The Wok (Cookbook by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt)

The Wok: Recipes and Techniques, the newest masterwork from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, is, as the name suggests, dedicated not to a specific cuisine but to a specific pan—the all-day, everyday, all-purpose wok. It includes recipes from Japan, Korea, Thailand and Southeast Asia, and—primarily—from China, the birthplace of the wok. And within China, it has a heavy emphasis on Sichuan dishes, much to our delight.  Kenji, author of 2015's blockbuster, science-forward cookbook The Food Lab, is known for focussing on the "how"—recipes that have been tested from every conceivable angle and method—and the "why"—scientific explanations for why this method or ingredient or pan works best. For pan, the answer is very often a wok, which is why he has written this cookbook. But in The Wok, he also dips into the "where," embracing the American Chinese dishes of his youth along with global inspiration from his travels, and the "who," paying tribute to everyone from Joyce Chen, "The godmother of Chinese Amer