Yan-kit So

Who was Yan-kit So?

Yan-kit So was a Chinese food historian and cookery expert who lived and worked mainly in London since the 1960s. She became known among a wider public for her commercially successful and critically acclaimed cookbooks, which contributed much to the popularization of Chinese cooking in Britain.

Born in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, she grew up in Hong Kong, where she graduated from University with a degree in history, and went on to acquire a DPhil at the University of London. She was married twice, to a Chinese surgeon whom she divorced, and then to the American historian Briton Martin Jr., who died in 1967 and with whom she had a son.