Martin Yan of "Yan Can Cook" to prepare community dinner at Bates

World-renowned chef Martin Yan, whose cooking show Yan Can Cook has brought Chinese cuisine to millions will help prepare a community dinner served from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 3, in the Chase Hall Commons at Bates College and several other campus locations. A limited number of tickets are available to the public for $8.00 ($5.00 with a Bates I.D.). Tickets for children under 10 are $4.00. Tickets will be sold in the Chase Hall Den. The “Yan Can Cook” cooking show began in 1983, and by the year 2000 it was syndicated in 75 countries, many in Asia. For some markets Yan tapes shows in Cantonese, for others Mandarin. Yan is the author of more than 20 cookbooks, including the recent “Chinese Cooking for Dummies (IDG Books, 2000). Yan grew up in Guangzhou, in semi-rural China, where his parents ran a restaurant. He moved to Hong Kong when he was 13 years old and earned a diploma from the Overseas Institute of Cookery in 1967 before relocating to Canada. Later he earned a masters degree from the University of California, Davis, where he began teaching cooking and developing the humorous style for which he is well known. Yan became a certified master chef through the Ontario Restaurant Association in 1984.