7th June 2022
Celebrity chef Ken Hom has been awarded a CBE for services to charity, the culinary arts and education. It recognises the impact he has made on the UK embracing Chinese cuisine, and by becoming the country’s most recognisable ambassador for Asian culture.
Hom’s media career began in 1984 with his first television series, Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery, and the accompanying book of the same name, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies. He has since published more than 40 food-related books, presented seven television series and sold almost ten million Ken Hom woks.
As a founding patron of the Oxford Cultural Collective, he supports opportunities for young people working in hospitality and the culinary arts through an international scholarship in his name, while the annual OCC Ken Hom lecture has been delivered over the last ten years by figures including Lord Patten, Cherie Blair, Ben Okri and Jancis Robinson.
Hom also donated his entire collection of around 3,000 food-focused books to Oxford Brookes University, and in 2007, the university awarded him an honorary doctorate.
He is also a supporter of Action Against Hunger and an ambassador of GREAT, the government’s international marketing campaign.
Hom said: “I am honoured and humbled by this award.”