HE'S written 38 books in two decades, yet it's only now at the age of 81 that Ken Lo considers himself an author. It's a change of heart that follows the recent publication of his autobiography, The Feast Of My Life, which says as much about Chinese culture, history and heritage as it does about Lo's lifelong passion: food.
The Chinese restaurateur, gourmet, cookery teacher and columnist admitted he had long had the inclination to write his autobiography. There was plenty of food for thought: anecdotes about his years in the kitchen, as the genial host of London's most chic Oriental restaurant, of being considered more au fait with Chinese cooking than any of his compatriots.
The Feast Of My Life, published by Doubleday, has received favourable reviews in the British press as well as in publications in India, Singapore and even Oman. Lo's life makes for interesting reading; the book, he said, was spurred on by 'the many odd events in my life', from working as a bomb warden to inadvertently qualifying for the Davis Cup.
Lo's family arrived in England in 1919 from their native Fukien province. He was six years old. As a teenager he returned to Beijing University, graduated with a degree in physics and then returned to England to get his degree in English literature at Cambridge. During World War II, Lo took on the duty of university bomb warden, whose job it was to alert the colleges in the event of a German attack. He then moved to a short stint as a radio presenter for the BBC overseas service, after which he became a labour relations officer for Chinese seamen based in Liverpool. While there he wrote a book called the Forgotten Wave, now an Imperial War Museum exhibit.
Although Lo was invited by the Chinese Foreign Ministry to return to his homeland, he declined, opting instead to play for the Chinese team in the Davis Cup at Wimbledon, to coach tennis, and begin publishing Chinese art prints. He fell into writing cookbooks almost by accident.
'Chinese food was just getting popular. It was right after the war and the number of Chinese restaurants had begun to grow.' And as well as literature, Lo certainly knew his food. So in the late 1950s he approached the publishing house of Penguin and suggested a book, simply titled Chinese Food, which he said would explain this most complex of gastronomic subjects to the Western world. The publisher bought the idea and, over the past 21 years, Lo has written close to 40 cookbooks, many of which are regularly reprinted.
'I had access to cookbooks printed in China and that was all I needed. I had travelled extensively all over China, visiting Kunming, Guangzhou and Hangzhou. All I had to do was interpret traditional books so the English could understand them. They've sold very well - some reprints have sold up to half a million copies,' Lo said. Before long, his name had become synonymous with the best of Chinese cooking, and the veteran gourmet realised he could cash in on the recognition.