Wok with Yan was a popular cookery show specializing in Chinese cuisine and featuring famous Chinese chef Stephen Yan. It was aired across Canada, United States, Malaysia, Phillippines, Indonesia and Singapore for 15 years before finally going off air.
History
Wok with Yan started in the 1980s and was initially aired across Canada, by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ( CBC ), which is headquartered at Ontario, Canada. The first edition continued till 1982. However, owing to the immense popularity of the show, the second edition was produced in the early 1990s, and this time it was telecast in other countries including Phillippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and United States. The show used to be produced at Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.
Wok with Yan was named after its host and chef Stephen Yan who was born in Hong Kong but moved to Vancouver, Canada in the 1960s. Apart from being the very popular host of Wok with Yan, he also owned two Chinese restaurants in Vancouver, and produced other travel and variety shows such as ‘Wok’s Up?’ for CBC and ‘Yan’s Wokking’ for BCTV, among others. He has also released one hour shows on the video which garnered public acclaim such as – Wok On The Wild Side, Wok With Yan Vol. 2, and more.
Format
Wok with Yan had a simple cooking show format, where some recipes were prepared on the show. However, Yan brought a certain energy and exuberance with him on the show. He would add humour to the show by playing with the food or the cookware. He was spontaneity at its best with the brilliant one-liners related to the show, and was immensely popular for the different apron he would don in each new episode. The apron had a new pun on the word ‘wok’ each time. Some famous ones are – Moon Wok, Wok and Roll, Danger Men at Wok, Wok the Heck and so on. At the end of the show he would invite one of the audience members to sit and eat with him; for whom he also did fortune cookie reading.
Trivia