But as soon as I discovered them, there was no reason not to use them We’re not in such a strait- jacket anymore. Olive oil is not a very British ingredient, but everyone has it in their cupboard, just as everyone has a bottle of soy sauce.”It’s the result of food products going round the world and being discovered by different countries,” he continues. “Today you can buy lemon grass, ginger or Chinese cabbage at any supermarket. Fusion cooking is the natural outcome of the cosmopolitanisation of food. “Ten or even five years ago, this series would have been harder to do,” Hom contends. It shows people how to pep up their cooking.”Perhaps because of the prevalence of foreign travel these days, we’re all becoming more ready to accept outside influences.

I wanted to expand people’s horizons and show that Asian ingredients could be used not just for Asian food, but for everyday cooking It’s what I do every day. “The idea is something I’ve been doing for 20 years, mixing Asian ingredients with Western food. I grew up in a very Chinese household, but also in the larger Western world. The fact that Hom has penned 14 best-selling cookbooks and that 10 per cent of homes in the UK possess a Ken Hom wok can’t hurt, either.Taking a short break in London recently, Hom explains the thinking behind the series. He now resides chiefly in a converted 12th-century tower in south-west France, but should that ever pall, he also has houses in Paris and California This TV cookery lark certainly keeps the wolf from the door. Watching dishes like stir-fried prawns and scallops in black bean and tomato butter sauce, or grilled coconut chicken curry, or Asian-flavoured salmon fishcakes being prepared on screen, you can almost smell the wonderful aromas wafting towards the camera.The globe-trotting chef was brought up in Chicago’s Chinatown where he helped in his uncle’s restaurant from the age of 11. This fashionable new development in cookery melds traditional Western ideas with spicy flavours from the East.

Ken Hom Travels With a Hot Wok is here to lighten up the post-Christmas gloom.
Combining elements of Michael Palin and Keith Floyd’s shows, Hom’s new series takes in exotic locations such as Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore, Sydney, Los Angeles and Vancouver where he rustles up tempting examples of Pacific Rim, or fusion, cuisine. According to top chef Ken Hom, Britain’s willingness to embrace all manner of culinary influences means we now boast some of the most adventurous cuisine in the world. And he should know; such is his appeal, that 10 per cent of UK households possess one of his woks

If, like Bridget Jones, you are facing the prospect of endlessly recycled turkey curry over the next few days (or weeks), then help is at hand. Come the summer the Tate swaps the high-coloured brilliance of Bonnard for that of Patrick Heron. He’s 78 this year and as time rolls by he looks like one of the major British artists of the last 50 years.On a rather different note, if, like me, you missed the once-in-a-lifetime Vermeer exhibition a couple of years ago, there is a small consolation at Dulwich Picture Gallery (0181-693 5254) in August and September in the shape of a Pieter de Hooch exhibition, apparently the first ever devoted to this subtle second master of the 17th century.Other highlights of the autumn include a show of new work by Will Maclean at Art First (0171-734 0386) in October and back at the Tate, an exhibition of the great late 19th-century stylist John Singer Sargent runs from November into January 1999 It looks as if we’re in for a good year.. One of the simpler and more intriguing tributes is at the National Gallery (0171-747 2885) in April where the sculptures by Moore will be placed alongside a selection of his favourite works from the National Collection. It opens at the Royal Academy (0171-300 8000) at the end of this month and runs through to the middle of April.
Meanwhile, there’s plenty more Bacon at the Hayward Gallery (0171-921 0600) in February and March in the first major showing there of his work for 10 years while at the Tate Gallery (0171-887 8000) from February to May an exhibition devoted to the altogether gentler pleasures of Pierre Bonnard will include several amazing pictures of his wife Marthe in the bath.1998 is the centenary of Henry Moore’s birth, so we can expect a host of anniversary exhibitions around the country.

Sooner or later someone had to devise an exhibition to include the 19th-century painter Augustus Egg alongside modern masters Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon. “The Art Treasures of England”, as they have called it – I can’t help but think of it as “Freud Egg and Bacon” – gathers some 450 artworks from 100 museums around the country in celebration of the richness of our regional collections and ought to be the first unmissable show of the year. From Augustus Egg to Francis Bacon, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, from painting to sculpture, London’s public galleries are offering arts for all tastes and interests in 1998

It had to happen. “What’s worse, she can prove it.” Later he reflects that he’d like to ask his doctor for a prescription for some medicinal marijuana: “I set my car-keys down, and five minutes later I know exactly where they are.”One more face to watch in 1998 is the likeable, confessional stand-up, Adam Bloom Just watch him grow.. He is an almost old-fashioned, back-to-basics comic – the archetypal one man and his mike.He has mean way with a one-liner, too. “I’m in love with a philospher, and she doesn’t even know I exist,” he complains.