Martin Yan (Chinese: 甄文達; born 22 December 1948) is a Chinese-American chef and food writer.

With ancestral roots in Hoiping, Yan was born in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China to a restaurateur father and a grocer mother.

He received a diploma from the Overseas Institute of Cookery of Hong Kong and later left for Canada for continued study.

[1] Yan began teaching Chinese cooking for a college extension program.

While in Calgary helping a friend open a restaurant he appeared on a talk show on CFAC-TV, (now CICT-DT), to do a cooking segment resulting in his being asked back repeatedly.