The chef and broadcaster on peeling prawns by the kilo, his bicultural pride and being ‘addicted’ to fish and chips

Ducks don’t like me when they look at me. I’ve cooked countless peking ducks, probably several thousand. On my first TV series [Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery on BBC Two, first broadcast on 29 October 1984] we did peking duck in the first programme and there was a run on ducks the next day in all the supermarkets. I’m their nemesis.

My father died when I was eight months old, he had a heart attack. So I grew up in Chicago with a single mum who, because she came from China, never spoke English. I had to speak Cantonese to her and it’s been a blessing in disguise. Because of that, I became bicultural. I spoke English in a western world, but at the same time, I kept my Chinese-ness, which I pride just as much. And it makes me proud too to do Chinese cooking and to have my books translated into Chinese. I mean, wow!