HomeArts & LifestyleGok Wan - Gok’s Wok review

Gok Wan – Gok’s Wok review

Gok Wan has been inspiring people of all shapes and sizes over the years with his show How To Look Good Naked. As well as his style and confidence coaching, Gok is also a keen cook and last year he fronted his own show about cooking Chinese food. For his latest book Gok is taking a look at Asian food and offering healthy recipes that are quick to make.

If you like your Asian food then you’ll absolutely love Gok’s latest book. Split into 10 sections, Gok’s Wok offers a variety of meals for a variety of occasions. It opens with a chapter packed with Quick & Healthy recipes and works its way through to Sides & Extras that are perfect accompaniments to whatever meal you decide to cook. The philosophy of the book is that anyone, regardless of their lifestyle, can cook fresh and healthy meals in a matter of minutes. Often you think of cooking tasty dishes and you think it’ll take hours and this book proves it really doesn’t.

The book perfectly reflects Gok’s personality with bright colours throughout, eye-catching pictures and of course shots of Gok cooking and eating. Most of the recipes are accompanied by mouth-watering pictures and the amount of text to imagery is fairly low. The text included is the essentials about ingredients and cooking steps. The recipes are really easy to follow and can be attempted by anyone. There’s a good mix of different types of Asian food like curries, stir-fries and salads and chapters broken down into occasions such as Date Night and Dinner Parties.

Some of the best recipes in the book are the more experimental ones. The chicken, pea and okra £2 curry is quick, easy and tasty whilst adding bacon to chicken chow mein really enhances the flavour (make sure you have plenty of water though as it’s a fairly salty dish). We really loved the Filipino pork and mango curry which blends savoury and sweet superbly and couldn’t get enough of the green tea and citrus jelly that makes a really surprising dessert.

The recipe we really loved in this book is Gok’s version of Chicken katsu curry. It’s one of our favourite dishes and annoyingly Wagamama has never included it in their recipe books. Gok’s version is fairly different but it’s just as tasty and a real treat to serve up for guests, or just yourself. For a nice alternative we suggest not bothering with rice and making a portion of sweet potato chips which are absolutely delicious.

The one thing that the book is missing is details of preparation and cooking times. It’s a nice touch to have the essential details about nutrition with each recipe but it would have been even better to have an approximate time too so you can see at a glance if you have time to attempt the recipe. It’s not a big deal but it’s fairly standard in cookery books and we were a bit surprised it hasn’t been included.

Gok’s Wok really stimulates the mind and will help you look at Asian food differently. Not everything needs to take an age to make and you won’t believe what you can actually cook up in a small space of time. We’re big fans of Asian food and these healthy recipes mean we’ll likely be eating a lot more of it rather than having it as a treat from the takeaway.

Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip Ellwood-Hughes
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of Piñata Media. With over 19 years of journalism experience, Pip has interviewed some of the biggest stars in the entertainment world. He is also a qualified digital marketing expert with over 20 years of experience.

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