Kenneth Lo | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lo Hsiao Chien 12 September 1913 Fuzhou, Fujian, China |
| Died | 11 August 1995 (aged 81) London, England |
| Education | |
| Spouse |
Anne Phillipe Browne
(m. 1954) |
| Children | 4 |
| Culinary career | |
Current restaurant(s)
| |
Kenneth Lo (born Lo Hsiao Chien; 12 September 1913 – 11 August 1995) was a Chinese diplomat, food writer, restaurateur, retailer and tennis player.
Early life
Lo Hsiao Chien[lower-alpha 1] was born on 12 September 1913 in Fuzhou (the capital of Fujian, China).[2] His grandfather, Sir Lo Feng-Lu, had been Chinese Ambassador to Britain, while his father was the Chinese Consul General in London.[3] As a child, the younger Lo was rechristened Kenneth, which had been a nickname a British physician had given him.[2][3] In his youth, Lo excelled in tennis representing Peking University and becoming champion of North China. Later, he represented China at the 1936 Davis Cup.[4] He graduated from Yenching University in Beijing with a B.A. in physics, and subsequently obtained an M.A. in English literature from the University of Cambridge.[3]
Career
After graduating from Cambridge, Lo worked as an industrial relations officer at the Chinese consulate in Liverpool. He was promoted to vice-consul in Manchester in 1946, but left diplomatic service after the Communist seizure of China in 1949.[3] With a loan of $80, he opened a shop selling Chinese greeting cards and, as business improved, Chinese pottery too.[5] By 1956, Lo's business had expanded to the point that he had his own art gallery in London.[2]
Lo also began pursuing a career as a writer sometime between 1953 and 1955; in total, wrote more than thirty Chinese cookbooks.[lower-alpha 2] His first cookbook, Cooking the Chinese Way, was written in three weeks and sold 10,000 copies.[2] His 1970s cookbook Chinese Food was similarly well-received, while New Chinese Vegetarian Cooking (1987) contained, according to one reviewer, "such tempting recipes as Sichuan hot-braised stir-fried eggplant and stir-fried asparagus with garlic."[3] Lo also wrote reviews for Egon Ronay and The Good Food Guide.[2]
In 1976, Lo founded the London-based Chinese Gourmet Club. In 1980, he cofounded Memories of China—a restaurant which offered a variety of Chinese dishes, including those from Lo's hometown in Fujian—together with his wife and several business partners; The Daily Telegraph announced that it "was instantly rated among the best Chinese restaurants in the country".[3] The same year, Lo established the London-based culinary school, Ken Lo's Kitchen, which may have been the first Chinese cooking school in Europe.[3] A second Memories of China branch was opened in 1989.[5]
Personal life and death
Lo died of cancer on 11 August 1995 in a London hospital, aged 81.[2][5] He was survived by his wife, Anne Phillipe Browne (c. 1929–2013), whom he had married in 1954,[3][6] and their four children: Robert, Michael, Vivienne, and Jennifer.[2] Nick Smurthwaite and Henry McNulty of The Independent described Lo as "the foremost expert in Britain on Chinese food" who "played a huge part in popularising and improving its consumption".[2]
Notes
- ↑ Chinese: 羅孝建; pinyin: Luō Xiàojiàn[1]
- ↑ According to The Independent, Lo "wrote the first of 40 Chinese cookbooks in 1953".[2] However, according to The New York Times, he "wrote his first book on Chinese cooking in 1955".[3]
References
Citations
Bibliography
- Associated Press (13 August 1995). "Kenneth Lo". Wisconsin State Journal. p. 16. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- Kington, Miles (2019). My Mother, the Bearded Lady: The Selected Letters of Miles Kington. Unbound. ISBN 9781783526529.
- Lo, Vivienne (28 January 2013). "Anne Lo obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- Pace, Eric (14 August 1995). "Kenneth Lo, 81, an Ambassador Of Chinese Cuisine to the West". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- Smurthwaite, Nick; McNulty, Henry (16 August 1995). "Obituary: Kenneth Lo". The Independent. Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- Thorniley, Tessa (2021). "Representations of China in The Penguin New Writing (1940–1950): How Chinese Writers Shaped Responses to China". In Wielander, Gerda; Kehoe, Séagh (eds.). Cultural China 2020: The Contemporary China Centre Review. University of Westminster Press. pp. 76–79. ISBN 9781914386220.