A DECADE or more ago, when Ken Horn suddenly shot to fame thanks to a series of television cookery programmes, it was suggested by some writers that he became the media-friendly face of Chinese cookery simply because he could speak English with such precision.
It is true that he speaks well, indeed, more than well. There is terrific animation, and an edge of amused laughter, in his voice, which makes him immediately engaging, which makes you listen to what he is saying.
But Ken Horn has not become successful on this asset alone. What has ensured his success is a simple fact: he is a communicator. He is a teacher who makes certain that you, the viewer, the reader, gets taught. Watch him for a few minutes, and you feel you are already half-way to understanding. Watch him for a few programmes, and you feel you are a great cook. It is a great gift, explained partly by the fact that he used to work in television, on the other side of the camera.
I try not to think that the camera is there," he says. "I try to pretend nothing is happening, but what also helps is that for many years I taught cookery and so I think I am able to anticipate people's questions. As I cook I am wondering: What are they thinking? And I also think: Why should they be interested? So, my way is to convey my enthusiasm. I am passionate about food and I want to convey this."
And that passion is unbridled. Ken Horn's work fizzles with the fervour of a man who sees cooking as a cultural pursuit, who is fascinated by the way in which we reveal ourselves by how we cook and what we eat.
"China has a true food culture," he says. If you give a Chinese man £100, he will spend £60 on food. In the West, people will spend £10 on food and spend the rest on CDs or whatever. That is one of the main differences."
His background - he was born in Tucson, a year after his mother moved from China to the US to join his father, an overseas Chinese who died eight months after Horn was born - has given him a splendid vantage point from which to observe the differences in our food cultures. He is sceptical of the whole dieting/health-conscious craze, as one would expect of a Chinese, but he sees the problem in a broader light: "I fear that what many people have lost is the happiness that comes with eating. In China we eat good food, our diet is varied, we eat lots of vegetables and chicken. What happens in the West is that everybody goes off the other end, and people have lost the balance and enjoyment of a good diet."
For Ken Horn, the notion of balance and the positive effects of good food on people's health is simply a given with Chinese cooking. The techniques which he demonstrates in his new BBC 2 series, Ken Horn's Hol Wok on Wednesday evenings, and the dishes shown in his new book of the same name, are brilliantly logical, intelligent, creative and healthy. Everything centres on the wok, and Horn says that in introducing its abilities to his guests what surprised us was discovering the universality of the wok, and finding that so many people were so interested in the idea of the wok, and what can be done."
Ken Horn has become something of a chef superstar, consulting for hotel and restaurant groups, writing articles and books, and promoting his own brand of cookware, which he will be demonstrating in Dublin next week. But superstar or not, Ken Horn's work, in whatever media, is always concentrated on a single objective: "What I am trying to convey is love of food, and how nice it is to gather around the table with your family," he says. Armed with one of his woks, or one of his books, any family will clamber to enjoy the results of your work.