Chef and TV host Ken Hom was so hungry as an only child, growing up in Chicago, he still dreams about food in his 70s.
The Chinese-American star of Saturday Kitchen tells Donna Ferguson that he grew up “very, very poor” and was arrested for shoplifting when he was 10 years old.
Ken, 74, rose to fame in the UK in the 1980s when the BBC commissioned him to present Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery.
After successfully treating prostate cancer more than a decade ago, Ken became an ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK and has pledged the charity six-figure donations when he dies.
What did your parents teach you about money?
They taught me to be very careful with it and never to throw anything away because if you’re not careful you could end up with nothing. My father died when I was eight months old, so I was raised by my mother in Chinatown, Chicago. She was from China, never spoke English, and worked in a factory that made Chinese food for the US military. We were very, very poor and she was making the equivalent of about £60 a month today.
Cooking up a storm: Ken Hom got his first job in a restaurant when he was 11 after being caught shoplifting
As a child I was often hungry. I was so thin when I started school that I got a test to see if I had tapeworms. I still dream about food. A psychotherapist recently told me that the fact that I still dream about food is due to my childhood poverty and that the fear of not having enough to eat is still in the back of my mind.
Are you frugal, like your mother?
My mom was so frugal that when I started making money and bought her a first class ticket to fly somewhere, she exchanged it to go economy. When I asked her why, she said she put the money aside for me. I’d say, “But that’s my money – and I’ll give it to you!”
You could call me mean – I care about the environment. For example, when people send me envelopes, I keep them and reuse them.
What was your first job?
From the age of 11 working in my uncle’s restaurant business.
When I was ten, I was caught shoplifting by the security guards of a department store. I had taken things I liked – and didn’t have. I remember wrapping them up and putting them under the Christmas tree for myself.
Then I got caught. I was arrested and my uncle, who was a very successful businessman, came to interpret because my mother did not speak English. He said he would take me into the restaurant and I was released.
It was a good lesson – I never stole again. My uncle became my surrogate father, and I worked in the kitchen at his restaurant, doing prep work on weekends and during school holidays for $2 an hour, and I watched him run his business. He made a lot of money.
Have you ever had trouble making ends meet?
Yes, when I was about 25 and living in Berkeley, California. I didn’t have a job so I struggled until I started teaching Chinese cooking classes to pay the bills. Until then I had only cooked for friends. At the time, Americans didn’t really know how to cook Chinese unless they were Chinese, so the classes were a success.
One thing led to another and soon I was able to make the best investment of my life, because the house I rented was for sale. It was cheap — $25,000 — but I had to borrow from friends and family for the down payment.
I borrowed extra to redo the kitchen and then started teaching classes for 20 students at a time from my home. Those lessons led to my first book. I was commissioned by a major publisher in New York to produce a photo book, where I show techniques for cooking Chinese food in photos.
Have you ever been paid stupid money?
I was once paid a five-figure sum to run a pop-up restaurant for a hotel in Dubai – for a week! Business work can be very lucrative. Ever since I became known in the 1980s for cooking what was then “East meets West” cuisine, I’ve been hired by five-star hotels around the world to cook fusion dishes.
What was the best year of your financial life?
It must be 1981 when I was hired as one of the stars of a soft drink company rewards program. I was given $35,000 to teach eight cooking classes to the top distributors in Hong Kong.
Although I made more in the 1990s, I needed the money I made more in 1981.
I used it to pay off my mortgage. That’s why I see it as my best year. Plus, I was doing what I loved to do, so it felt like I had won the lottery.
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought for fun?
A vintage Rolex watch, which I bought in the 1980s for £8,000 when I was collecting watches. But in the 1990s, I started going to places like Brazil, where you can’t wear a watch like that or you’ll get robbed. So I decided to sell it and got £18,000 for it.
Some of my best investments have been in watches and wine. I once spent $2,000 on a Methuselah champagne [eight bottles in one]. I was going to open it at home for the year 2000, but ended up at another party, so I never did.
Family Ties: Ken with his mother when he was five
I later read that the same bottle had been sold for £10,000. I said, ‘Who cares, I’m not going to open that – I’m keeping it as an investment.’ And in 2008 I sold it for £26,000.
What’s your biggest money mistake?
Investing in the stock market in my twenties. I didn’t lose my money because I was saved before that happened. But you have to spend a lot of time studying it and I didn’t have time for that.
The best money decision you’ve made?
I bought my first house and sold it in 1997 for $337,000. Investing in real estate was my best money decision because it brought stability to my finances.
Are you saving for a pension?
I was saving for a pension from the age of 14, but I cashed it in in my fifties. It was invested in the stock market and I decided I didn’t want that. I put the money into stable investments like bonds instead. That was a fantastic decision.
Do you own real estate?
I own a small flat in Paris, a house in South West France and a condominium in Bangkok, where I live part of the time. Each accommodation has only one bedroom, so I cannot receive guests.
They have all been fantastic investments. Together they are probably worth around £2 million. The flat in Paris, for example, I bought in 1991 for £100,000, is now worth more than £600,000.
If you were Chancellor, what would you do first?
I would make sure everyone has enough to eat. I find it unscrupulous that in a society like ours people are still going hungry. I would increase funding for food banks and education programs that teach people to cook seasonal foods to save money. I would also work on reducing food waste.
Do you donate money to charity?
I donate a lot to Action Against Hunger and Prostate Cancer UK. I plan to leave large bequests to charities because I want my money to go to people who need it. Of course some money will go to my family because I don’t want them to struggle, but most of it will go to charity.
What is your first financial priority?
To leave these great legacies to charity. So many people have helped me in my life, and this is the best way I can think of to give back. My philosophy is: you come into this world with nothing, and you leave it with nothing.
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