This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yan.
 

Martin Yan
December 2004
Born	22 December 1948 (age 64) Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Cooking style	Chinese, mainly Cantonese
Education	Munsang College Overseas Institute of Cookery of Hong Kong University of California, Davis
Current restaurant(s)[show]
Television show(s)[show]
Official website
http://yancancook.com

Martin Yan (Chinese: 甄文達; born 22 December 1948) is a Chinese-born American chef and has hosted his award-winning cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1978.

Early years and education
With ancestral roots in Kaiping, Guangdong, China, Yan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, to arestaurateur father and a grocer mother, Yan began to cook at 12. He moved to Hong Kong when he was 13, and attended the Munsang College in Kowloon City. During this time in Munsang College, he worked at his uncle's Chinese restaurant and learned about the traditional method of Chinese barbecue there. 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 degreein 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, Calgarytalk show in 1978 (on CFAC-TV, now CICT-DT). He has hosted over 1,500 episodes of the PBS cooking showsYan Can Cook since 1982. His shows have been broadcast in over 50 countries.[1] He currently hostsMartin Yan - Quick & Easy. He also hosts Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking where he tours Chinatownsaround 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 the San Francisco Bay Area. 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 (海南雞飯, 2005).

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 ofHell'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.

Personal life
Yan currently lives in California with his wife Susan and their twin sons, Colin and Devin.

Television appearances
•Yan Can Cook (1978— ) - Host
•Christine Cushing Live - Guest
•Space Ghost Coast to Coast - Guest
•Martin Yan's Hong Kong (2005–2007) - Host
•Martin Yan's Quick and Easy - Host
•Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking - Host
•Martin Yan's China (2008) - host
•Iron Chef America (2011) - Judge
•Food Court (2011) Hong Kong Cable TV - Tutor / Host
•Iron Chef Vietnam (2012) - Guest Judge
•Top Chef (2013) - Guest Judge
•Hell's Kitchen (2013) - Guest Judge
•Martin Yan: Taste of Vietnam (2013) - Host

Cookbooks
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
•Chinese Recipes (1978)
•The Joy of Wokking (1978)
•The Yan Can Cook Book (1981, reprinted 1983)
•Martin Yan's Feast: The Best of Yan Can Cook
•Chinese Cooking for Dummies
•Martin Yan's Asian Favorites
•Martin Yan's Quick and Easy
•Martin Yan's Chinatowns
•Martin Yan's Culinary Journey Through China
•Martin Yan's Asia
•Martin Yan's Entertainment At-Home
•Martin Yan the Chinese Chef
•Martin Yan's Invitation to Chinese Cooking
•Martin Yan's Feast

Awards

 

Martin Yan in 1994
 

•An honorary Doctorate of Culinary Arts by Johnson & Wales University
•A Daytime Emmy Award in 1998 for best cooking show
•A 1996 James Beard Award for Best TV Food Journalism
•A 1994 James Beard Award for Best TV Cooking Show
•The Antonin Careme Award by the Chef's Association of the Pacific Coast
•The Courvoisier Leadership Award by Courvoisier
•2008 Picnic Day (UC Davis) Parade Marshall

See also
•Chinese American cuisine
•Cantonese cuisine
•Food science