Deh-Ta Hsiung

Deh-ta Hsiung was born in Beijing and travelled widely throughout China as a teenager. Coming from a family of gourmets and scholars, his interest in food and wine developed as part of his traditional Chinese upbringing. Deh-ta came to England in 1950 to complete his education at Oxford and London, where he now lives.

He is an acknowledged expert on Chinese food and cookery - besides being the author of several best-selling books and a food and wine consultant for Chinese restaurants and food manufacturers, he is also a tutor of international renown. He was a regular teacher at the late Ken Lo's Chinese Cookery School in London between 1981 and 1996, as well as in France, Italy, Finland and as far away as India, where he was sent by the UN to conduct courses in the leading Catering Institutes. Several of Deh-ta's books have been translated into all the major European languages, and the German edition of The Chinese Kitchen (DIE CHlNE()lSCHE KUCHE) was awarded a silver medal by the Gastronomische Akademie Deutschlands in 200I.

Currently, Deh-ta is working on two projects - an erotic thriller set in London and Hong Kong with plenty of eating, as one of the main characters is a cookery writer! The other project is Deh-ta's personal diary of 1949, the year in which the People's Republic was established in China, and Deh-ta set off for his long and arduous journey to England.