Noted Food Writer Kenneth Lo Dies

Food writer and restaurateur Kenneth Lo, who helped popularize Chinese cuisine in the West, has died of cancer. He was 81.

Lo, author of more than 30 best-selling cookbooks, died early Friday in a London hospital, his family said Saturday.

Born Lo Hsiao Chien at Foochow, southern China, Lo came to London as a child when his father was appointed Chinese consul-general in 1919. He was renamed Kenneth by a family doctor who was unable to spell his name on medication labels.

Schooled in London, he studied at Beijing and Cambridge universities before becoming industrial relations officer for the Chinese consulate in the northwestern city of Liverpool. After World War II, he was appointed Chinese vice-consul in nearby Manchester.

He wrote his first cookbook at the age of 40.

Lo opened his first restaurant, Memories of China, in London’s upscale Belgravia district in 1980.