Editing Stephen Yan

{{Short description|Hong Kong-Canadian TV chef}}
{{BLP sources|date=January 2014}}
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{{Infobox chef
| name           = Stephen Yan
| image          = 
| caption        = 
| birth_date     = {{bya|1939}}<ref>{{cite news |last1=Liu |first1=Karon |title=The beloved 'Wok With Yan' star is back after three decades. What's he been doing away from the spotlight? |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/the-beloved-wok-with-yan-star-is-back-after-three-decades-whats-he-been-doing/article_a8f13aee-559b-11ef-bad6-ff6275ae3588.html |access-date=9 August 2024 |work=[[Toronto Star]] |date=9 August 2024 |language=en}}</ref><!-- {{Birth date and age|year|mo|da}} -->
| birth_place    = [[Hong Kong]]
| death_date     = 
| death_place    = 
| spouse         =
| style          = [[Chinese cuisine|Chinese]]
| education      = 
| ratings        = <!-- {{Unbulleted list| [[Michelin star]]s {{Rating|0|3}} | [[American Automobile Association|AAA Motor Club]] {{Rating|0|5}} | [[Mobil]] {{Rating|0|5}} | [[Good Food Guide]] {{Rating|0|10}} -->
| restaurants    = <!-- {{Unbulleted list| FIRST | SECOND }} -->
| prevrests      = <!-- {{Unbulleted list| FIRST | SECOND }} -->
| television = {{plainlist|
* ''[[Wok with Yan]]''
* ''[[Late Night with David Letterman]]''
* ''[[Good Morning America]]''
* ''[[Live! with Kelly and Michael|Live with Regis and Kelly]]''
}}
| awards         = <!-- {{Unbulleted list| FIRST | SECOND }} -->
| website        = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} -->
}}
'''Stephen Yan''' (born 1939 in [[Hong Kong]]) is a Canadian television host. He hosted the [[Canadians|Canadian]] television cooking show for [[CBC Television]], ''[[Wok with Yan]]''.

The Vancouver-based chef moved to [[Canada]] in the 1960s and owned two Chinese restaurants in Vancouver. Yan developed ''Wok With Yan'' with Carleton Productions in Ottawa, which had previously produced ''[[The Galloping Gourmet]]'' and ''[[Celebrity Cooks]]'', and filmed two pilots in an unsuccessful attempt to sell the series to [[CTV Television Network]]. The network wasn't interested in the show, however, as they already had a cooking show and were also  unimpressed with [[Martin Yan]]'s ''Yan Can'' out of [[Calgary]], which soured them on the concept of a Chinese cooking show. Yan returned to Vancouver where [[CHAN-DT|BCTV]] offered him a local show, which aired as ''Yan's Woking'' for two seasons in the late 1970s. The weekly show was very successful and drew more viewers than ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' in the same timeslot.<ref name="colonist"/><ref name="OJ">{{cite news |title=Chef Yan may serve up a hit |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/43391486/ |access-date=August 10, 2024 |work=Ottawa Journal |date=May 10, 1980}}</ref> [[CBC Television]] then agreed to buy ''Wok With Yan'', originally as a summer replacement, for national broadcast on the network. The show, co-produced by Carleton Productions and Stephen Yan Productions, was originally filmed at [[CJOH-DT|CJOH]]'s studios in Ottawa for two seasons<ref name="colonist">"Yan's woking to the top on cooking tide", ''Vancouver Colonist'', June 25, 1980, page 31</ref> before moving production to [[CBUT-DT|CBC Vancouver]]<ref name="Alaton">Salem Alaton, "Yan makes cooking a 'wok of art': Zany humor adds spice to an offbeat celebration of Chinese culinary delights". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', July 23, 1982.</ref> where new episodes were filmed until 1995. It initially aired on the [[CBC Television Network]] before moving to syndication and was sold around the world, including in the United States and Asia. Over 15 years, Yan produced over 500 episodes of ''Wok with Yan''.

Yan also has produced travel and variety shows called ''Wok's Up?'' for CBC, and several half-hour travel specials on [[Thailand]], [[Hong Kong]], [[Japan]], [[Walt Disney World]], [[Malaysia]], [[Singapore]], and [[Fiji]].

On May 14, 1986, Yan also released a 60-minute show on video cassette titled, ''Wok On The Wild Side, Wok With Yan Volume 2'', where he showed how to prepare and cook the following menu: prawns in a nest, egg rolls, sweet and sour fish, gold coin beef, hot and sour soup, ginger lobster, and chicken with pineapple.
 
Yan's charismatic personality on his television show can be attributed to his spontaneous humour that included one-liners spoken with his trademark [[Cantonese]] accent or him playing with his food or [[cookware]]. He has appeared on ''[[Late Night with David Letterman]]'', ''[[Good Morning America]]'', ''[[Live! with Kelly and Michael|Live with Regis and Kelly]]'', and other shows from the United States to Australia.

A trademark of his was aprons that bore a different 'wok' pun every show. 

Yan was the author of bestselling cook books:

* ''Vegetables the Chinese Way'' 
* ''Creative Carving''
* ''The Stephen Yan Seafood Wokbook''
* ''Wok with Yan Television Cookbook''

He also created various names for some of the ingredients that he used in his cooking, they include:

*"Chinese Water"
*"Wonder Powder"
*"Five Spicey"

''Wok Before You Run'' is another cooking videotape produced in the 1980s and distributed worldwide.

He is not related to [[Chinese people|Chinese]]-[[American ancestry|American]] chef [[Martin Yan]] of the [[PBS]] series ''[[Yan Can Cook]]'', though Martin Yan  worked for Stephen Yan for a year and was a protege who was trained as one of Stephen Yan's 'Flying Squad' of six chefs who flew across Canada to do demonstrations in Chinese cooking for events like the Calgary Stampede, the Klondike Days in Edmonton and houseware demonstrations at [[Hudson's Bay Company]] stores.<ref name="OJ"/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{imdb name|1767645}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100315150738/http://www.film.queensu.ca/cbc/Woj.html Wok with Yan]
*[http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cuisine/027006-1440-e.html Stephen Yan]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yan, Stephen}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1939 births]]
[[Category:Canadian restaurateurs]]
[[Category:Canadian television chefs]]
[[Category:Hong Kong emigrants to Canada]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of Canada]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Canadian male chefs]]
[[Category:Television chefs]]