What are you up to at the moment Ching? Keeping busy?
Right now I’m busy juggling my food businesses with getting ideas together for my next book. I started Fuge (pronounced Fug-ee) nine years ago creating quality ready to eat products for the food service, retail and restaurant sectors. We do a mixture of Oriental and Western food, things like prepared salads, noodles, dim sum and finger food but all with authentic flavours and healthy ingredients. We are well known in the industry but not by consumers, although they have probably tasted our products at events like Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and the Chelsea Flower Show.

I’m also developing my health drinks brand, TZU. This is a 100 per cent natural blend of fruit juice, sparkling water and Chinese brewed sorghum vinegar, which is used to balance the metabolism and aid digestion. It’s also great for detoxing and flushing out toxins. This side of the business has grown organically over the last few years and we are now looking at plans to take TZU abroad. It’s an exciting time!

Your series ‘Chinese Food Made Easy’ was very popular. Were you surprised by how little British people knew about Chinese cooking?
I did think that people knew more about Chinese food because takeaways are so popular, although they don’t really represent proper Chinese cooking. Cantonese dishes were the first to arrive in Britain, thanks to the connection with Hong Kong, so that is what people became used to. In the series I think people got to understand how far ranging the cuisine actually is, from fast rustic street food through to intricate occasion cooking. Admittedly I had to go back to the drawing board and ease them into it, doing dishes like sweet and sour pork in an authentic way before I worked up to the super hot hot-pot!

I want to show people that cooking Chinese at home is as easy as Indian or Italian and you can find the ten or so essential store cupboard ingredients at most supermarkets. The beauty of Chinese food is the multitude of influences it has absorbed from places like Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore, wherever the Chinese settled. Depending on where you go in the world it has been anglicised and adapted to cater for all tastes. This is the point of Chinese food, you can make it your own!

Run us through the ying and yang philosophy behind real Chinese food.
This is a traditional Chinese philosophy that basically evens everything out and creates a balance. The two opposing forces, ying and yang, are best explained as sun and moon, male and female, hot and cold. Ingredients have a ying or yang quality and we're always trying to achieve the perfect balance between the two. Yang foods are meats, garlic, ginger, chillies and some fruits like durian and mango. In winter you need more yang foods to warm you up.

Ying foods include ingredients such as cucumber, pak choi, seafood and fish and most fruits.
Broadly speaking, ying are cooling, while yang are heating. It applies to cooking styles too: deep frying is yang while steaming is ying. The ideal combination when planning a meal is to have a soup and a stir fry with a deep fried dish, but not too much of any one thing. Try mixing it up next time you’re in a Chinese restaurant!

You’re very gorgeous and slim. Is Chinese food not stacked with calories?
Using fresh ingredients and following the ying/yang principal you can enjoy Chinese food and stay as slim as a chopstick! You do have to be careful with salt content as soy sauce is quite high in salt but you can get low-sodium versions these days. On the TV show it looked like I used lots of oil for cooking I didn’t. For most dishes a tablespoon is enough to get a good stir fry going. If you’ve got a well seasoned wok you hardly need any at all, just a quick spray and away you go!

What do you love to cook most at home?
I like stir fries and chicken chow mein – really fast and nourishing, it always hits the spot! It depends what mood I’m in, quite often I fancy a Chinese soup like my ‘egg flower’ drop soup, a one pot dish made with tomatoes, beaten egg, spinach, nori, spring onions and soy. It’s so nutritious and tasty.

Do you ever cheat and buy take-out?
I have a restaurant near me in north London and if I’m feeling too lazy to cook I’ll order my usual, which is a combination of things that aren’t on the menu and a secret just for me! I can’t tolerate MSG so don’t go anywhere that uses it. There are some great takeaways out there and the standard of Chinese fast food is getting better but the dreaded MSG is still widely used, unfortunately.

Other than Chinese, what are your favourite foods?
I love classic British food. We moved here from South Africa when I was 11 years old, a bit of a shock to the system coming from sunny blue skies to grey, rainy London! We stayed in a B&B for a while and the first morning I woke up to the most amazing smells of a traditional English breakfast being cooked. We had the works: bacon, sausage, mushrooms, beans, hash browns and hot buttered toast and it made me feel so much better! Very different from the typical Chinese breakfasts of congee (rice soup) that we were used to.

After that I enjoyed all the old favourites like cottage pie, roast beef and apple crumble. Cumberland sausage with mash and gravy remains a favourite of mine to this day.

Is it possible to cook Chinese food using an AGA?
This is interesting as before the show I was very negative about using electric ovens or hotplates to cook with, then we had to demonstrate a dish on a 1970s electric cooker and it heated up beautifully! You could happily use a flat bottomed wok made of carbon steel on top of an Aga, the only issue being you won’t be able to control the temperature as well. But if things get too hot, just move it off the heat and give it a toss to cool the food down or add a splash of water. Adding ingredients to the wok also reduces the heat.

The other advantage of an Aga is the various cooking ovens. The hottest one would be perfect for roast Chinese pork or Peking duck while the simmering ovens are ideal for slow, braised meat dishes that are common in Chinese cookery.

China’s had a lot of press this year – what do you think people’s perceptions of China will be post-Olympics?
As a result of the Olympics I think people are taking more interest in Chinese culture, its food, history and its talent. As the country opens up we will see the cuisine start to change, accepting more influences from around the world and the whole scene will become more exciting and diverse. I hope the Olympics is just the beginning of a new relationship with the West that will see new business and investment opportunities opening up. As we travel to cities like Beijing, more English restaurants will appear. It’s a great thing! However, if more Chinese start to visit the UK we will have to up our game with our Chinese restaurants – the Chinese are very fussy about their food!

This is your second year at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham. Do you enjoy it? What will you be doing there?
It’s a great show, you never quite know what’s going to happen as everything takes place live on stage! I’ll be cooking in the main theatre and in the Kitchen Clinic, using seasonal British ingredients to produce some modern Chinese classics. When I get chance I’ll also be off to do a spot of shopping as it’s full of good ideas for Christmas gifts!

Ching’s Top 10 Store Cupboard Essentials
• Shaohsing or Shaoxing Rice Wine – used in lots of meat dishes. Drink it warm like sake!
• Black Rice Vinegar
• Dark and light soy sauce
• Five spice powder
• Chilli sauce
• Groundnut oil - for cooking
• Sesame oil – for dressing
• Cornflour
• Good quality stock
• Selection of fresh flavourings e.g. ginger, garlic, spring onion, chilli, coriander

Ching-He Huang will be at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC, Birmingham, 26 - 30 November and signing copies of her book Chinese Food Made Easy. Also at the show will be a host of quality exhibitors, artisan producers and celebrity chefs, including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, James Martin, Rachel Allen, Sophie Conran, Gary Rhodes and The Hairy Bikers. Visit www.bbcgoodfoodshow.com for full details or phone 0870 906 3802.