âIf you ask chefs what we use in our homes, most of us probably didnât buy the pre-seasoned wok from a fancy kitchen store for $100,â says Melissa Miranda, chef-owner of Musang in Seattle. Mirandaâs own wok, a traditional carbon steel workhorse, stars alongside her in her Bon AppĂ©tit video for adobong pusit pancit (a Filipino noodle dish with squid and adobo). In the video, Miranda uses her wok to cook the alliums that serve as the base for the dish before adding the diced tomatoes, squid, fish stock, and adobo sauce in quick succession. âItâs super important to have all your mise ready because you can see itâs already starting to cook,â Miranda says. She then adds the noodles to the wok, which soak up the deliciously saucy base of the adobong pusit pancit, and gives the dish a very impressive flip or two to combine.
Years of use and care have given Mirandaâs wok a rich patina of seasoning that acts like a nonstick finish, and its carbon-steel construction allows the chef to use stainless-steel tongs and spatulas without a second thought. âI remember growing up, my mom ended up buying a nonstick wok and it got ruined,â she says. âIf she used tongs it scraped up the bottomâwhereas this one, it can take a beating.â
Itâs clear why carbon steel is a staple material for professional chefs: Itâs lightweight, durable, comes up to temp in a flash, and becomes naturally nonstick with use. For all of the attributes that endear the material to the pros, Miranda thinks itâs suited to the enthusiastic home cook too. âWhen youâre talking about Asian cuisines, you want that kind of char or smoky high-heat sear that you canât really get when you're waiting for stainless steel to heat up.â
Carbon-steel woks excel at stir-fries (âThe beauty of fast cooking at a high heat means you canât overcook the vegetables,â she says), but Miranda also uses hers for everything from sautĂ©s to fried rice and noodle dishes. âMy team makes fun of me, but Iâll actually make pasta dishes in my wok,â she says. âIt helps to have a large enough surface to really get that integration of the sauce and noodles, which release their gluten and starches into the liquid and make the dish more creamy.â
Woks are offered with either a flat bottom, which allows them to sit atop a stovetopâs burner grate like any other pot or pan, or a round bottom, which requires a wok ring to help position the wok as close to the heat source as possible. Aside from the ârounded versus flatâ and âcarbon steel versus nonstickâ choices to make while you shop, the last consideration is whether to season your wok yourself or buy one pre-seasoned.
While some may prefer the ease of a pre-seasoned wok, Miranda is all for embarking on the seasoning journey yourself. âSeasoning is part of the story of the wok,â she says. Because carbon steel is vulnerable to rust, you must ensure your wok is bone-dry before storing. Miranda dries hers over a stovetop burner and reseasons it with a coat of cooking oil spray. âItâs kind of like cast iron in that way,â she says.
While Miranda sourced her go-to wokâitâs one in a rotation of several the chef uses in the kitchen at Musangâfrom a restaurant supply store, the online outpost of San Franciscoâs Wok Shop is another reliable source for woks and their accessories. Miranda also recommends in-person shopping: âYou can go to Asian markets or walk around Chinatown. They have such beautiful, beautiful pans. It takes a little bit of extra elbow grease and love to cook with an unseasoned carbon-steel wok, but it will last a lifetime.â
By Bon Appetit












