Martin Yan


Martin Yan is a Chinese-American chef and food writer. He has hosted his award-winning PBS-TV cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1982.

Early years and education

With ancestral roots in Taishan, Guangdong, China, Yan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, to a restaurateur father and a grocer mother. Yan began to cook at the age of 12. He moved to Hong Kong when he was 13, and later attended the Munsang College in Kowloon City. During this time in Munsang College, he worked at his uncle's Chinese restaurant and learned the traditional method of Chinese barbecue. He received a diploma from the Overseas Institute of Cookery of Hong Kong and later left for Canada for continued study. Ten years after his arrival in North America, Yan received a Master of Science degree in food science from University of California, Davis, in 1975.

Career

Yan began teaching Chinese cooking for a college extension program and appearing on a Canadian talk show from Calgary in 1978. He has hosted over 1,500 episodes of the PBS cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1982. His shows have been broadcast in over 50 countries. He currently hosts Martin Yan – Quick & Easy. He also hosts Martin Yan's Chinatowns, where he tours Chinatowns around the globe as well as "Martin Yan's Hidden China."
Yan has opened a chain of Yan Can Restaurants and founded the Yan Can International Cooking School in San Francisco. He has written over two dozen cookbooks. The American Culinary Federation has designated him a Master Chef.
Yan is one of the lead actors of the Hong Kong film Rice Rhapsody.
In 2007 he supported and endorsed the establishment of the .
He has appeared as a guest judge on several episodes of Iron Chef America and appeared on the cartoon talk show Space Ghost Coast to Coast. He also appeared as a guest judge on the Season 10 finale of Top Chef as well as a Season 11 episode of Hell's Kitchen.
He is not related to Chinese Canadian chef Stephen Yan of the CBC Television series Wok with Yan, though Martin was an employee and had worked for Stephen Yan in the 1980s as demonstrator for Stephen's products.

Television appearances