Ok, so I took a class with Martin Yan. Thankfully, he is the first person to admit what a goofball he can be. But he is a seriously nice guy who has tried to bring a passion for Chinese cooking to Americans. He had a TV show once, but I only knew him from cookbooks people would gift to me. I owe some serious knife skills to Martin: I can now take my Chinese chef's knife (mine is a large piece of continuous steel that scares most people to death), roll cut a Japanese Eggplant in seconds, flat-cut a pepper with no waste in the same amount of time, and instantly mince an entire clove of garlic with one blow of the knife, not to mention peel ginger with a spoon and other feats the french can't fathom. An influence, sort of. A mentor, absolutely, even if he is made out to be a goofball.