Martin Yan (Chinese: 甄文達; Pinyin: Zhēn Wéndá; Cantonese jyutping: Yan Man Tat) (born 1948) is a Chinese-born American chef and the host of the award-winning US national cooking show Yan Can Cook.
Born in Guangzhou, China, to a restaurateur 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 continuous 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 .
After teaching Chinese cooking for the extension program and appearing on a local Calgary talk show in 1978 (on CHCT-TV, now CICT-TV), Yan has been hosting over 1,500 episodes of the PBS cooking shows Yan Can Cook since 1982. He has also appeared on cartoon talk show Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, which currently airs on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Martin Yan currently hosts "Martin Yan - Quick & Easy." He also hosts Martin Yan's Chinatown Cooking, where he tours Chinatowns around the globe.
Yan is one of the lead actors of the Singaporean movie Rice Rhapsody (海南雞飯, 2005).
Martin Yan also received the title of "Master Chef" by the American Culinary Federation.
He has appeared as a guest judge on an episode of Iron Chef America, on the episode in which Cat Cora lost by one-tenth of a point.
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:
Yan is married to a Japanese woman whom he met in college. His wife gave birth to their twins in 1992 Colin and Devin. They currently reside in Hillsborough, CA. Yan grows his own vegetables and herbs in his backyard.
