Wok the Heck: Remembering “Wok with Yan”

Stephen Yan and his show "Wok with Yan" was a staple of summer television viewing on CBC Channel 9 in the '80s.

Source: https://www.cbc.ca/arts

(May be subject to copyright)

One of the highlights of summer daytime TV in the early 1980s came every week day at 1 p.m.

Whether I was by myself, with cousins visiting our farm, or visiting them, we’d turn the TV dial to Channel 9 on peasant vision for the big reveal.

“Wok with Yan” was on and host Stephen Yan would come on set, introduce himself, then pick up his apron, which always had a new pun stencilled on it using the word wok.

The first one I recall was “Wok the Heck”.

The show
“Wok with Yan” was first produced in Vancouver by a CTV affiliate in the late 1970s before moving to CBC in 1980, according to Wikipedia.

“Wok with Yan” ran on CBC until 1982, before moving into syndication where it ran until 1995.

In addition to his cooking, the show also featured Yan showing some footage of him on vacation somewhere exotic; inviting someone from the audience to eat with him at the end; and reading a fortune cookie in English and Cantonese before they ate.

I don’t have too many memories of the show, because I was not as interested in cooking as I was in the aprons.

I was developing a taste for puns more than Chinese cuisine – which I already loved.

However, my Mom did take note, and eventually did buy a wok, which became more mainstream and known after that. At least in the circle I lived and moved in.

Mom also bought one of the “Wok with Yan” cookbooks and I do recall her having it open while she was making her own Chinese food – in her new wok.

In fact, we have a walk in our house right now. Well, actually it is a combination wok and pan.

The aprons
Wikipedia also lists a number of the puns that appeared on Stephen Yan’s aprons:

• Wok and roll

• Wokking my baby back home

• Danger, Yan at wok

• Wok around the clock

• 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-do

• Wok before you run

• Wok up little Susie

• Wok don’t run

• Don’t wok the boat

• 101 ways to wok the dog

And of course, Wok the heck.

Two Yans are better than one
Around that same time, another cooking show ran on Channel 7, which at the time was part of a loose association of independent TV stations loosely affiliated with Global TV.

It was produced in Calgary, and I distinctly remember it being called “Yan Can”, hosted by Martin Yan who was no relation to Stephen Yan.

My online research only refers to a show called “Yan Can Cook”, seemingly based in the United States. Some deeper digging revealed Martin Yan began his career with a cooking show shot in the Calgary Channel 2&7 studios.

I will have to go looking in old newspapers to find out if I am remembering correctly.

Parting thoughts
Some things are just meant to be. I started writing this entry in June, but really got into it on July 8. I had planned to work on this post that day anyway, when something interesting happened. My spouse and I travelled to a place near Okotoks where I often buy used books. On that day, as I entered the book section, staring me in the face was “Wok with Yan”. I just had to put down my $1.25 and buy it.

It is from 1983, the third edition of the “Wok With Yan Television Cookbook”.

The book describes Stephen Yan as the president of Yan’s Variety Company Limited, which manufactures Chinese cookware and condiments supplying hundreds of outlets throughout Canada. He is the owner of Yan’s Gourmet Chinese Restaurant in Burnaby, B.C.; host and producer of “Wok With Yan”, shown week days on the CBC, cable networks in the U.S. and internationally; host of “Yan’s Wokking” on the British Columbia Television Broadcasting System; and author of five best seller Chinese cookbooks.

Yan has been in North America since 1963. The book has 160 receipes with full colour photographic illustrations. He said the purpose of this book is to support Yan’s lifetime ambition to share delicious Chinese cooking with all his friends. He calls it a tasteful way to bridge the two great cultures to a better understanding and friendship.

His conclusion sums up the show.

“It is my sincere hope to inspire each reader to promote good cooking and bring the enjoyment back to home life to be shared between family and friends. I feel good cooking can be an attractive nucleus to bring people together as we have done in our television shows. As said in China:

‘A country exists with people, and people live on food.”

For me, “Wok With Yan” represents a simpler time, spent with family and friends, not a care in the world, and tuning in to see another great pun.