Kenneth Lo (born Lo Hsiao Chien; 12 September 1913 – 11 August 1995) was a Chinese diplomat, food writer, restaurateur, retailer and tennis player.
Lo Hsiao Chien[a] 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]
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. He wrote more than thirty Chinese cookbooks.[b] 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]
Lo died of cancer, aged 81, on 11 August 1995 in a London hospital.[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]
