that day; it had to rest. They had never seen anything like this--a chicken slaughtered from beginning to end. Afterwards, the Dean told me, "These students are serious, but not that serious."

Q: How did you slaughter the chicken?

A: The traditional Chinese way, slitting the throat and saving all the blood with a little bit of salt. A lot of people don't know how to do that. It's not something I love to do, but I think people [in this industry] should know how to do it. Actually, it died a very quick and happy death.

Q: What do you do with the blood?

A: I salt it to help it coagulate, which is steamed and can be used in blood puddings, etc.

Q: How many of your students have become successful chefs?

A: Many of my students have become successful chefs in their own right. Mark Franz is at Farallon; Charlie Trotter is the most visible. It's amazing when they say they were inspired by my sharing, my vision of food with them. I think they're all successful.

Listen, if they can stay in this business, they're successful.

Q: How did you begin writing about food?

A: Jacques Pepin inspired me to write. He said he'd beard about my classes and thought I should put those ideas in a book. He was the first one that connected me with my first editor, Anne Bramson. Jacques had just finished a book called La Technique and suggested I do a similar one called Chinese Technique, which was quite successful.

Q: Because you're always jetting off, where do you live and work?

A: London is my home, but I go to France often. I have clients in Asia and the Middle East. I would like to go to Africa and may be cooking for Nelson Mandela next year. Just because you're cooking for anybody just because they're well known doesn't mean anything. Some people are interested in food and some aren't. We are all united by the love of food. If they aren't [interested in food], then I'm not interested in them.

Q: What do you love to cook?

A: Most people know me for the food that I've written about. When I'm doing Chinese cooking, I'm doing traditional cooking that I've been taught. What I'm really known for in Asia is my personal cuisine, which is a mixing of East and West. I [travel] to Thailand, Korea, Taiwan, and Indonesia. For years I've worked with the Oriental [Hotel in Bangkok]. What they're interested in is probably known as "fusion." In the early eighties, I wrote a book called East Meets West, which was a bit ahead of its time. It took about 15 years before it caught on. Outside of certain areas, I'm still known for pioneering this mix of East and West.

Q: Why did you concentrate your work in England rather than in America?

A: I think it's a confluence of events. What happened in the U.K. is that in the early eighties I bad a BBC television series that was such an enormous success. I mean, it really made me a household name. It made me a part of British life. They pretty much adopted me. In a recent survey, the Ken Hom name is known by more than 70% of the people. They may not know who I am, but they know the name. I was doing it long before these television programs with celebrity chefs became popular. But having said that, I am always heartened because I have the respect of my peers, which is the most important thing.

Q: You've done a lot of interesting things, consulting in-flight dining, for example. What was that like?

A: I was one of the first in the late eighties and nineties to work with Cathay Pacific [Airlines] to [re-develop] their menus in economy, business, and first class. No chefs were consulting with airlines before. I went to 36 ports around the world, working with all the chefs. It was an enormous learning experience for me. Cathay Pacific was one of the largest airlines at that time. They had gotten hold of my East Meets West book and were really impressed with the idea of putting both hemispheres of food together. They thought it would be an interesting concept for the company, which has its foot in both worlds. It was an enormous success. They spent millions on advertising and it made me very well known in Asia.

Q: How are you received in Asia?

A: I think they see me as someone who has an Asian background, who has brought a new vision and look, a new perspective of Asian foods that might fit into modern Asia now.

Q: How do you feel about the Chinese food outside of Asia?

A: I think some of the Chinese foods outside of Asia are very good. In London, you can eat very well. You can close your eyes and think you're in Hong Kong. In Queens, N.Y., for example, you can eat Chinese food and think you are in Taipei. Certainly, San Francisco [has good Chinese food] and wherever there is large Chinese population. In France it's a bit more dicey. I think they tend to mix all kinds of things [together]. I have yet to find the kind of food I would find in America or Britain, that kind of Chinese food. It might exist, but I'm still searching.

Q: There are a couple things I'll mention, and I'd like you to comment upon them:

Q: Sweet and sour:

A: Sweet and sour could be absolutely wonderful, or it could be a nightmare. I think really good sweet and sour is phenomenal, but when it's badly done, it's the worst thing you've ever eaten in your life.

Q: Monosodium glutamate (MSG):

A: MSG is totally unnecessary if you have good food. The MSG Association has been trying to recruit me for years. Every time I make a public comment about MSG, they become fierce. People don't realize that it's a multi-billion dollar business. It's in all kinds of processed foods.

Q: What do you intend to do in the future?

A: I intend to continue with what I've been doing. I consult for a large restaurant group in the U.K. that keeps me very busy. I'm doing less television. The kind of television I like to do is more [towards] teaching rather than entertaining television. That's more my thing. What I'm known for in the UK is not so much as an entertainer, but more as a respected chef.