This Month’s Film: A Mongolian Tale
Cuisine: Mongolian

Late last Tuesday evening, right before bedtime, Rene casually announced that Martin Yan was going to be appearing at the Copia Center for Wine, Food and the Arts on Friday night and did I want to go? Was that a rhetorical question?! Of course I wanted to go. And the question I wanted to ask was: Why didn’t I know about the event until now? I’ve been watching Yan Can Cook since I can’t remember when, maybe 25 years or more, and the chance to meet the puckish culinary celebrity in person seemed almost too good to be true. But would there still be tickets at this late hour?

So I flew into action, hastily typing the relevant Copia keywords into Google to find their website and then onto the events page, where I discovered that not only would Martin Yan be appearing in person, but there would be a screening of a film called Rice Rhapsody, in which he plays [believe it!] the romantic lead. Which begs yet another question: How could this film have escaped my cinematic radar?

Yippee! There were still tickets to be had for purchase online, so I snapped up three of them, as Rene and Will wanted to come along for the fun. The following day, I called Copia’s PR department to get the inside scoop on the event, and learned that not only would Martin Yan be there for a Q&A session after the film, but that he would also be staging a cooking demonstration in the Food Forum that afternoon, with a book signing afterwards to promote his new cookbook ‘Martin Yan Quick and Easy’. Yan’s demonstration was free of charge, and even better, thanks to the generosity of Breville, the Australian manufacturer of a sleek line of culinary appliances, the $12.50 fee to enter the Copia facility has been waived for the entire month of January. So…it looked as if we would be spending the day at Copia.

Not wanting to miss out on the best seats, we arrived a little after 2:30 in the afternoon, about 40 minutes early, to queue up for the cooking demonstration. But alas, the Food Forum only holds 70 people, and we were [rats!] about 80th in line, so we didn’t quite make the cut to get in to see Martin Yan’s presentation in person. Instead, we were escorted to the theater, where a live feed of the show would be broadcast on the screen. For that we had front row seats, not to mention a zoom-lens view of Yan’s every move. Yan made a dish called Firecracker Chicken, which we didn’t get a taste of, but we were served some delicious ginger shortbread cookies as a consolation. Throughout the demonstration, Yan wowed us all with the deft dexterity of his signature cleaver, which he used to make some very impressive garnishes. Of course, I was pouty at having missed our chance to sit in the Food Forum, but I tried to put a positive spin on my disappointment by asking myself the question, Which is better? The worst seats in the ‘A’ venue, or best seats in the ‘B’ venue? Didn’t help…I was still pouty. But all that was about to change.

When the cooking demonstration ended, we headed out to the main hall, where Martin Yan would be signing copies of his cookbooks. This time, we were second in line, because instead of spending time in the gift shop purchasing a copy of ‘Martin Yan Quick and Easy’, I’d brought along my own well-thumbed copy of ‘Martin Yan’s Asia’ for him to autograph. Of all the cookbooks in my library, it’s my favorite and most oft used collection of recipes. When my turn came, I stepped up to meet him, and found, to my relief and delight, that he is as warm and personable and accessible as he appears on PBS. He was more than happy to autograph the flyleaf of my well-worn cookbook, on which he wrote: “To Celeste, The one and only, a lady with style and good taste.” I was thrilled.

But my charmed moment was soon to be outdone by Rene, who stepped up and presented Martin Yan with a caricature he’d drawn of him that morning. It was precious, an excellent likeness that portrays Martin Yan stir-frying a wok-ful of vegetables with a pair of chopsticks in one hand, and chop, chop, chopping a bell pepper with his cleaver in the other. And when Rene offered it to him, Yan looked astonished and said, “For me!? Is this for ME?!” They posed together with the caricature for a Kodak moment, and off we went with beaming smiles into the brilliant Napa Valley sunshine.

We returned to Copia later that evening for the screening of Rice Rhapsody, and as if the day hadn’t been quite delightful enough, the film made sure it was abundantly so. In the film, Martin Yan plays Kim Chui, the owner of a Singapore restaurant, eclipsed by its more successful competitor down the street, a place owned by Jen, who makes the best Hainanese Chicken Rice in town, and who happens to be the object of Yan’s affections. She has two openly gay sons, and fears that if her third boy veers in that direction, her hopes of ever having a grandchild will be dashed. A conspiracy ensues to propel her number three son into the arms of a pretty French exchange student, while competition between Jen and Kim Chui comes to a boil in a city-wide cooking contest for the best traditional Singaporean dish.

The film is a treasure, one that I will definitely be featuring sometime this summer, and after the screening, Martin Yan made another appearance for a Q&A session with the audience. Never have I seen such effusive enthusiasm by any performer. At the end of what must surely have been an 18-hour day, Martin Yan was positively effervescent, fielding a barrage of questions with elaborately animated answers, and when all was said and done, he strolled out of the theater with the audience, casually chatting with various people as they exited the building.

All I can say is, with so much positive energy and generous goodwill to give to a group of total strangers in a small California town, no wonder Martin Yan is such a global success. Must be the Firecracker Chicken…

I’m just hoping that some of his magic rubbed off on me…

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