The Wok
Nearly 700 pages on one pan, its physics and the cooking it makes possible
Published in 2022. Close to 700 pages on a single piece of equipment. It covers buying and seasoning, and the physics of tossing food through the column of hot air above a burner. Velveting meat until it turns silky, and the conditions that give stir-fried food its smoky wok hei. Recipes span regional Chinese, Thai and Chinese-American cooking. The argument underneath is that a home burner is enough heat, and that a crowded pan gets blamed for what crowding caused.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- J. Kenji López-AltRecommends
Chef and food writer · The Food Lab
He calls the wok his favorite pan and says the book is as much about ideas as recipes: how heat, oil and motion produce wok hei, how massaging meat turns it velvety, how a crust stays crunchy under sauce. His hope for it is modest enough, that more people pick up a wok and keep using it.
Source: kenjilopezalt.com: The Wok of My Dreams
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Book entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.