View source for Wok with Yan

{{Short description|Canadian TV cooking show}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=February 2013}}
{{Infobox television
| starring = [[Stephen Yan]]
| genre = [[Cooking show]]
| country = Canada
| language = English
| network = [[CHAN-DT|BCTV]] (1978-1980)<br />[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] (1980-1995) 
| first_aired = {{start date|1978}}
| last_aired = {{end date|1995}}
}}
'''''Wok with Yan''''' is a [[Chinese cuisine]] [[cooking show]] starring [[Stephen Yan]].<ref>Nancy Enright, "Wok's Happening: It's wit of Stephen Yan". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', July 2, 1980.</ref> The show was first produced in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]] by [[CTV Television Network|CTV]] affiliate [[CHAN-DT|BCTV]] as a weekly show, ''Yan's Woking'', for two seasons before moving to [[CBC Television|CBC]] in 1980 as a daily show,<ref name="colonist">"Yan's woking to the top on cooking tide", ''Vancouver Colonist'', June 25, 1980, page 31</ref> ''Wok With Yan''<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> The show was also sold into syndication,<ref>Ted Shaw, "Grapes plucked by TV9". ''[[Windsor Star]]'', January 13, 1990.</ref> with new episodes being produced until 1995. ''Wok With Yan'' was  co-produced by Carleton Productions in Ottawa, which had previously produced ''[[The Galloping Gourmet]]'' and ''[[Celebrity Cooks]]'', and Stephen Yan Productions, and was taped at [[CJOH-DT|CJOH]]'s studios in Ottawa for two seasons before moving production to [[CBUT-DT|CBC Vancouver]].<ref name="colonist"/><ref name="Alaton"/>

==Format==
A [[running gag]] featured on the show was Yan's wearing of an apron featuring a different [[pun]] on the word "[[wok]]." Some examples are:

*Wok & Roll
*Wokking My Baby Back Home
*Danger, Yan at Wok
*Wok Around the Clock
*Wok the Heck
*You Are Wok You Eat
*Wok Goes up Must Come Down
*Wok's New, Pussycat?
*Wokkey Night in Canada
*Stuck Between a Wok and a Hard Place
*Raiders of The Lost Wok
*Eat Your Wok Out
*Moon Wok
*Wok Your Butts Off
*Jailhouse Wok
*Superior Wokmanship
*Wok-A-Doodle-Doo
*Wok Before You Run
*Wok Me Amadeus
*Wok up Little Susie
*Wok Don't Run
*Don't Wok The Boat
*101 Ways to Wok the Dog
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 him 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 (e.g., 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).

Later sources have occasionally confused the show with ''[[Yan Can Cook]]'', an American series hosted by [[Martin Yan]] which also aired during the 1980s, but which originated in Canada as ''Yan Can''.<ref>Louise Leger, "TV chefs whip up entertainment as they tempt the palate". ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', July 31, 1993.</ref> Martin Yan worked for Stephen Yan for a year in the 1970s as was trained by Stephen Yan as one of his 'Flying Squad' of six chefs who flew across Canada to do demonstrations in Chinese cooking at major events such as the [[Calgary Stampede]] and Edmonton's [[Klondike Days]] as well as in department stores.<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>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*{{imdb title|0335780}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071213155734/http://www.tvarchive.ca/database/19059/wok_with_yan/details/ TVarchive.ca page]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wok With Yan}}
[[Category:1978 Canadian television series debuts]]
[[Category:1995 Canadian television series endings]]
[[Category:CBC Television original programming]]
[[Category:Television shows filmed in Vancouver]]
[[Category:1970s Canadian cooking television series]]
[[Category:1980s Canadian cooking television series]]
[[Category:1990s Canadian cooking television series]]
[[Category:Canadian Chinese cuisine]]
[[Category:Asian Canadian television series]]

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