Content and Background of the Ken Hom Library

On the 12th September 2007 Oxford Brookes University awarded Ken Hom an honourary docorate in recognition of his ‘outstanding success within the international food world’. On that occasion, Donald Sloan, the head of the Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Management Department, talked to Ken about his life, and his work, and discovered that he was looking for a new home for his library. With alacrity, Donald offered Oxford Brookes, and in particular, our purpose built Special Collections Room, with its carefully controlled temperature and humidity levels. Other collections housed there include the Fuller Collection, and the Jane Grigson Collection, which form part of our thematic gastronomy collections

Ken Hom's personal library contains all the books that he used throughout his career, with an emphasis on Asian cookery, including Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese, as well as memorabilia to do with his television shows and consulting work, including menus, invitations, photographs and artefacts. There are examples of the retail lines he was involved with, for example, the golden wok that was awarded to Ken Hom on the occasion of his 1,000,000th sale of Ken Hom Woks. There are also awards, and presentational items, like a souvenir chef's apron from Denny's of Soho. Many of the television shows presented by Ken Hom are available as well, on video, as part of the collection.