Ken Hom Library

The Ken Hom Library is the book collection and archive of renowned chef, author, and television presenter Ken Hom.

About the Ken Hom Library

The Ken Hom Library is the book collection and archive of renowned chef, author, and television presenter Ken Hom. The core of the library is the book collection that Ken used throughout his career, with an emphasis on Asian cookery, including Chinese, Korean, Thai and Japanese. The Ken Hom Library is located in the Special Collections Reading Room of Headington Library, Oxford Brookes University.

On 12 September 2007, Oxford Brookes University awarded Ken Hom an honorary doctorate in recognition of his ‘outstanding success within the international food world’. On that occasion, Donald Sloan, the then head of the Oxford School of Hospitality Management, talked to Ken about his life, and his work, and discovered that he was looking for a new home for his library. Donald offered Oxford Brookes, and in particular, our purpose built Special Collections Room, with its carefully controlled temperature and humidity levels.

As well as Ken Hom's personal library of books, the Ken Hom Library also includes 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.