Wok with Yan

I feel like a kid again. I just sat down and had breakfast and for the first time in years I turned on the TV. Good ole Stephan Yan from Wok with Yan was on.

I used to love this guy. I would rush home to watch him cook and just laugh. He was the funniest!! I would get sooo hungry I would have to go in the kitchen and pretend to cook (usually Kraft Dinner).

I tried to find a video on YouTube but no luck.


Wok with Yan was a Chinese cooking show starring Stephen Yan. The show was first produced in Vancouver, Canada by the CBC from 1980 to 1982. A second edition of the show was also produced in the early 1990s. The popular series was syndicated internationally in United States, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore for years. Even though Wok with Yan has been out of production for many years, episodes continue to be rerun on Omni Television.

The show was famous because Canada has had few well known Canadian cooking shows and in each episode, Yan had a different pun on the word "wok" on his apron. The humorous aprons also complemented his humour that consisted of spontaneous one-liners spoken with his trademark Cantonese accent or him playing with his food or cookware. That, combined with his energetic personality, endeared himself to Canadian viewers. Prior to him preparing his stir fry cuisine, the show usually featured a vignette of Yan travelling to different vacation spots from around the world (eg, Thailand). He always invited an audience member to come up and eat with him near the end of each episode (there was a ticket draw in the studio audience to sit with him), and had a fortune cookie reading before the meal (first done in Cantonese, then translated in English).

The show also aired in the Caribbean during the same period on TTT Trinidad and Tobago Television.