Yan is known for his lightning-fast knife action and his ability to whip up accessible meals - always with a smile. — MARTIN YAN/Instagram
FROM as far back as the 1980s, many Malaysians could routinely be found glued to the screen watching celebrity chef Martin Yan in action. Like everyone else, I too was enraptured by Yan’s gregarious personality – the sparkle in his eyes, his constant smile and the ease (and mad speed!) with which he cooked food – all served to add to his appeal.
Yan’s allure transcends age, geographical barriers and ethnicity. He has been cooking on television since 1979 and through his signature show Yan Can Cook – he has been able to dispel myths about Chinese cuisine whilst also disseminating information about the cuisine of his homeland.
With so many celebrities, you assume that there is some degree of artifice, a show that they put on when they appear on air. Surely Yan can’t be that cheerful in real life?
And yet, with Yan, what you see is exactly what you get. In person, the 75-year-old master chef is warm, ever-smiling and very, very funny. This sense of the everyman who hasn’t lost his humility or forgotten his roots isn’t just an act; it really is who Yan is.
Growing up poor
Martin Yan grew up in Guangzhou, China to a life of relative poverty. His parents owned a restaurant but unfortunately, his father died when he was five and the family fell on hard times. Aa a child during the Great Chinese Famine, Yan recalls the family being allocated ¼ cup of oil every month and says every night he “went to bed hungry”.
Yan was one of the first Chinese chefs to have a cooking show on American television when he started in 1982 and was instrumental in breaking barriers. — MARTIN YAN/Instagram
“So when I was growing up, I always felt very, very sad that we never had enough to eat,” he says.
It is perhaps this lack of food that caused Yan to gravitate towards a career in food – or rather, spreading joy through food.
At his mother’s encouragement, Yan moved to Hong Kong at 13 to work at his uncle’s restaurant. Later, he went to Canada to further his studies and eventually made his way to California where he completed his degree and masters in food science. To make some money on the side, he began teaching cooking – developing his lightning-fast knife skills that soon became his trademark.
While on a break from university, he went back to Canada to help a friend open a restaurant. This break turned into his big break when Yan was given the opportunity to appear on a Canadian talk show because the original chef had fallen sick and Yan had befriended some executives from the television station – who had been diners at his friend’s restaurant.
What was meant to be a one-off thing became permanent. Yan was so popular that he was given his own cooking show and asked to do 130 episodes! In a recent interview with Star Media Group’s Chinese radio station 988, he talked about how he started out only earning CA$100 (RM308) per episode. This eventually went up to CA$800 (RM2,464) per episode.
Yan had such a bubbly personality that his original show quickly transitioned into a ground-breaking cooking show in America titled Yan Can Cook, which aired over 3,500 episodes, beginning in 1982 and introduced Yan to audiences across the world. Yan estimates that he has made over 10,000 dishes from the inception of the show.
Easy Asian cooking is at the heart of what Yan does. Pictured here is his dish of rainbow potato salad. — MARTIN YAN/Instagram
On his show, Yan was instrumental in showing global audiences how to cook everyday Chinese meals from stir-fries to braises and for his deftness in the kitchen – he is renowned for being able to debone a chicken in 18 seconds flat!
“When I left China and went to Hong Kong, I had nothing. When I went to Canada and then the US, I had nothing. I went there by myself and had no relatives to take care of me and I had only a few dollars.
“So that’s the reason why I say on my shows, ‘If Yan can do it, you can do it!’ There’s no secret – you work hard, you love what you do and then somehow you’ll be successful,” he says.
Continued success
Yan Can Cook was a game-changer in that it served as a gentle introduction for Western audiences looking to learn how to cook Chinese food. It also helped put east Asians on the map at a time when there was no Netflix equivalent championing diversity on screen.
“I was the first Asian-American Chinese chef to host a daily food and cooking show way before any cooking show was available. In the old days, there were only two cooking show in the US. The other two shows were by Julia Child and Graham Kerr. And the Yan Can Cook show was the third cooking show.
Throughout his career, Yan has worked and met celebrated culinary stalwarts like Julia Child and Martha Stewart (pictured here). — MARTIN YAN/Instagram
“Being an Asian, we are a minority in a lot of countries, so if you can make a difference to break the barrier and unify people – basically if people respect me, that means they respect Asia. So I want to make Asians proud. That is my lifelong mission,” he says.
Part of Yan’s appeal has always been his ability to smile through everything – especially on camera. On television, he has never looked ruffled or troubled while cooking and it is his upbeat personality that has won him fans over all the world. So how does he keep on smiling on screen?
“A lot of people always ask me that question. ‘How come you always smile on camera?’ It’s very simple. I want to share with you the secret.
“On television, there are three or four cameras, so when I see the red light on the cameras, I remind myself, ‘Martin, smile! Because I imagine that every time I smile, money is coming out of the cameras. So then I get so excited because the longer I smile, the more money comes out!” he says, laughing.
Spending time giving back
These days, Yan spends his days travelling around the world, often in pursuit of charitable endeavours.
Yan has made 3,500 episodes of his ground-breaking Yan Can Cook and released 36 cookbooks aimed at making Chinese cooking easier. —YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, I work an average of 25 to 26 days a month. We do a lot of fundraising events and I never feel tired during the day when I work. When I go home, I have a shower and then I’m out like a light.
“But the thing is, I always believe that’s worth it. Because some people in their lifetime, they can only do so much. But I believe I can make people happy and inspire people.
“When I travel all over the world, there are a lot of young chefs who come to up me and say, ‘Oh chef Yan, I watched you when I was young. That’s why I became a chef!’”
“To me, that is satisfaction. That’s a sense of accomplishment that you know that you are making a very small dent, a small impact on humanity,” he says.
In 2022, Yan also won the prestigious James Beard Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the first Asian chef to earn this accolade.
“When I received the award, the first thing I said is, ‘I want to honour and appreciate all the hard-working chefs.’ They work so hard, but they may not get the same recognition as I did. So this award is for all the hard-working chefs, particularly Asian chefs working in smaller restaurants, in very harsh conditions over long hours, in hot and humid surrounds. But they persist, and they produce food day in and day out.
“And if you show humility and you work hard, I always believe you’ll become successful. And what is success? Success is when you are happy, when you feel good about yourself, when you are loved and respected by the people around you. To me, that is success,” he says.
Yan also recently released his 36th cookbook titled the Best of Yan Can Cook Cookbook, which features 110 of his favourite recipes from his show. Ultimately though, Yan says his own personal favourite recipe is a dish from his childhood.
“For most people around the world, their most favourite dish is always the first dish they taste from their mother. Because when you grow up, this is comfort food.
“When I was growing up, we had very little. So my mother would cook one Chinese sausage with rice in a claypot with a few shiitake mushrooms and a couple of pieces of chicken and serve this to three people. And then we would share. And to this day, I still love claypot cooking,” he says.
Despite his seemingly irrepressible energy, one has to wonder, at 75, does Yan ever feel like slowing down? In other words, is age catching up to him?
Yan is fierce in his response. In fact, he doesn’t even want to be reminded that he is getting older.
Yan has developed a reputation for his lightning-fast knife skills. He can debone a chicken in 18 seconds flat! —YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
“When you’re passionate about what you do, you don’t feel like you’re working. You don’t work a day of your life. And I don’t feel like I’m working.
“I feel like physically and mentally I’m still healthy enough. When you are blessed and you are able to do well from the community, you’ve got to give back to the community. So I feel that I have a lot more that I want to give back, because I’ve been so blessed,” he says.
