Uncle Roger Review OG UNCLE Mongolian Beef (Martin Yan)

The one motto I will always remember from my childhood is "If Yan can cook, so can you!". The man is a legend.

Martin Yan was the inspiration for me becoming a chef, such an amazing man and chef. I remember the episode after his son was born they carried him on to the set in a giant wok so Martin could introduce him to the world.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Martin Yan when I was helping teach at a high school last year. He's still just as witty and charismatic as he has always been. He even took a picture with me. Nice guy, he was showing a variety of students how to make various dishes and adding a bit of his own pizazz to it.

I love how Nigel casually insults the Chinese government with the credit score and Taiwan stab 😂 such an underrated move!

Martin Yan was the man who introduced me to cooking and enjoying great food. I remember buying his book and trying as many recipes as I could. The man is a legend and great entertainer.

I teared up. I watched him to learn how to cook in general. He was so straightforward about the ease of cooking. Loved his show.

Yan cooking wasn't the only good thing about him, his personality and how entertaining he is as well

Martin Yan had the skills and charisma to make me watch a cooking show as a 10 year old. Martin Yan is indeed the OG.

I grew up watching Martin Yan alongside Julia Childs. He always made me feel like I could legitimately make Chinese food (like Bob Ross made me feel like I could paint) and I never could, but I thank him for the inspiration. Uncle Martin Fuiyoh!

This guy inspired so many children across the world to learn how to cook. Simply marvelous seeing and hearing clips from his show!

This is so sweet; Uncle Roger giving it up to the OG! 🙏🏽

What a great tribute. I always enjoyed Martin Yan when I was trying to grasp basic cooking skills, and he always held a special place in my heart. His fantastic technique along with his you can do it delivery really resonated with me. He’s a master.

Yan didn't cook to show off his skills, he cooked to inspire us. A legend

This brings back memories. When we were fresh off the boat (the plane) from Jamaica 🇯🇲 to the USA, a whole new world of opportunities and food opened up to us. My father and I would watch Yan Can Cook on PBS. My father was so inspired that he bought a wok and started shopping at smaller local markets. We Jamaicans love our spices, seasonings, ginger, bok choy, cabbages, etc. so lots of wonderful fusion foods were born. Uncle Yan is the best ❤

Super - entertaining chef with a winning personality you'd just want to be around. And I love that he used ordinary ingredients in a simple way, taking so much of the pressure and expense of finding odd ingredients off. Notice how he didn't even tell you what cut of beef or how to cut it. No wild goose chases for ingredients maybe the ordinary person couldn't afford or wouldn't bother with.

I loved watching Martin Yan on PBS in the eighties. I enjoyed his humor and how he did the food. He made it look less alien and is a good reason for Asian food making mainstream wayback in the day. I still have his cookbook; The Yan Can Cook Book.

I watched him back in the 80s and 90s. I was entertained to no end. Martin is definitely a classic!

Yan, along with the rest of the line up in the 80's was the peak of quality and wholesome shows that no only entertained you but was just as informational as well. I wish life was that simple still. I can still remember watching hours of shows on PBS laying in my grandmothers floor on a quilt that she made, taking a break from riding my bike around the neighborhood in the summers heat.

Martin Yan introduced the world that Chinese food wasn’t just fried rice and chow mein. Martin Yan is a legend and the only person on tv with an Asian face in the 80’s and 90’s.

I met this man a few months ago at a culinary conference. Was such a pleasure. He taught me so much.

Had the pleasure to watch Yan when I was a kid here in Fiji on public TV. Truly an inspiration. I can remember watching my family at the kitchen so that I can learn how to cook as well.

I so loved watching Yan Can Cook. He made it sound so simple and accessible to everyone, and just felt warm and welcoming.

Met Martin purely by random chance my first week of Culinary School in San Francisco. He was recording a special at one of the cooking stores. He was the nicest person you could imagine. Let my friends and I hang out and watch the shoot. At the end he gave us some great tips and advice.

We had a show here in Canada called “Wok With Yan” hosted by Stephen Yan from the 70’s and 80’s. He always had a wok based pun on his aprons and it was different every episode. It’d be interesting to see a review of his show too

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Mr. Yan back in the 2000s. He's a friend's Uncle (really) and he was gracious enough to let us bother him for a couple of hours. Mr. Yan was an incredible guy - nice, knowledgeable, and a force of nature. I was really impressed at his breadth of knowledge - from production, to business, to cooking. One of the highlights of my career.

You FINALLY review my culinary hero. His iconic line "If Yan can cook, so can you!" Gave me inspiration as a kid

Watching it as a kid in the 80s, and watching Uncle Roger's earthy reaction decades later, really reminds me how much time has passed. Culturally. In a good way.

We need a Yan/Roger collab more than ever... I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed this show growing up.

I used to watch Yan can cook every day after school. He was so funny, the field trips were awesome. I wanted to be a chef like him 😂

I love the way you worked the product placement into other parts of the video, not so much that it was annoying, but enough that it would give people who skipped it FOMO and make them want to go back to see what they missed xD Never seen anybody do that before, hats off to you. And thanks for another brilliant video. Hope Uncle Yan sees this!

Uncle Roger really went from (sort of) generic youtube react content to a serious food chanel for homecooks (with a laugh) and actually giving great advise about asian cooking. I think you motivated a lot of people (like me) to cook asian food as correct as possible. I even got a rice cooker. I loved the video you did with guga and josh, and you actually kept up compared to josh his cooking.
Great direction this channel is heading towards.

Martin Yan is truly the OG uncle chef!! I used to watch him on PBS back in the day.😊

Martin Yan is so wholesome person. I love his energy in his every TV show

I just made Yan's mongolian beef recipe a week or so ago. My wife met him years ago, he signed a cookbook and left me a voicemail while I was at work before I was getting ready to go back to school for a business degree. He's a legend and a great human being! And his recipes are great.

Thank you uncle roger for not only making cooking funny and entertaining..but showing me how to properly prepare my fav kind of food the right way 😊 truly an inspiration and comedian.. one of a kind

Gyat dayum. Now that's a blast from the past. I remember watching him back in late 80's early 90's. Martin Yan is the sole reason i love cooking and eating good food. A really inspiring man. And remember guys, IF YAN CAN COOK SO CAN YOU!

Martin Yan's knife skills were always above and beyond all the other chefs on TV at the time. The way he would count along with every slice getting faster and faster. Crazy skills.

I loved watching Yan when I was a child. This man was such an inspiration to me to learn to cook in general. I hope you do work with him someday. That'd be wonderful to see! ❤

As a kid I loooooved watching Yan can cook!! Never missed an episode

He was my absolute favorite. I think he's one of the reasons I love to cook. I would watch him every time I could.

I remember watching him cook with my dad, and always remembered "If Yan can cook, so can you!" Made me want to be a chef but never followed through with it.

I remember this cooking show as a kid😊
It all started in the 70's in British Columbia with Stephen Yan.
Ahhh the memories!!

Was born in 1971. Martin Yan is awesome and a life saver. Moved to Alaska in 1982, was one of the few shows that we got. When i joined the Army in 1989, used to watch his show when stationed in Korea. He fostered an enjoyment in cooking and learning about dishes that has helped me to this day. Awesome episode, he is one of the OGs.

Yan is such a legend. My interest in food and cooking in general can be attributed to him. Still love watching him make food.

uncle martin yan was the best , i loved watching all his shows and food. definitely inspiring chef

That stare fry joke had me dying. Why have I never seen this incredible chef. I will be grabbing some recipes from him.

I remember watching his show "Wok with Yan" and the word wok was pronounced like they were saying "walk" as he would walk you through the steps to make some of the most delicious food. I was young when his show first came out on cable, and I would watch for hours. I think it's why I love Chinese food so much.

Chef Yan was a huge part of my childhood. Chinese food plus a fun personality is a great combination. Respect.

Thank you for featuring Martin Yan. I grew up watching him in the 80s in Trinidad. So many people don't know this awesome man. You've inspired me to go back and watch his old episodes.

I watched every single episode of his shows I could find on PBS as a kid. Just remember: If Yan Can Cook, SO CAN YOU!

When Star TV launched in India, in the beginning their programming was just their HK feed lifted and beamed directly to India…Yan Can Cook was something my mother and I would never miss - the dishes he would cook up, his knife skills, all of it was so fascinating!

Going from Japanese rice to Express VPN felt a bit weird, but otherwise a great fun video like always!

Yan can cook and the Iron Chefs.
So much passively absorbed knowledge and skills as a child that have served me well my whole life.

your relentless mocking of Jamie Oliver's cooking skills always brings a smile to my face

I watched him as a kid in the 80s on PBS. Every Saturday morning. I even taped his shows on my VCR so I could rewatch them. He is the single reason I love Asian food and culture so much as an adult. Almost 50 years old now.

What a great video. I didn’t know about Yan but it was interesting to see his cooking skills, his personality, and his ability to make it entertaining. I’m going to make this dish for sure

This brought back a memory. My late sister was a cook. She cooked at a Chinese restaurant for several years and I worked there as a server for awhile. One day I was setting up for dinner, making rice, preparing garnishes, stocking the drinks fridge. She and another cook were chopping up huge carrots into julienne with cleavers. After a few minutes of the rhythmic chopping my sister broke into song "That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang..."
We all three had to stop working for a minute until we could stop laughing and get our breath. My sister went to the office to explain to the owner but the owner was still getting *her* breath back 😂

Wok with Yan was such a beautiful thing to watch as a kid in the 90s. His apron sayings were amazing!
"Over wok, under paid"
"Woks new pussycat"
"Wok on the wild side"
"Wok the heck"
"All wokked up"
"Wok goes in must come out"

Back in the '80s, there were two famous Chinese Cooking Shows broadcasted in the Philippines. They were "Yan Can Cook" with Martin Yan (USA) and "Wok with Yan" with Stephen Yan. (CAD). "Wok with Yan" was shown first and was more popular. I always wanted a cook-off between the two Yans. 😊

I never forget the phrase "Yan can cook", i adored this show back when i was a kid, this is the first Chinese host i watched on TV

OMG, I grew up watching Martin Yan! Thank you so much for this Uncle Roger! Because of Yan can cook, I always found it weird that TV chefs/cooks never shared their food with the audience after the show, haha!

I absolutely adore him! Yan Can Cook was aired on PBS. As a child it was one of my favorites. Mother’s Day when I was in kindergarten I was insistent that my mom needed a wok. So that’s what she got.

I took my cooking class to a Yang can cook video shooting segment back in the late 90's. He's quite a master and the students lived him. He did his signature bell pepper "roll-out" cut which was great to watch.

The real master ❤. Still remember when Im still a small kid mostly watching cartoon, I will never missed Martin Yan cooking show. I never focus on the dishes he make coz small kid just eat mom’s food 😅 but I always enjoy watching his chopping & cutting skill, how he smashed the garlic and ready to be used for his stir fry, how he julienne all the vege in no time, never get tired of his signature smile. Oh what a reminiscence 😊. Thank you Uncle Roger

My first time seeing Uncle Yan- what a absolute gem! of a person, just oozing passion and joy and wanting to share it!! Thank you for sharing with us too!

What a trip down memory lane, my childhood watching Yan Can Cook brings back fond memories.

As a very white kid growing up in very white suburbia Yan Can Cook was a look into a different way to approach food. One of the first things I did once I was on my own was get a wok and find an Asian grocery. Eventually I became a professional chef, not really because of Martin Yan but he certainly helped, and now that I have moved on to a profession that doesn't involve being on my feet all day I still love cooking recreationally and I'm still exploring the cuisines of the world. PBS producing these cooking shows really opened the world to a lot of people.

I loved watching Martin Yan as a kid. And whenever my dad made Chinese food, he'd say while he was making it, "Look at that!" 😊
Good times.

Martin Yan is a true treasure. He lived nearby and his shows were all taped at KQED in San Francisco. We taped some promos with him for a PBS fundraiser and I worked with his long time director Katharine Russell on several other shows. He is also good friends with Larry Chu of Chef Chu's. If you ever want the best Peking Duck in the United States, come to Chef Chu's in Los Altos, CA and yes you need to order the duck 24 hours in advance. Instead of the wrap it is served on a steamed bun and it is out of this world, along with everything else served there. I think you and Martin together would be awesome. It should be a thing for a few episodes!

He was my hero growing up, and one of the reasons I still love to cook.
❤

As a Taiwanese, I get satisfied easily just to hear Uncle Roger mention Taiwan in his weejio💕😳

I loved it when Yan and Jaques Pepin partnered up a few times. Two wonderful teachers from my childhood.

Yan can cook was the first cooking show I ever watched. You can tell he loves cooking food, and sharing it with others.

Martin Yan was the reason I went and bought a wok in 1987. Watched his show every Saturday, along with the other cooking shows on PBS, and loved Chinese food and love to cook. Bought a wok and had tons of fun.

Love Mr. Yan! Coolest guy EVER. When I was 9 or 10 he had dinner at our house, he loved my mother's Chicken Prosciutto recipe. And yes, he smiles all of the time just like he does on his show 😂

Thank you so much, Uncle Roger, for bringing the awesomeness that is Martin Yan to a new generation. I grew up with him and loved him, watching this is so nostalgic. He is such a great entertainment chef. And he still is with his Clip-Share channel!

What a blast from the past. I just realised the reason I know how to Julienne was from watching Yan can cook growing up in Nigeria. absolute legend!

Yan was one of the tv cooks back in the day that contributed to me becoming an avid and good cook. ❤️🇦🇺

I used to watch this guy break down a chicken in 8 seconds Martin Yan Can Cook, PBS 🎉❤

This seriously made my day. My grandmother LOVED to watch Yan when I was little, anytime I got to stay home from school, it was Yan and Bob Ross in the house. She was a true lover of Chinese food, and whenever a new Asian restaurant opened in our city, she was the first one in line to give it a try. Always telling all the other old southern white women that poo-pooed at Asian food that they didn't know what they were missing out on. And if they wanted to be racist and not go, that was fine, more for her. She loved MSG to. To bad she didn't live long enough to see the birth of Clip-Share and Uncle Roger. She would have really loved everything Nigel does. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I think I need to go look up all the old Yan episodes and have some Chinese food tomorrow.

My mom used to watch Yan Can Cook when we were kids in the 90s and still uses some of his recipes to this day. :)

As a mongolian i can say that this dish is pretty similar to something we call "khorkhog" which is meat veggies and rocks inside a pressure cook in which we cook on top of campfire it comes out really good and we keep the rocks in our hands until it becomes cool its a really cool tradition we do

You definitely need to bring Uncle Yan in your show!! Would be Epic!

Me and my sister grew up with martin yan. He was the first tv chef I ever watched and it was great to see you give him some shine, Uncle Roger.
Just remember, niece and nephew: if yan can cook, so can you. :)

I loved watching Yan Can Cook with my grandmother. Such great memories! I still imitate him when I'm cooking sometimes. "And THEN!"

Thanks for bringing up this 80s show. It also brings my memories back when I watched this show with my grandma. It was simple and happy moment. Love it.

Finally, you give my culinary hero a review. "If Yan can cook, so can you!" is his catchphrase. inspired me when I was a child

I met him last year (2022) for a cooking demo. hes still as sharp and witty as ever.

His cookbook is literally one of my kitchen treasures

As someone turning 40 next month, I can say, Yan can Cook was my very first favorite cooking show!

This show was the reason my cooking journey started... love this show

I miss watching Yan Can Cook (so can you!) and wishing to watch it live and front row. Cause he let people in the front taste the food after!

Loved watching him as a kid. Made cooking fun

If we got a Martin Yan and Uncle Roger collab, I would lose my goddamn mind and probably would be able to die happy

Martin Yan was one of my first inspirations into taking my steps into a lifeling passion. Man is the GOAT

I stole how to prepare garlic from Martin Yan...it takes 1 sec and all he did was smash it with his cleaver...quick easy efficient and always hilarious when he was prepping. And always the "DONE!" at the end. Man is a legend.

As a youth I watched Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet. In the early days of Food Network I thoroughly enjoyed Justin Wilson, the Cajun Chef (I Gah-ron-tee) and it was Yan who inspired me to start learning basics. I still have some video tapes of his shows that I recorded.

I like how Uncle Roger says 'that's correct' when the OG does something. I remember watching that show when it was new. 😂

Uncle Roger using a "good morning" towel warms my Filipino heart. 😂

"If yan can cook so can you" - what a inspiring quote from Martin yan . Didn't know he was the one who inspired Uncle Roger's love for cooking and also his side hustle of roasting chefs . 😜