JOYCE CHEN Professional Series 14-Inch Carbon Steel Wok with Phenolic Handles

OK so I want to start this review off by saying this is my first wok. I'm fairly confident in the kitchen and I've seasoned cast iron for years, so I wasn't afraid of the seasoning process for a wok. It took me 3 days to do my first seasoning. Some of this was definitely mistakes on my part and the wok maintenance learning curve, but I'll walk through my process so hopefully someone else can learn from my mistakes. Day 1: I heated the wok on my gas burner. I wrapped the handles in tin foil to protect the plastic. I started with wok flat and then occasionally picked it up and tilted it over the burner for a minute on each spot. I spent like 3 hours doing this and here is my first mistake. I didn't realize how much coating was actually on this thing. I thought I had gotten it all off, so I started using vegetable oil to season. I did 3 rounds of vegetable oil coating when I went to google because it just didn't "feel" right to me. This is when I realized that I hadn't removed all of the initial anti-rust coating, because I started applying vegetable oil when the pan hadn't even gotten to the completely silver/gray, let alone to the dark bluish gray that was needed. Well shit, /sigh. This site had some good images of what the wok should look like at each stage. I cobbled together seasoning tips from a few sites as well as the instructions that came with the wok, so I didn’t follow their steps exactly, but the pictures helped a lot. https://thewoksoflife.com/how-to-season-a-wok/ Day 1-part 2: This time I set up a heavy pot behind my wok and laid each side spot over the gas burner for at least 15mins, and the coating really started coming off this way. It will smoke and have a slight chemical burn smell, use your fan. I slowly turned it until I got a nice silver/gray sheen coming through. Then moved on to the next spot. This is the better way, it stops the wasting of heat, each spot gets cooked long enough to heat up and burn off all of the nasty stuff. Slowly turning it for like a minute on each spot like I did initially was stupid and a huge waste of time. I got the vast majority of the vegetable oil and coating off this way. But there were still a number of stubborn parts (mostly around the handles) that I just couldn't get to. This is when I figured out that you can remove both the handles. The helper handle has 2 screws and the long handle you simply turn/unscrew the holder hook and it comes out. But I was done for the day. Day 2: I washed and scrubbed with dawn dish soap and then dried and threw it in the oven at 500F (After I removed both handles). It was in there for hours (6hrs+) and not much was happening, the remaining spots were definitely getting lighter, but they were still there. I moved up the rack until it sat as close to the broil element as I could and made sure that the two handle spots were aligned with the burner element. And I broiled for another 3hrs. This loosened up some more but after another 3hrs the gunk was still there. I should mention that besides the stubborn spots the rest of the wok was getting to a nice dark bluish black color, I had gotten down to the carbon steel on about 80% of the wok at this point. I turned off the oven and let it cool down in there and went to bed. Day 3: I washed it in the sink with more dawn soap and a copper scrubber. It took a little bit of the gunk off but not enough. At this point I figured my gas bill was going through the roof, so I took some bar keepers friend and the scrubby side of a dish sponge and covered it in bar keepers friend let it sit for a minute and scrubbed it. Rinse and repeat 2 times. I finally had a perfectly clean, no residue left wok!!!! It was a triumph. In hindsight I think I could have probably just started with bar keepers friend. I now had the perfect bluish black tint all over, and now it was time to do my actual seasoning. I dried the wok, put the handles back on, and put it back on the burner with medium high heat and let it heat up for about 3 minutes. Then I dropped 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in and coated it as much as a I could by swirling. Then I folded up a paper towel and swirled around the hot oil, getting all the way up the sides, while wiping off excess. This is when I learned that 2 tbsp is way too much oil for this step. You only need 1 tbsp. I kept it on the burner until it the oil looked even, and I couldn’t see any clearly defined, overly oil spots. The oil will smoke during this step, especially when you are wiping away excess. You have to kind move the wok around to see if there is excess oil anywhere. I let it cool, rinsed with warm water and lightly scrubbed with the soft side of the sponge, this removed the sticky dried spots of oil. Then I dried and repeated this step 3 more times. I got a nice patina everywhere. I used it that same night to make some stir fry and it worked great. I did have to re-season about 3 times after my first use to get the bottom to have the same nice patina as the sides, but I figure that's normal for the first dozen or so times I use the wok. This is my seasoning adventure. Hopefully you learn something from this epic tale, and it doesn't take you 3 days to get to the final level. The image above is after my first cook, you can see the bottom isn't quite as seasoned as the sides, but I'll re-season before I cook again. But that nice patina is what you are looking for after you season.

I bought this wok after extensive research online, the goal was to replace my Le Creuset wok I got years ago. The Le Creuset wok was nonstick (got it back before I knew any better about cookware) and it was showing it's age. I decided to move away from nonstick and get into cooking with cast iron and carbon steel. With a little TLC I hadn't regret my decision, even when cooking eggs. It is true what the other reviewers said, the factory lacquer took unholy efforts to remove. But with lots of elbow grease, scrubbing with a green scouring pad under very hot water while wearing thick plastic gloves, it came off. One thing to note is once the lacquer is off the wok will rust immediately. So it's important to work quickly after that and towel dry asap. The seasoning part was just as the instruction said, which I delegated to my husband to do after 1 round of standing by the hot stove. Only thing he did differently was after the last seasoning (he did it 5 times), he stir fried aromatics (leeks and ginger) to really sear the flavor in. I used the wok an hour later and it cooked like a dream. Nothing stuck and took to the high heat very well. To clean I pour hot water in it while the wok is still warm and stirred a paper towel around. Then I dump the water out and immediately towel dry. Then I put it on medium heat to make sure it's good and dried all the way around and rub a few drops of canola oil back in with a paper towel to keep it from rusting. I won't bother to find a place for it in my kitchen cabinets, this baby is going to be used so much that it won't need to be put away.

This wok cooks well but I encountered significant issues trying to season it. Upon delivery a few weeks ago, I closely followed the instructions about boiling water in it and scrubbing to remove the factory coating. While it took a good bit of elbow grease, all of the coating eventually came off. Seasoning is where I ran into problems. Since the steel should be heated thoroughly, I used my propane jet burner which is used to heat seafood in a 100qt pot. The burner can generate a lot of heat, as you might imagine. I lit the burner and coated the wok in oil. Then, I put it over the burner. While the steel seasoned exactly as it should, both handles melted and the rivets which attach the handles to the bowl loosened up considerably. I will take the blame for the melted handles. I should have removed them both BEFORE heating the wok. After seasoning, I could have simply re-installed them after the wok cooled down. I am going to contact the manufacturer to inquire about purchasing new handles. They are each held on by screws so replacement ought to be simple. Live and learn. The rivets are another story. All rivets were tight before I seasoned the wok. After seasoning, they are so loose that I cannot hold either handle with any confidence that they are not going to break off at some point. I am going to try to hammer them back tight, if possible. If not, I will not be able to move the wok during cooking (which is what I am forced to do at the moment). That makes this wok largely ineffective so I will have to search for another one with better construction quality. The sad part is that the cooking surface works very well. It is impressively non-stick and heats quickly and evenly. The few things that I have cooked in it came out great. I will update this review after I attempt to re-seat the rivets. I hope I can salvage this thing. TL;DR Remove the handles before seasoning the wok or do not use a high-heat source like an outdoor jet burner. Once it is seasoned, this wok functions very well.

I've been using this wok several times a week for over a year now. I've been completely satisfied with its performance. Short review: Ok, you've decided on carbon steel for a wok, but which one, there are so many choices... what's different about this one? The phenolic handles and the thicker gauge steel. I have had zero problems with the handles - they're solid, look sharp, easy to clean, and they stay cool during use. The thicker steel, only half a millimeter? It makes a difference. It's very solid, no flex or warp, and it holds heat better. It has noticeably more heft than the 1.5mm, but isn't too heavy. IMO it's worth it. Overall this wok earns its "pro" label every time I handle it. Long review: Wok material - basically three choices: non-stick, cast iron, and carbon steel. Don't bother with non-stick. Proper wok stir-frying is done at high temperatures, and that doesn't go well with non-stick. A non-stick wok is really just a regular pan in the shape of a wok. Meh. Cast iron is not a bad choice, such as the option from Lodge. But it's very heavy, making it difficult to store and manipulate. And you have to use pot holders to handle it. It takes longer to preheat, and then its strength of heat retention becomes a weakness if you're looking to change the temperature quickly. What about the lightweight cast iron wok option, which comes with handles? Too sensitive to thermal shock, i.e. can easily crack due to temperature changes, while the cooking performance isn't really better than carbon steel. So, then there's carbon steel. Like cast iron, it needs to be seasoned (google and use the ginger and green onion method, not the standard methods used for cast iron). But it's stronger and more durable than cast iron of a comparable gauge, and lighter and more easily manipulated than thick cast iron. And it handles the high heat needed for proper wok stir-frying. It's the best choice. And this wok is the best choice of the carbon steel options. Flat or round bottomed? Round bottomed is the traditional shape, but unless you want to mess with a wok ring or retrofit a specialized burner, just go with the flat bottomed. Seasoning: This is not flavoring but building up layers of polymerized oil that protect the steel (or iron) from rust and provide non-stick properties. Look at 10 different how-tos for seasoning and you'll find 10 different variations. The aforementioned "ginger and green onion" method helps get the raised sides properly seasoned, then it's just a case of maintaining it properly. I've been using a traditional bamboo wok whisk with great results; there's a number of them available here. Or you can use some sort of non-scratch scrubber designed for cast iron. The key is to use something that won't remove the seasoning. Rinse it off in hot water (no soap), use the wok whisk to remove any stuck particles and rinse again, dry off with a paper towel, heat it a little bit on the stove to dry any remaining moisture, then coat it with a thin layer of vegetable oil after each use. Basically the same as cast iron. It's easier than it sounds. And the best way to maintain / improve seasoning is to keep using the wok for stir-frying or deep frying, the more you use it the more it builds seasoning naturally... Utensils, I originally used a cheapo wood-handled metal wok spatula from the local Chinese supermarket. It worked fine, until the wood handle kept coming off. So I replaced it with the Tablecraft bamboo handle SS wok spatula found here. It's a quite fine quality wok spatula, but with one problem - it's too good, the stainless steel is too hard and it scratches off the wok's seasoning, a problem I didn't have with the cheapo spatula. I've recently switched to an all-bamboo wok spatula and so far, so good... As of this writing this wok costs 25% less than I paid for it a year ago. Yet I still think it was worth the price I paid. Buy with confidence.

You will love this wok. For the initial seasoning, I ignored much of what other reviewers said but did boil water in it as directed and scrubbed it thoroughly with steel wool, then did the initial seasoning on my biggest gas burner on my stovetop. This process got a good deep brown coating on the bottom in just about 20 minutes that is a better non-stick surface than my old Teflon coated wok. I haven't got a deep brown seasoning on the entire surface yet, but it will happen with time. One useful tip is to hold an oil soaked paper towel with tongs while doing the seasoning so as not to burn your fingers; and keep the fan going on your hood because it will certainly smoke. Oh, and Wesson oil (pure soybean oil) worked just fine for seasoning my pan. The book The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has a great guide to selecting a wok and this model is a perfect fit to those recommendations. Heavy walled carbon steel is very responsive to changes in flame but heats very uniformly. The 2mm thickness of this wok is just the perfect thickness, good uniform heating but not so heavy as a cast-iron wok. The flat bottom design means it sits well on my stove eye and is stable without requiring a special stand. The handles stay cool and with one-long and one short, it's easier to work with than with just short handles. This wok is made by turning and has fine machining rings all the way up the sloped sides. These help to hold food in the cooler parts of the wok while you cook other food in the bottom. If you haven't used a wok before you will be amazed at all of the things it does better than any other cooking tool. A wok is perfect for deep frying, and for pan searing meats, as well as stir frying. Make sure and get a lid for this wok so you can use it for steaming too. Tips for use, just make sure and season it well, don't wash it in soap or dishwasher, and oil it before putting it away, just like it says. If wash water turns yellow or it rusts in storage, you didn't oil it enough. Also, carbon steel will not hold up to vinegar or acidic foods, so always make sour sauces in a separate pan, preferably stainless. Walmart doesn't sell this wok, and does sell a cheaper carbon steel wok without the removable handles. Not sure if the cheaper ones are as thick as this one is either.

Unlike some of the other folks who have written reviews of their pan gone horribly wrong, I will admit fault where it is due. During the first seasoning of the pan, I tried my best to remove the coating that was originally on the pan but I couldn't actually see the coating to begin with. Not seeing any progress whatsoever, I assumed it was fine and went on with washing it out. After the first wash, I took it outside on my burner and put it over a high heat until it changed colors. Unlike some of the photos and reviews here, It didn't go through the multiple stages of color, instead, it turned a dark brown rather than a blue/black. The first point that I will make regarding the pan is the difficulty with seasoning by the handles. Although the handles are removable, it was nearly impossible to get a proper seasoning by the handles without removing them and throwing it in the oven. After the color changed, I applied my first coat of oil, repeating the process for about 2 hours (waiting about 20 minutes for it each time and turning the pan) Unlike my cast iron, the pan became very sticky and I still decided to go out and try an egg. ABSOLUTE HORROR! Everything was completely stuck, all hope was lost as far as cleaning it goes. After about an hour of furious sanding by hand, I removed almost all of the egg/seasoning from the failed attempt and restarted indoors and with less oil. While the pan isn't perfect and still has chicken stick to the sides every so often, It's much better than before and I'm sure will be better with time. As for why I failed the first time? I'd like to attribute it to being outdoors as well as the amount of oil/process. I don't think the propane burner was able to actually get hot enough to properly season the pan, hence not going through the full range of colors. Despite that, I continued adding oil and it resulted in a big mess. My advice would be to make sure your flame is actually hot enough by waiting after each coat and making sure the pan isn't sticky. Don't use an egg right away either, if you poorly seasoned your pan, you're in for a lot of fun...

I MUST do a review on this terrible wok. But first I want to tell you that the wok is NOT preseasoned as someone posted here. It has a horrible FACTORY COATING!! I have spent at least 12 hours trying to remove the factory coating so here goes. I read the manufacturer's directions, which were to first fill it 1/2 to 1/3 with water and boil it for 5-7 minutes. Remember this is a flat bottomed wok so is OK for electric range. I scrubbed it out after boiling using a harsh pad for at least 10 min and rinsed it thoroughly. Then it should have been ready to use, so I coated the sides with a little rapeseed oil and then added about a TBL or 2 of rapeseed oil to the wok and heated it on med. heat until it was hot enough to start cooking. I tested the heat with a drop of water. When it sizziled I added chunks of red onion and ginger and swirled it around bottom and sides until the veggies were charred. This took about 20 min. Then threw them out. It was suggested to do this to further season if with flavor. After throwing out the charred veggies, I brought the wok to the right temp on the stove, and when I put a drop of water and it sizzled, it was ready for cooking our first meal. I added mushrooms, red onion, bok choy and red, orange and yellow pepper strips and cooked them for a few min or until they were still crunchy. All good so far. Then I added chunks of chicken. Guess what. The chunks STUCK TO THE BOTTOM. When I wiped out the wok with paper towels, I saw that the bottom was BLACK but the sides retained their original color. We still tried to eat it over rice, the veggies were ok but the chicken was terrible. I then read every review here using the word OVEN. OK I thought, I'll try to remove the factory coating using the methods posted by a few others. I again scrubbed it out vigorously with a harsh scrubbie, the copper colored ones you get at your supermarket. I did try to buy it at a Dollar Store as someont suggested, but they don''t sell them. After scrubbing it throughly, and made sure it was totally dry, I removed the handle which is attached with a round metal end which screws out. There was no way to remove the helper handle, as someone posted here could be removed with a phillips head screwdriver but is welded, t and I wet a wash cloth well enough so it did not drip, wrapped it around the helper handle, and wrapped that with heavy duty foil. It then went into my oven, faced down, and brought the temp to 450, heating it for 30 min. It started to throw off nasty fumes so I waited until that stopped. Had to put a window fan against the balcony screen door the smell was so bad. I then took it out after it was cool enough to handle but still pretty warm, and cleaned it out with paper towels. WOW, I got a lot of orangy colored paper towels, a LOT of towels. OK. looks like this is the factory coating but all wasn't going to come off, so I scrubbed it again with my scrubbie and put it in the oven as before, wrapping the handle as before. I should mention that some of the coating in the first round in the oven dripped onto the wash cloth and became a HARDENED BLOB. I just knew more coating coming off the wok. So I then started the third round of placing it in the oven, of course wrapping a completely wet washcloth around the helper handle covered with heavy duty foil so it would not melt, and brought the oven temp again up to 450 for 30 min with the wok facing down. The wok should be already in the oven as the temp rises. After it was cool enough to handle but still pretty warm, I again wiped the inside and outside too with paper towels. AGAIN, yukky orangy stuff was coming off, and it was a alot, on the paper towels. Once again I scrubbed it out as above, replaced the wash cloth with a wet one, wrapped it with heavy duty foil, and into the oven it went bringing the temp again to 450 for30 min. I then cooled the wok leaving it in the oven which took about 2 hrs. This morning , I got no more orangy gunky stuff off the inside or outside on the paper towels. YAY, it was ready to be seasoned with again, red onion and ginger chunks on med-hi heat until they were charred, swirling them around bottom and sides which took about 20 min. I then threw out the charred veggies. Now ready to see if anything stuck to it after putting some rapeseed oil on the bottom and waiting until I got a sizzle on the bottom from a drop of water. That's when you add your veggies. All looked good but I wanted to see if anything would stick to the bottom. I cracked an egg and threw it on the bottom. IT STUCK! Someone here posted a pic of the stuck egg on the bottom! I then washed all out. It is going back. Someone here posted he used laquer remover for getting rid of the coating. And used linseed oil to season it. I'm pretty sure he is right. But it's too late to start over again. Spending 12 hours on it is ENOUGH. In fact, this morning I had a circle of the coating on the bottom of my sink, and it must have come from my final scrubbing. I could not get if off even after scrubbing it a long time with my scrubbie. This is how horrible and tenacious the factory coating is. I urge you to read review here using the seach words OVEN, COATING, STICKING, LACQUER, EGG and LINSEED OIL. I have now ordered the Lodge cast iron flat bottomed wok and am getting ready to season that even though the info provided says it's already seasoned. When I bought my dutch ovens, I researched how to season the cast iron ring around the top which was not enamel coated. The posting for this was the same as what I used when I put this wok in the oven. Only this time for the dutch oven, all I had to do was put a thin layer of oil on the exposed cast iron, place it in the oven cold until it the temp came up to 450 and baked for 20 min. The exposed rims are now seasoned perfectly, getting no rust on the rims. Some posted here that the wok rusted. Also search for the word RUST.

This is a great wok, made more awesome by the fact that was $30. I also had some trouble getting it clean and seasoned properly, but that's really a good thing. I really don't know what the 1 or 2-star reviewers were expecting. It's a wok. It's not supposed to be shiny, and it'll rust if you leave it wet and without a little oil. If the manufacturer didn't coat it well, it may have gotten rusty during transit(especially if it's crossing the sea) and storage. You don't want it rusting for the year between when it's made and when it gets to you. If you wanted a cooking device that doesn't rust, doesn't blacken, and doesn't have protective coating, you didn't want a carbon steel wok. Maybe you should get a stainless steel wok or another pan altogether. /end rant The one valid drawback I've seen is that my handle is also a little loose, so you get a few millimeters of give when you pick it up. I'm not sure if that's part of the design. It hasn't come off yet. The best part about the wok is its relatively light weight because it's made of carbon steel. This allows weaklings like me to properly toss some stir fry. I also wish it came with a lid because I do a lot of steamed fish. I improvise right now with a pot that fits on top.

Pensé que sería mas pequeño y menos pesado, quizá no sea la opción si quieres usarlo para saltear como en los videos de comida oriental, se complica un poco curarlo en estufa, pero solo en donde están las agarraderas, pero se pueden desmontar y ya es menos complicado, nunca se me ha oxidado, siguiendo las recomendaciones no pasa eso, fue buena compra, entregado a tiempo.

I've used this wok for a while now and it's a big sturdy wok, I have no regret buying this wok, it's just great to use

Cant really fault my new wok. Really good solid steel, nice modern look to the handles. Really like it.

Non stick after proper seasoning. I removed the plastic handles and seasoned in an oven with rice bran oil as it had a high smoke point. The shiny surface turned dark and the wok works like a charm. Exterior surface needs to be oiled before storage as I did not season. I didn't do so the first night and had a few small rust spots but no big deal - either season together with interior or oil before storage

After 3 years of use, I still love this wok. It takes some initial effort to season it the first time, but once it's done, you'll love cooking with it. Some good design points: 1) the plastic pieces on the handle can all be removed for seasoning in the oven. 2) the walls are ridged patterns so food doesn't stick to the cooler portions of the wok 3) the handles are still sturdy enough to hold the entire wok on one handle. The seasoning does come off after some use. Especially if you don't like to stir dry with a lot of oil. I suspect I need to use a better oil for seasoning so it sticks better. The only reason why I did not give 5 star is because I noticed that the bottom is not completely flat anymore. I suppose this is to be expected of non-ply'ed metal after some years of use.