He received a diploma from the Overseas Institute of Cookery of Hong Kong and later left for Canada for continued study. During this time in Munsang College, he worked at his uncle's Chinese restaurant and learned the traditional method of Chinese barbecue. When he was 13, he moved to Hong Kong, where he attended the Munsang College in Kowloon City. With ancestral roots in Hoiping, Yan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China to a restaurateur father and a grocer mother. He has hosted his award-winning PBS-TV cooking show Yan Can Cook since 1982. Martin Yan ( Chinese: 甄文達 born 22 December 1948) is a Hong Kong-American chef and food writer.