Wok hei: why do stir-fry dishes taste better with the ‘breath of the wok’? 

4:44 No way that restaurant name is not intentional 😂😂😂

I like that restaurant name 😂😂 4:40

I work as a washer at a cantonese restaurant and they have 6 of these woks lined up and 3 guys working them. It's a great experience to see them up close.

This is the first time I've heard someone explained wok hei that makes sense. 👍

Grew up working for shops with Chinese and Filipino dishes. We were trained to never wash the woks or pans with soap just water and a wooden brush. Everything tasted better especialwith wood stoves.

This is why Chinese takeout gets cooked so fast. It's those afterburner woks. You order something and within 10 minutes or so it's done.

More than magic, it’s an art.

Really love the charred smell and taste of noodles. So i tried to learn the technique. Bought me a high pressure stove. 1st try, i ended up causing a fire in the kitchen. Thankfully, theres a fire extinguisher nearby. But that didnt stop me from trying again. Now, i sometimes gets the charred taste sometime i dont

This is so fascinating. I’m a French trained chef but THIS is where it’s at.

I watched many beef stir fry noodles videos …I have not seen one like this … the output is so much nicer than those others.

The wok is one of the best cooking equipment you can have in the kitchen

one thing to correct here is that Wok Hei is almost the golden standard for all Chinese fry dishes but not only limited to Cantonese cooking.

Because of freshness. That method cooks food quickly and some dishes are mixed with wine

4:41 holy what??!!

I've never alt tab'ed so fast until today after i heard 4:41

So incredibly graceful this style of cooking. What a show!

Newer generation tend to move towards sous vide and pan fry. Nothing wrong with any method preparing the food. But Wok Hei is the real deal! 😎🤝

Eat without your nose, and you'll find out. High temperature wok style cooking is an art form. People don't recognize this enough.

Wok hei makes all the difference in Chinese cooking. Without wok hei, food will taste like it's steamed. With wok hei, food will taste like it's cooked over fire and yet the food does not get burned.

Cantonese dishes is one of my favourites Chinese food.

This is what Uncle Roger considered the utmost important part of cooking.... :)

What Cantonese chefs share with kung fu fighters - speed and timing, necessary to produce ‘breath of the wok’ textures and flavours: sc.mp/kc0g

My mom has mastered wok-hei cooking but I'm still learning. Wok skills and flick of the wrist is vital to wok-hei cooking. It makes that fried rice sooooo fire though

5:28 😂 I can't

If the Chinese chef is experienced, you can smell and taste the “breath of the dragon” immediately.

admire all the chefs with their wok skill/ cooking!!! great! 👍👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👍

My wok is my favorite cooking utensil. Thanks for this video.. Wok-hei, here I come!

Man I’m glad I live in upper Toronto where it’s a gold mine for talented Cantonese chefs… hope I can do my culture proud and master this technique one day 🙏🙏

Never heard about Wok Hei before until i watch Uncle Roger videos

Okay - that video was amazing! Thanks to all involved. Subscribed 🎉

This is GREAT KNOWLEDGE!! Thanks for beautifully depicting the essence of wok and the versatile dishes ❤

Wok cooking is a master skill that I have much respect for, to hot, and hard for me.

Uncle Roger must love this

Great story, Wok hei is extremely underrated

"Stir Fire King" is an absolute thrill ride for the taste buds at any Cantonese restaurant - it's my go-to dish every time! It's fascinating to see how each chef puts their unique spin on this classic favorite. It's a thrilling gastronomic adventure that continually wows, delivering an exhilarating and captivating dining experience each time it's served!

Thank you for enlightening the people .

Always came out from wok is the best tastier foods that nothing can compare, I set up outdoor cooking especially for fry. Vegetable nutrition never dropped down level and the best healthy food always come to my meal table after wok. My family loves it, the freshness and smoky flavor fried. ♨

Cantonese Wok-hei cooking is hard to do inside. Commercial burners are impressive in terms of how hot they can get, and I’m lucky that there are still great Cantonese chefs in Hawaii. I was drooling watching this video. 🤤

Thank you so much for sharing😋🤗

I believe a certain uncle would be happy with the wok

Learned nothing more than i already knew, but I love the way this episode was made..👍👍👍

Now I want Chinese stir fry. Mission accomplished SCMP! 👍🏽👍🏽🤣🤣

Take note that you do not clean a seasoned wok with soap, just water and scrub (sometimes even just wiping it) is enough

The best way to mimick this at home is with a blow torch, keep it at a medium ish fire, and just hover over the food, just to create a little amount of the charr/burnt looking color. Its the closest u can get to wok hei at home.

Chef Chan NEEDS her own show!!

That is how Wok hei should be explained to those that don't understand yet, in that it is the same exact cooking process of obtaining the smokey flavor & smell you get from charcoal-grilled (or char-broiled) steak & burger meats. Some of the smoke that rises from the grill gets stuck onto the meat & vegetables on your grill, preferably with charcoal/wood. Today, there are other "false" ways of getting that smoke flavor, either using "liquid smoke" or a "smoke infusing" machine. It's not quite there, but it can get close if you experiment enough. As said in the video, if you want to get that wok hei at home, you need to get your pan really hot, when you start seeing some smoke coming off the pan. But don't let it go too long before adding oil or the pan will get so hot that it will make your cooking oil catch fire once poured & possibly make the rest of your kitchen catch fire! Even if you are using high smoke-point oils, like vegetable, canola or sunflower. Try not to use olive oil. The other thing too is the type of smokey smell & taste you can get & one way is to wipe onion or green onion onto your wok pan as it is getting hot which will char those onions. And of course the technique of tossing your food in the hot wok is how you get a lot more of those smoke particles to stick to all over your food.

Great explanation i love wok hei keep trying at home

Wok hei is about achieving a distinct smoky flavor in the dish, without over cooking or burnt taste. Unfortunately no matter how hard you try you'll never get woke hei in home cooking...unless you have an outdoors wok.

Excellent video. More wok cooking please

It very convenience why you can control the heat with knee while you toss the food I really like this cooking range

Whenever I interview candidates, I told them to make fried rice & fried noods, this is the secret

This is what people love to watch top cooking video.

I so love Chinese Cuisine

Amazing chef!

Those who haven't tried authentic wok hei food, gotta try it at least once in their lifetime.

"holy f_ _k" 😂😂😂😂 honestly...... just funny! nothing else👍👍😀

So a gentle touch of violent heat

I love wok hei!😂

I loved this video.Very interesting and informative.

Asian stir fries, including Indonesia's Nasi goreng or Malaysian Char kuey teow or Singaporean Hor fun are all made using wok and needs to generate enough wok hay to bring that slightly charred taste. Continuously smoking its ingredient with evaporating aromatics - so you don't have to rely too much on sauce / seasoning games. If you don't have rocket motor stove or outdoor kitchen in your house (you can use wood or charcoal-burning stove), in Italian cooking, there is this "drowning" (affogati) technique that could produce similar result with smaller burner - making your vegetable smells olive oil & garlic as if they are cooked in wok. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan, throw in chopped garlic chunks and chili pepper to your preference, heat it until bubbling, throw in the vegetable, and close the lid for 10-15 minutes. Season with salt, that's it!

I could taste this video! Now I am STARVING... 😂👍🇭🇰

Kinda like cooking a prime ribeye steak over a hot charcoal fire vs a gas grill. Open flame wins. I do have a wok but don't have the BTU's to get that certain flavor. The wok does contain my food when tossing my ingredients. :)

I have lived in Toronto, Canada for over 35 years and have yet eaten a stir fried beef noodle with the so-called Wok Hei. A trip back to HK visiting reminded me exactly what that is !

I love my CS wok and pan.

Wok breathing 2nd form: Wok Clash - **beheads and cooks all vegetables**

Best cookware in the kitchen by far

I'm from Hong Kong and yes, that shop name at 4:40 is intentional, hahah. This is because that combination of characters has no meaning in Chinese or Cantonese, and the chef who speaks on behalf of the shop is also fluent in English. I just never could've imagined someone actually made a shop name out of this pun, and a successful professional one at that.

MashAllah great recipe 🤤😋😋👌👌

Still learning & need more training to handle heavy cast iron wok.

I wonder if the chefs can get the wok-hei with the induction stove in our home's kitchen.

Learned something new

wok and oils also give aroma when near boilling point

Wok is so fkin universal... i have 3 at home myself

Wok Hei for life 😋🔥🔥🔥

The lady chef speaks excellent English!

Amazing

Great video!

4:40 This is a must visit restaurant. Best name ever. 😮

This is inspiring.

That restaurant name is brilliant 😅

Spat out my food at 4:41 😂

wok are very durable cookware.

It is most certainly not just maillard reaction. Maillard reaction occurs when steaks are fried over pans but you don't ever taste "wok hei" (鑊氣) in them.

Yes

Now I am craving a beef chow fun. The wok hei elevates the noodles in a smoky slightly charred taste. Wok hei is where it's at! 👍

YES

We Uncle Roger fans know.

4:37 best restaurant name ever

then our moms hit us with the "yeet hay"

Isn't high temperature deplete nutrients in meat and vegetables? Just asking, with love from Alaska.

This is the type of content why I watch south china morning post.

the way she described it makes me wanna see an anime film of a Cantonese chef with all the dramatic and poetic moves she talked about like... wow. SHE needs to be a main character of an anime

Respect!!!✊🏿🤟🏿

Can you explain what is yeet hai.

this is now going to be my de facto reference/explanation video whenever someone asks me what wok hei is :)

The Legend of Fried Rice, Breath of the Wok

you know the thing gets serius when they put a friggin' rocket engine in the kichen lol

Does the tossing help?

Holy F*CK! Amazing video, amazing food.

4:41 I'm sorry but come on, that name gotta be an inside joke. lol