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Kevin Kwong

MARTIN ''Yan Can Cook'' was charged with energy as he whizzed a group of American chefs, food critics and fans, through the narrow and slippery alleys of the Lei Yue Mun Fish Market.

  With his sleeves rolled up, the 41-year-old culinary expert picked up lobsters, oysters, scallops and giant crabs from large fish tanks and explained the essence of freshness in Chinese cuisine, an obsession with locals.

  ''Hongkong people take their food seriously,'' he stressed.

  So does Yan, when it comes to his business: cooking.

  The master chef was guiding a tour group ''to eat its way around the territory to promote the city's diverse culinary scene''.

  Behind that broad grin and ''chop chop'' image, the diminutive American television personality said he might joke about himself but never his work.

  As he has said on numerous occasions: ''I like to take my job seriously, but not myself. There is a lot of pressure in my job . . . always keeping a smile on.'' While Yan modestly refers to himself simply as a ''cooking teacher'' who promotes healthy eating, others see him as a showbiz celebrity. Recently, he was invited to appear on a popular game show in the United States hosted by comedian actor Bill Cosby, as well as in the Asian edition of Playboy magazine.

  ''As long as I don't have to strip, I'll do it,'' he told the magazine writer.

  ''Some even asked me to appear in movies, but film production is too boring. I like to speak out liberally, I don't want to learn lines and pretend to be someone else, I just want to be myself.''   But the Guangdong-born Chinese-American ''food technologist'', never understands why people ''go crazy'' over, not his food, but him.

  ''I am not funny, I just do things in a fun way,'' he said.

  ''I find this [obsession] amusing, not overwhelming, why people bother . . . all I do is cooking. I never wanted to be famous. I never expected to be on television.''   He was swamped by fans and bombarded with mail in Singapore, where he has just finished recording a series of 52 shows. ''Singaporeans are as warm as the weather there.''      It was about a decade and half ago when his talent and presentation style was first spotted by a television director. Yan describes those early, live cooking shows as ''unconventional and not good''. Today, his shows are beamed across the globe to more than 50 countries.

  The culinary wizard has yet to reach the large Chinese audience in Hongkong. Even though his imported shows are aired on ATV World and STAR Plus, Yan is not too anxious to hit the big time in the territory yet.

  ''I don't want people to become obsessive with me, I become concerned when they do. I'm just a cooking teacher and that is all I have ever wanted to be,'' he said.

  Besides, this father of year-old twins believes he has spent too much time on his work and travelling. ''Next time I go home my sons will be at college''.

  Apart from recording his television shows, Yan is also a writer, restaurant consultant, active charity fund raiser, member of numerous food institutes and a ''culinary ambassador'' between the East and West.

   One ambition he has yet to realise is hosting his own show in Mandarin in mainland China. ''This would be a new professional challenge. I have reached out to people in the West, now is time I go back to my roots where people are brought up differently,'' he said.

  ''And to run my own show in China, and be accepted, will be what I hope to achieve. What works in the West may not work in China, after all, they have a very different sense of humour.'' 



Yan can wait for big time