Biography

A new star on the home-cooking front has arrived in the form of Ching-he Huang. This young foodie entrepreneur, who was born in Taiwan to Chinese parents, was raised on freshly-cooked home meals for which ingredients were bought on a daily basis.

However, her major food influences stem from the traditional cooking styles of her farming community grandparents who lived out in the countryside of southern Taiwan. With their paddy fields and bamboo farms, they also cultivated an orangery, sweet potato patch, and mango
trees. So for Ching, weekends were a chance to eat meals and snacks which originated from age-old recipes but were fresh from the soil.

At the age of five, Ching and her family emigrated to South Africa where she was exposed to a wholly different diet and climate. As the only Chinese children in their school, she and her older brother caused a stir with their packed lunches of stir-fried rice and vegetables with dried meat powder and cucumber pickle with chilli or mustard leaves’ pickle.

But the biggest change was to come when she was 11 and Ching moved again, this time arriving in London. From her early teens, with her parents involved in running their own businesses and as her mother was frequently abroad, Ching had to cook the family meals. She was taught the basic philosophy behind Chinese cuisine -- the emphasis on balancing yin and yang through ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ ingredients -- but was then was left to improvise by herself. Soon she was preparing everything from bamboo-leaf parcels of glutinous rice to simple, nutritious stir-fried rice dishes and noodle soups.

As a self-taught cook, therefore, this experience was to be the inspiration behind her launching her own food company, fresh from graduating from university with an Economics degree. Ching’s products can now be found at retail outlets such as the Whistlestop chain and in foodservice outlets. She also provided the salads at the Chelsea Flower Show and Wimbledon last year as well producing for a number of blue-chip companies in the City.

This was followed by the launch of Tzu, a healthy soft drinks range, which are now stocked in prestigious outlets such as Harrods, Selfridges, Fresh and Wild, as well as luxury hotels and health spas including The Metropolitan, The Soho Hotel, the Charlotte Street Hotel and Champneys.

Ching’s dynamic approach made a television presence inevitable. She was given a cookery series on the UK Food Channel at the beginning of 2005 called Ching’s Kitchen. Her approachable and versatile style appealed to a younger yet sophisticated market and the show was a success. It has been repeated on the channel this year.

In autumn 2006, Ching launched her new venture. Her first cookbook, “China Modern”, which features over 100 recipes, promises to give a 21st century twist to the cuisine which has been consistently popular within British food culture for over 50 years. “China Modern” is published by Kyle Cathie.

Ching has also appeared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen with James Martin, ITV’s Saturday Cooks and ITV’s Daily Cooks with Antony Worral Thompson.
She has also appeared on UK Food’s Market Kitchen alongside a host of other TV chefs as well as guest appearances on Five’s Cooking the Books with Jeremy Edwards, Ready Steady Cook with Ainsley Harriot and cooked live for Melanie Sykes on Grand Designs Live.

She has also written for food magazines such as BBC Good Food Magazine, Olive, Delicious and Sainsbury Magazine.

In 2008, Ching has been commissioned by the BBC to present a six part series called, “Chinese Food Made Easy” on BBC2, which will be aired for 6 weeks on Monday nights, BBC2 at 8.30pm. It will show Ching with wok-in-hand cooking on locations for the British public and with British producers to show how easy, delicious, healthy and tasty Chinese cooking can be. To accompany the series, the cookbook, “Chinese Food Made Easy” will be her second book and is published by Harper Collins.