Ken Hom is an internationally regarded authority on Chinese and Oriental cooking, and has 25 years' experience as a television chef. He began his culinary career in his uncle's Chicago restaurant at the age of eleven, before eventually moving on to teach at California's Culinary Academy. Following a spell studying gastronomy in France, Ken presented his first TV series in 1984 - Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery on the BBC. Since then, he has written over 30 cookery books and presented numerous internationally distributed television series, and has launched a massively successful range of woks and accessories, with over 7 millions woks sold in 59 countries to date. In 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University for 'outstanding success within the international food world', and in 2009 was awarded an honorary OBE for 'services to the culinary arts' and in recognition of the social and historical impact of his role in the UK's adoption of Chinese cuisine.