The author does a well balanced survey of the wok and wok cooking from home-cooks and relatives to professional chefs to celebrities to historians to artisans. Regional differences in wok care, design, and cooking styles are covered in a revealing manner, and the intermarriage of narrative, recipes, and photography keeps you reading cover to cover. By the end of the book I was convinced that a copper-core stir-fry pan was an inferior tool to a well-seasoned wok. That’s a $300 revelation.