With Ken Hom, Angela Hui, Jeremy Pang, Helen Tse and Andrew Wong.

This event takes place in the British Library and will be simultaneously live streamed on the British Library platform. Tickets may be booked either to attend in person, or to watch on our platform (online) either live or within 48 hours on catch up. In-person ticket bookers will also be sent a bonus link to the online event. Viewing links will be sent out shortly before the event.

The online version of this event will be live captioned.

Food is at the heart of the Chinese British experience. Arriving, or growing up with multiple food traditions, cooking was always a means to survive and to integrate and at a time in the 1980s, it was estimated that over 90% of Chinese British employment was in catering. Whether Cantonese, Sichuan or Zhejiang, and however much it has been adapted, ‘Chinese’ food is now the most popular cuisine in the UK, continuing to evolve and bring fresh discoveries.

At this event speakers from very different food backgrounds share their stories, and their passions for food, as part of this remarkable and sometimes challenging cultural and culinary journey. With Ken Hom, one of Britain’s best-known food broadcasters; Angela Hui, author of Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter; restaurateur and writer Helen Tse and two-Michelin-starred chef Andrew Wong; all in conversation with School of Wok founder Jeremy Pang.

Followed by a book signing.

This event is part of the British Library Food Season 2023 and accompanies The British Library’s exhibition Chinese and British.

Half Price tickets available for British Library Members, Students, Under 26s and other concession groups. 

Ken Hom CBE is a Chinese-American chef, author of many books and a television host who came to national fame with his 1984 BBC series Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery. He is recognized as one of the world's leading experts in authentic Chinese and Asian cooking. Among his many accolades, in 2023, Ken was awarded Commander of the Order in the British Empire for service to the Culinary Arts in one of the last of the Queen's honours before her passing and was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Chopsticks event. 

Angela Hui is an award-winning journalist, editor and author of Takeaway: Stories from a Childhood Behind the Counter (2022). Her work has been published in gal-dem, Guardian, Financial Times, HuffPost, Independent, Lonely Planet, Refinery29, Vice, among others and is a former food and drink writer at Time Out. Currently, she is currently editor at REKKI, a free app transforming the way chefs order ingredients.

Jeremy Pang is a TV Chef, best-selling author and founder of acclaimed cookery school School of Wok. One of three generations of Chinese chefs, the School established a permanent home in London’s Covent Garden in 2012 where it specialises in teaching Eastern cuisine.  Jeremy's recipes have been featured in a wide variety of publications and online media including and he has made regular appearances on TV and radio, from Sunday Brunch and Nadiya's Family Feasts to Ready, Steady, Cook and BBC Radio 4's The Kitchen Cabinet. His own show Jeremy Pang's Asian Kitchen ran on ITV last summer and his latest book Jeremy Pang's School of Wok appeared in 2022.

Helen Tse is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and award-winning restaurant owner and part of three generations of remarkable Chinese women. Her memoir Sweet Mandarin recounts a journey from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to the UK, where Helen’s grandmother, Lily Kwok, opened one of Manchester's earliest Chinese restaurants. It is a tale of how food and a talent for cooking pulled them through despite many challenges. Helen took these learnings to join with her sisters Lisa and Janet in creating the award-winning Sweet Mandarin restaurant while continuing her writing career.

Andrew Wong is an award-winning chef and anthropologist. British born of Chinese heritage, his environment and nurture have had an equal impact. Combined with a strong academic background, the marriage of both has led to a cooking style that has one foot placed firmly in the future and the other inspired by the past. Andrew opened A.Wong in 2012 with his wife Nathalie – the ‘A’ paying homage to his parents Albert and Annie – and the restaurant was awarded its first Michelin star in 2017. In 2021 A.Wong was awarded a second Michelin star, the first outside Asia to achieve this honour. He is also a research associate at the School of Oriental & African Studies’ Food Studies Centre in London.

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Images: Angela Hui by Ken Lam, Andrew Wong by Jutta Klee

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