Published:  00:00 Tuesday - July 27, 2010

World-renowned American chef Martin Yan has said that he wants to use his fame to promote Vietnamese food to the world. 

Martin Yan stated this to the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper at the 2010 World Food Festival which has just taken place in the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.

He said that he is waiting for the chance and would learn Vietnamese to introduce the country’s “pho” (noodle soup served with beef or chicken) and “nom” (sweet and sour grated salad).

Apart from showing his skills at the WFF on July 23 and 24, Yan said that he wants to learn how to cook a number of Vietnamese dishes during his current visit to the Southeast Asian nation which, he called, a wonderful country with many delicious dishes.

There are many slim and healthy people in Vietnam thanks to their sensible diets, said the chef, emphasising that it would be a good idea to start up a website with the slogan “Look! Vietnamese people are healthy because they eat Vietnamese food”. The website could not only introduce Vietnam’s dishes but also its land, people and popular tourist destinations, he added.

Yan said that he wants to cook various dishes from different countries and has learnt Vietnamese cuisine from his friend Khai, a Vietnamese national now residing in the US who runs a famous restaurant called “Ana Mandara” in San Francisco, California.