Everything We Know About J. Kenji López-Alt's New Cookbook The Wok
Chef, food writer, cookbook author, restaurateur and James Beard Award winner J. Kenji López-Alt already has a New York Times bestselling book under his belt. His critically acclaimed "The Food Lab" has sold more than half a million copies (via López-Alt's website) and was named Cookbook of the Year in 2015 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals, as Serious Eats notes. López-Alt then wrote a children's book, "Every Night is Pizza." According to The Seattle Times, he was working on a follow-up to "The Food Lab" when one of its chapters kept growing and took on a life of its own, perhaps not surprising for someone who owns four wok burners and six wok pans at home. Rather than trying to limit himself, López-Alt decided to turn it into its own weighty tome.
López-Alt recently shared a photo of his upcoming cookbook "The Wok" on Instagram, which has already garnered more than 30,000 likes in just a day. It was happy news to his fans, which includes the likes of Andrew Zimmern, who commented, "CAN'T WAIT!!!"
What 'The Wok' will teach you
J. Kenji López-Alt's website describes the book as "the definitive English-language guide to the science and technique of cooking in a wok," noting that it will feature more than 200 recipes and more than 1,000 color photographs. Similar to the "The Food Lab," "The Wok" also focuses on technique in the kitchen, including how heat impacts certain metals, how stir-frying actually changes food, and "how to capture smoky 'wok hei' flavor right in your kitchen," as López-Alt described on Instagram. The latter is something that López-Alt spent 15 years trying to perfect (via The New York Times).
Importantly, López-Alt notes that for a vast majority of the recipes, there's no need for a high-powered restaurant-style gas range, and that an electric cooktop or even a portable burner will work. Although the book won't be available for purchase until March 8, 2022, according to the website, pre-orders are available already. That gives fans plenty of time to order a wok if they don't already have one, so they can learn how to "stir-fry, deep fry, pan dry, sear, steam, braise, simmer, smoke, cook rice, make curries, and more, all from the same pan" once the nearly 700-page book comes out.