Does stir frying really need a zillion prep bowls?

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Hey guys, a few notes: 1. Ultimately, I think making use of prep bowls (or a similar system) is good practice in a Western kitchen as well. The reason I think you don’t see a lot of people using prep bowls in the USA and the like, however, is that the cuisine - especially the modern incarnation - doesn’t inherently *demand* it. Like, if you’re making a hotdish or something, ultimately you’re just laying stuff into a casserole dish… prep bowls would be sort of superfluous. Stir frying obviously moves a lot faster than a lot of western dishes do, so these sorts of practices - approaches that might be associated more with restaurant cooking in the west - end up getting etched in your brain as a homecook, too. 2. In some ways, I do feel though that ‘dish dread’ (might have stolen that term from Internet Shaquille? Idk) is too much of a variable for a lot of people. Yeah, washing dishes isn’t as much fun as stir frying, or even slicing up aromatics. But it’s just part of the process. You try to minimize bowls/plates as best you can, of course, but ultimately a handful of little bowls is like… 60-90 seconds of washing? (Haven’t timed it, just a guess) It’s really not the end of the world. 3. I suppose most of y’all watching these videos are at least intermediate cooks though (generally what we aim for), so in some ways I might be preaching to the choir. Just in case there are some beginners though - something else that I do when washing dishes is have a little metric that I have in my head called ‘% paranoia required’. So like, a prep bowl that just had some big chunks of aromatics in it requires very little dish-washing-paranoia - like, you could probably even get away with a quick rinse (but give a quick scrub anyway). Things that contained saucy things or raw meat require a lot more ‘washing paranoia’. And at the very top are oily things, which really require a hefty scrub. 4. Another dish washing related question for y’all - I’m sure there’s some people here in the comments that use the ‘soapy basin’ dishwashing method. This is the method that my parents use, and something that always drove me crazy about it is that it seems like you need to do everything all at once (in my house growing up, all after dinner). Certainly, there’s a way to use the basin method but still wash-as-you-go? 5. Re Cadence, a quick note that his restaurant is actually a Dongbei-Western fusion sort of deal - I know that with the way that I cut it it seemed to imply that his restaurant was a ‘standard’ Chinese restaurant (he swears like a sailor lol… I’m still not happy with the ‘bleep’ we have so I cut around it). If you’re in Shenzhen, definitely check it out - link’s in the description. His KZbin channel is here: www.youtube.com/@cadencegao His schtick is teaching western food to a Chinese audience usually, but recently he’s been thinking of expanding into teaching Dongbei food to a western audience (which’s way less represented online in English) Anyway, that’s all I can think of for now - I’m sure we might have some more in a bit. Proper recipe video coming next week :)

[@arnijulian6241]

Stainless steel kitchen counter. Who needs bowl's or a chopping board when your work space is an entire bench. Chop with cleaver then scoop with cleaver & since my kitchen is all metal or stone so I just use a pressurised Jet washer for my kitchen to clean. My kitchen looks like a giant surgeons sink but it is easy & quick to clean or butcher in. Being a former Engineer I didn't have the time to spend cleaning or cooking so I made the process semi automated! I went a bit over the top in time saving but just get a stainless steel sheet kitchen grade & use a decent knife as chopping boards & bowls are a waste of time let alone space!

[@ConstantlyDamaged]

I tend to use the method of "group things that go into the dish at the same time" with bowls. Also, having a disability that sometimes impacts how much time I can stand in one place for, I use pyrex glass bowls and keep the lids handy. I know these little guys are expensive, but they're dishwasher safe and mean that I can toss the lids on and protect everything from being spoiled if I cannot continue prep/cooking. I do this for everything I cook that, as you say, isn't just "throw all ingredients into a pot and cook for X minutes" (so things like curries, rapidly cooked egg dishes, etc).

[@deathpyre42]

You know those sort of sectioned plates? Like the ones small children eat out of that are meant to stop the various components of a meal from touching each other. I use those to prep stir fries because it's only one thing to wash but it can hold 3 different components.

[@ropro9817]

Haha, wow, that's the first time I've seen Chris' face. Good to meet you, Chris! Love your channel! ❤

[@alysoffoxdale]

Re the "soapy basin" X "wash as you go": Although I sometimes have soap in that dishpan, mostly it's just a wet place to drop dishes to to keep gunk from drying on, until I have time between cooking steps for a spot of actual washing. My diluted dish soap is actually in a separate bowl in the corner of the sink. So once I de-gunk-ify the dishes in the dishpan, then I use the dishcloth/sponge/brush so soap them and rinse them.

[@internetshaquille]

speaking as someone in the little bowl business, everyone needs to have ten thousand of them at home

[@raeperonneau4941]

😂

[@tobiasmaiermaus]

You're one of the best people on the internet, Internet Shaquille!

[@siiiiiiiiiimo]

SHAKKY BOYYYY

[@schmules101]

daddy!!!!

[@tdb517]

Shaquille is a meme, not a cook. Stop trying to get your 2 minutes fame on other people's channels.

[@danacoe]

Cheap stackable metal bowls are the ideal. You can whack them against the wok to empty them and no worries of breakage. I like to line them up with the ingredients in order of cooking. That way I have a visual aid as to the "flow" of a preparation.

[@crumbtember]

Yus same, that's a really good way to do it.

[@MessoriusPrime]

I made my own stoneware ones, about half have little spouts.

[@TamagoSando]

LOVE those metal bowls. Compared to ceramic, they burn your hands a lot less after taking them out of the steamer.

[@cannibalvegetableyt]

Protip: the pyrex ones are great for anything acidic or reactive 👌🏻

[@kjh23gk]

@@cannibalvegetableyt No acid used for cooking will react with stainless steel. Perhaps you're thinking of aluminium?

[@bunchifybunch]

This is a great video! Please don't shy away from making practical videos like this, sometimes they're a bit of a barrier to entry for people who are intimidated by new cooking techniques. I know when I look for answers online I inevitably end up in a reddit/youtube rabbit hole where everyone swears you NEED 500 metal bowls, or spend a MINIMUM of $70 on a knife or $200 on a set of whetstones. Or the 20 different methods that different people swear is the ONLY correct method to season a wok, and anything else is actually damaging the wok in some way. Whereas practically, for my purposes, I just use small tupperware or takeout containers instead of metal bowls because I have them already, and $30 knife that I spend $10 to get professionally sharpened every 6 months or so. I think every intermediate home cook does the cutting board method you described at some point, so I think it's useful for beginners to see that it's okay to not be an obnoxious snob about feeding yourself.

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

>I know when I look for answers online I inevitably end up in a reddit/youtube rabbit hole where everyone swears you NEED 500 metal bowls, or spend a MINIMUM of $70 on a knife or $200 on a set of whetstones. Or the 20 different methods that different people swear is the ONLY correct method to season a wok, and anything else is actually damaging the wok in some way. Add "you NEED an outdoor wok burner" to the list and you've basically summed up the pet peeve that actually drove us to start this channel. I'll throw this out there - I like gas, I like woks, but... if someone can't stir fry on a non-stick over an induction too, they don't really know how to stir fry.

[@888SpinR]

Agreed! Lots of gatekeeping with the "right ingredients" for "an authentic dish" *koff* fried rice *koff*.

[@evelynsaungikar3553]

Just don’t use the sharp edge of your knife to push or scrape ingredients into the pan, use the back!

[@fernandesh.m.5504]

I usually do a mix of Chris & Steph's approach using a board to put the ingredients and using prep bowls for wet ingredients, or if there are no space left on the board. Separating ingredients based on cooking time is also very practical.

[@devilex121]

Same, honestly it's applicable to other cuisines too! I often like to do Thai or Indian and it hasn't failed me yet in terms of efficiency.

[@orangehenryAU]

Guys, huge long time supporter. We have rewritten a lot of our favourite recipes of yours to ‘consolidate’ ingredients that go into the wok at the same time. I have found this cuts down the washing significantly and makes the cook easier too.

[@InnuendoXP]

For dry ingredients, I just put them in their own section on a plate & just slide the section in as needed.

[@GatesOfElysia]

I do this at home because we just do not have the counter space (nor do I have the patience)

[@sukedent1]

I've always just placed my ingredients on a big plate in a sort of pie-chart arrangement so i can scrape an ingredient off without getting any (or just a little) of any other ingredients

[@lizzi437]

Love this!

[@flemblemming7851]

Same here

[@nicolle2126]

same

[@WokandKin]

So nice hearing Steph speak Cantonese! Adding some of the words to my vocab list 🤩 I often have mine like Steph - a few ingredients in a bowl that have almost the same cooking times. Or categorized in a similar fashion!

[@miketrail9560]

I've never commented on a video before, but I really liked this video. It makes a lot of sense that there is a balance between filming and kitchen, and this explanation is a clear story. Keep doing what yall do, and I'll keep enjoying having my bowls (buts mostly making my "messy" cutting board piles

[@thesouvlaki]

Some people see this video as a video about prep bowls in Chinese cuisine, I see this video in a philosophical way; the right tools for the right job. Thank you for creating this content and best of luck to your channel in the future.

[@getsmartpaul]

Hi from Las Vegas, as a novice beginner cook trying to follow all the steps to cooking, it is visually much easier to learn seeing all the separate ingredients being added. Once, I learn the steps then I will combine / simplify the process. Cleaning 6 bowls versus a chopping board or large plate is easier. Thanks !

[@andenp8233]

I will say that since I started following your channel I have added a lot of small, cat-themed bowls to my kitchen. This has helped a lot with my prep work and my joy when working in the kitchen. I get to break down the prep work of some of these ambitious recipes into manageable units AND i get to look at cute cat designs at the same time. It's been an overall positive influence in the kitchen. I've learned from your channel so many amazing skills that I hopefully won't fall into the trap of thinking that your particular solution to a problem is the only way to manage my problems in the kitchen. Smalls bowls are great, but they aren't the secret to good cooking.

[@barnaclebob123]

I love the idea of this video. Was super interesting to see the thoughts behind it. I also use a somewhat between method. Everything in one step in one bowl.

[@clinodev]

I really like the School of Wok channel's "Wok Clock" technique, where they arrange all the reasonably dry ingredients on a platter clockwise by the order they're added to the wok.

[@NathanEMilos]

Came to say the same thing. I started using this method a lot after watching their videos; I used to be a small bowl person for all my cooking, but the Wok Clock is pretty rad.

[@paulg6790]

As a lazy dishwasher user I stick ingredients in mugs or drinking glasses as I can fit more cups in the dishwasher than bowls. It also helps when prepping ahead and keeping things in the fridge as they take up a smaller footprint than wide bowls. Also, shotglasses of spice mixes

[@calyodelphi124]

Oh this is extremely practical and clever... I like it! :D

[@jenyik22]

I do this too, but mainly because I own like a gazillion coffee mugs

[@henrysmith180]

As someone who washes dishes by hand, I use small bowls because they dry faster in the dish rack. Mugs take hours to dry by air

[@camille744]

When I chop an dkeep things in the fridge I use empty yogurt containers with lids. Not as small as mugs but good to store and wont spill in the fridge.

[@yvrelna]

If you like prep ahead of time, you should get small dishwasher safe containers with lids which can be stacked. That's the most space efficient way and also protects the ingredients from drying up from being exposed in the fridge air.

[@isaacplaysbass8568]

I really enjoyed this "non-recipe" video as much as I enjoy the recipe ones. It's as informative and valid as your videos about burners, knife technique etc.

[@grudley]

i like these sorts of practical videos. Important for how to work in the kitchen but no one ever really covers these kinds of things

[@elizamccroskey1708]

How lovely to see your face as well as hear your voice! I mostly use the cutting board method. I have wooden trays that I use for prep as well as serving. Unless things are oily or meats the cleaning is very easy.

[@tybellsprout]

Just like your normal cooking videos, I like how well you demystify this topic. As someone who is learning cooking from the internet, it can be hard to trust your own instincts over what you see. These style of "behind the scenes" videos help me build that confidence to take the training wheels off.

[@DerekBlais]

About leaving the food on the cutting board: ideally cut the ingredients and transfer them to a container ASAP. The wood absorbs the smells, oils, and moisture from the ingredients. So chop and transfer, then wash and dry the cutting board ASAP to keep it in better (and sanitary) condition. Also, don’t drag the sharp end of the knife across the board. It unnecessarily dulls the knife. Use the opposite (square) side to push and transfer ingredients with the knife.

[@suebowman7258]

I am new to this channel. The host (guy) explained or described things very well. Thank you.

[@sydneyfong]

When I'm first learning to make an unfamiliar dish I tend to be more messy, so having different ingredients cleanly separated into different bowls usually help. When I'm more familiar with the flow of the specific dish, I often take shortcuts with preparation and the number of utensils, basically optimizing the process given my experience with the cooking process. I think one just needs as many bowls as they need, as long as they're comfortable with it, and the end result is satisfactory :)

[@PhilipBussmann]

Honestly, I think this this was my favorite video of yours, ever. Breaking that fourth wall multiple times made it much more personal.

[@NAEYC2710]

I really love your meta videos because I find your process and thinking really interesting. The combination of your unique perspectives are what makes this channel special.

[@luckygozer]

Bowls giving you a better intuitive understanding of quantity is something I never thought about. That's something I'm actually not great at and as you guessed it I'm on the just leave stuff on the chopping board/plate train. Now for a home cook I don't think some inconsistency is the worst problem but it is definitely something I'll keep in mind going forward.

[@jadefalcon5166]

I'm a huge fan of tiny bowls for cooking (and bigger bowl if you got a stack of larger veg chunks). No matter what style, it's just less stressful to have everything ready and prepped. I can concentrate on the cooking then rather than rushing to cut up stuff and then forgetting something or burning something

[@Huggybear101]

It's amazing how such a "harmless" question can be made into such an informative video. Thank you!

[@suzaynnschick158]

Small plates take up less space in the dishwasher than small bowls. Also, a cheap cookie sheet, the kind with only one edge bent up, is also great for piles of ingredients: lightweight, can push piles off any side and fits easily in the dishwasher.

[@violetviolet888]

9:22 *Luke Nguyen* Had by far one of the best early cooking shows in existence. Going out onto the land, talking with the locals, bring bare bones equipment, harvesting everything fresh from nature and making the most amazing meals no matter where he was. Thrilled to see him represented here.

[@stephaniek3257]

Yeah, the bowls help also while watching the video. When I cook a recipe I often have to rewind the video a few times and the clean visual cuts help finding the right spot.

[@RobinSmithBenitez]

As someone who grew up with a cuisine that's stew-centric, I just chop as I go (eg. chop aromatics and meat first, then chop the vegetables while the aromatics and meat are cooking, starting with the veg that needs to go first), so I don't have a lot of prep bowls. I also wash the dishes while waiting for the next step to avoid clutter. I'm also not super paranoid with the dishwashing process - as long as it doesn't feel greasy, I'm good (+ not skimping on what dish soap to use really helps in making the process easy).

[@digitakes]

Thank you for condoning my use of lots of tiny bowls!

[@angelad.8944]

I think this is a great video guys. You're helping us with the practical and the fundamentals. I don't think it is ever a waste to touch on them. What really jumped out for me was when Steph's dad talked about primary vs secondary, etc ingredients and then Steph showed the like cook time items in the same bowl. That was an eye opener for moving forward. I was wondering which is which though. Meat, veg, garlic/ginger/chili, which ones are the primary vs secondary. The order changes depending on the dish, doesn't it. 🤔 Do you guys have a vid about it or can you make a video talking about it. I love the idea of prepping by primary/secondary/seasoning etc and feel like it would really simplify but bring it all together a lot quicker, especially when that wok is hot and ready to go. 😁

[@95_Nepentheses]

Love these practical videos. I'm definitely team bowl, consolidating ingredients that go in together into one bowl is definitely the way to go

[@SeanQuinn4]

Loving y'all's insight on this, I definitely use prep bowls when I can, sometimes I'm limited or lazy 😅 I do also sometimes draw from "school of wok" and use a large plate+ "wok clock" ingredients in piles or pie slices around the plate. For me, I often also judge a dish by whether I will wash it by hand or in the dishwasher, so our tableware gets a lot of use in my prep, as I don't like putting my stainless bowls through the dishwasher heat cycles, mostly just porcelain wares.

[@RyanFlee]

I started using some cheap stainless steel prep bowls a couple of years ago. Not only because of your videos, but because of the ubiquity in many cooking videos. And I think it really improved my cooking skills, especially when cooking more than one meal at a time. I don't wanna miss them anymore. You don't always need them as a home cook, but when you have then handy it's a brilliant thing for a neat and tidy mise en place, which really helps when doing bigger meals. On that note, another thing that I don't want to miss anymore is a huge chopping board alongside a bench scraper, like you see Kenji J. Lopez-Alt using all the time! Alongside with some prep bowls it makes preparing food for cooking sooooo much easier!

[@amikacrystacia]

I LOVE this format! It would be great to see similar videos on different technique points, showing the opinions of a range of cooks like this 😊

[@Sequoya]

I’ve learned so much from this channel over the years. I’m a baker and chef by trade. I do both depending on the recipe. At work I use bowls because of the large portions. At home it’s a cutting board.

[@nateashe3140]

Thank you! You differentiated from the different styles of cooking from home to restaurant, but I had never considered from an instructional video... anyway, what the French call Mise en Place (putting in place, everything in it's place, prep work) is so important for making the job, successful and enjoyable. It's so cool to hear it from another cultural/culinary perspective, especially one that uses many quick-cooking techniques to keep food fresh and vibrant. Love y'all's videos... it's opened/unlocked a whole new world for me.

[@Kenko706]

It occurs to me that there's one more reason for the "buncha lil' bowls" in a video that you didn't address. The viewer. Now, I'm what the older gentleman might call a "messy cook", and I freely admit that. I do try to keep ingredients separate as much as needed when I'm making something complicated, or semi complicated, or simple but with different things that need different-- oh, you know what I mean. And in general it works for me (I'm single, cooking for myself alone, no-one suffers but me when I screw up anyway), but that's when I'm doing the cooking. Now, when I'm watching a video of a recipe, I see all those lil' bowls, and I can see what each one has in it, and how they've been prepped, and all those fiddly details that likely wouldn't exist on my countertop-- and I'm damn grateful for it, because as the viewer I get a much more detailed impression of the cooking process and the ingredient quantities than I would were it just showing the more "realistic" home cook's messy countertop. At least as I'm familiar with. (Steph astounds and impresses me with actually doing the bowl thing regularly.) Those separate containers make the recipe and cooking process much more comprehensible, and much more enjoyable. I'm probably not going to be doing it, at least not to the extent you do, but I'm damn happy *YOU* do. Thank you for your precision-- and as always, for your wonderful programming.

[@wyfyj]

I've been watching over the years and glad you guys have made great content this entire time.

[@onocoffee]

I like these technique videos and have a stack of the small stainless bowls in our development kitchen. It works well when we're portioning out ingredients (but for my personal cooking, I do use the messy cook/Chris chopping board method). In our main kitchen, we would have hotel sixth pans filled with whatever ingredients we needed (of course, this is only because you need a lot of product for a production environment, you know: mise). If you are in need of these bowls, a great place to source them is your local restaurant store. You can get the small ones for a dollar or two each, and they last forever. I've also seen similar at local Asian markets. Definitely agree that these bowls are important for video production. They help to separate the ingredient and give a visual clue as to how much that "eighth of a teaspoon" really is, plus as a viewer, it's easier for me to jot down the ingredients to give it a go. Keep these kinds of videos coming and I'd be interested in a little more BTS type of videos showing how you guys put together your videos and the gear you use.

[@TheHeraldOfChange]

Great video. Let me add a curveball. I used to work in a Pizza restaurant in Australia. Individual ingredients were stored in rectangular metal bowls for ease of access, and bulk prepped materials kept in larger containers in the cool room.This allowed for the versatility of inter-selecting ingredients for pizza toppings on the fly with minimal mess, or thought. I have seen similar setups in China in many hole in the wall made to order small 3 burner (you should do a video explaining that kind of setup) restaurants. They are not bowls per se but square/rectangular containers that keep seasonings, spices, oil, and commonly used ingredients neat to the wok station. jm2cw

[@buddasquirrel]

Excellent idea!! Thanks for the video.

[@CaveNJ]

7:44 that code-switch was legendary, I was not expecting it

[@ydnftbhdy]

This was an extremely cool video, one of your best.

[@icecreambone]

my mom's strategy is just to leave everything on the (huge) cutting board and fry them in order, move things into the serving bowl if you need to fry parts separately

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

That can work, but depending upon how many ingredients and their likelihood of rolling around, it can become rather impractical at some point.

[@konrai1972]

I found this very interesting. I cook mostly Indian foods but I do at least 90% of my prep into smaller bowls. I find it very helpful to cut all the onion tomatoes or garlic and chuck it into one bowl and use that to cook multiple dishes. I do use Stefs idea of serving in one of the bowls .

[@nazarnovitsky9868]

Thanks for this video 🙂 !

[@Vamper946]

Very good video, good insight to the different approaches to your "mise en place." Especially when that prep work is so central to chinese cooking. Thank you

[@adammoore7447]

Great video. I've worked in restaurants, and metal bowls are the go-to standard.

[@freakmoister]

ah my philosophy is based on cooking time required. Like if things need to go into the wok at different times then they go into different bowls including aromatics. Makes it easy to dunk into the pot during fast paced cooking. Like the stems of the green onion would always be separated out from the leaves. I also separate the stems of green leaf veggies from the leaves cause the stems require a bit of extra cooking time even if they’re just one stir fry dish at the end.

[@ShaferHart]

yeah not sure why you need to separate everything into random little bowls. Unless they have a reaction among themselves that I don't want during prep they go in the same bowl if they are called for at the same time by the recipe.

[@nikobatallones]

Can I say, I did appreciate this video - never mind that I already knew the answer at the beginning, having watched a lot of cooking shows as a kid and realizing everyone I watched cook growing up didn’t do this exactly! I find it’s making sense of your flow and adjusting altogether. I have really little counter space so having all these bowls don’t work for me, but I’m sure my dishes aren’t still bad. 😂

[@fretless05]

Jeremy Pang at School or Wok has an interesting method that he calls a Wok Clock in which he arranges ingredients on a big plate arranged around it in the order in which they're added to the wok; he does keep sauces and marinating meats in separate bowls, so it still involves a bit of cleaning. In that case, his method would be similar to your second cutting board. As for not seeing your technique on the channel, I think you're wise to try to avoid making your father in law think you're sloppy or a cooking school failure! It is good to know that using so many bowls can just be to make filming easier, as in your example of adding ingredients from individual bowl s for a "clean cut", in my kitchen, I'd likely measure each ingredient you mentioned into a single bowl. Best to you and Steph!

[@kohakuaiko]

The ones in my kitchen are actually catfood bowls because they were about 1/3 the price.

[@andreasfett6415]

Hey guys - Really loved this video. I use a lot of those metal bowls, too. Mixing when it goes into the wok at the same time. And sometimes - I use the chopping board but mostly for the stuff, that goes in first :-)

[@kaitlyn__L]

I'd actually really enjoy more meta/esoteric videos like this. It really helped crystallise the ways I'd been using larger prep bowls myself. I don't really do stir fries much because my reaction times just aren't quick enough to avoid overcooking or burning, but I regularly use larger bowls when making soups or stews. But sometimes I _will_ leave stuff on the chopping board and I always felt a little weird about that! Also kudos to the format. I know firsthand just how much work editing can be for even a seemingly simple end product, but I can safely say I did not get much of an impression of this being a struggle for you to put together! The quad-pane split-screen of the various videos was especially well-done I thought, also editing together the example clips of your voiceover with one bowl.

[@v2gbob]

I'm with Chris with piles on the cutting board. Just get a really big cutting board! The cleaver is the perfect scoop. But like Steph, I always cook any meat first and then clean up everything before moving onto the veggies &c. Great videos, thanks!

[@grahamrankin4725]

I do primarily the prep and bunch. Sometimes on a large cutting board or tranferring to a dinner plate. Another KZbin chef recommended doing the veggies first and the meat last to insure no cross contamination. Might have to wait a bit if marninating, but i am generally waiting for rice to finish cooking anyway.

[@douglastong5020]

In 大炒/大牌档 (Food stalls) here in Malaysia, cooks rely on prepped bowls to know what they are suppose to cook. Some will still have written orders/ordering tickets to know what's lining up next, but prepped bowls indicates faster than ticket because visually it's bigger? so for example if it is a rice dish, fried rice will have the minced sausage and vege in a single bowl stacked on a plate with rice on it. If it's sweet and sour pork, the protein would be in a bowl, and the vege and fruits would be in a bowl. Also i noticed if a customer order a dish with an fry egg to go on the top, the helpers would place the un-cracked egg on the prep bowl. If it's a dish like fried rice, the egg would be cracked in a bowl. (not all uses this method)

[@CookinWithSquirrl]

I love my little metal prep bowls! Not only for wok cooking but other cuisines as well. I have also done the "little piles on the cutting board" method if there aren't many things.

[@christanice]

I do a lot of stir fries with lots of vegetables and use a 9x13 baking pan to hold my vegetables, I can neatly have 6 different ones in there to add at different times. I then use smaller bowls for the meats and seasonings.

[@johnbernarddionisio7950]

As for me, I own a large chopping board and small metal bowls (thrift store finds, actually they are Korean rice bowls hehehehe) and I do a combination of Step and Chris' techniques. But a little while back in December I was into the idea of having just one place for chopped ingredients. What I did was buy one of those rectangular melamine plates with separators or dividers. You would usually see the kind in Japanese Kento joints when they served your food on those rectangular plates. So my technique now is to put all chopped ingredients like the aromatics and more minor ingredients in the rectangle plate and bulky ingredients like potatoes, carrots, and others like eggs into bowls while wet ingredients like sauces, infused oils, and other seasoning liquids into smaller metal bowls. When cooking I shimmy the rectangle plate to toss what aromatic or ingredients I need and then dump everything else coming from those bowls. My cooking got a lot less messy and cleaning afterward even more so.

[@rnurwisah]

I’ve seen a few other Chinese cooking channels use the concept of a “wok clock” with a round plate (metal or ceramic). It’s not a bad idea but you’d still need small bowls for spices, sauces, etc.

[@ryhol5417]

I do board piles, but some large plates where I can just knock stuff in. I do reuse prep everything (if uncontaminated) for serving food salad dressings toppings.

[@BoogaKiln]

I usually use a mix of small and big plate. I'll use small bowls for marinades, eggs, mix sauces, and aromatics that go in the wok at the same time. Big chopped items will stay on the cutting board in small stacks. Sometimes they go in a colander for ease of transfer. I have a half dozen of small bowls and they are very handy. (plus the dishwasher helps)

[@kengisamasempisankun]

I loved this video!!!! great job yall!

[@cookingwithmimmo]

Beautiful recipe that tastes delicious😊🌸

[@sunayanib]

Loved this one! More practical videos like this would be awesome!

[@Twisted_Logic]

I tend to use deli containers as prep bowls. I got them for storage, but I found them just as useful in this application. And like Cadence I'll just pile things that have already been sautéed together into a single container. I probably shouldn't put hot things into plastic like that, even if it's high grade. And I do have a couple metal bowls for just such an occasion. But I usually don't want to deal with the extra dish and just use the plastic anyway. Hasn't hurt me or the containers yet, but I'll keep y'all updated lol

[@TizonaAmanthia]

I made broccoli and pork for dinner, and yeah, I put scallions ginger and garlic in one bowl, meat marinated in a second, carrots and broccoli blanched in a third bowl, and onions sliced on a second plate. not really mini bowls all over, but all four of them need different things. the onions don't need to be blanched, but need to be added seperately from the aromatics. which are together. and the meat is marinated. then too, I"m making enough for 6 people so I gotta make a large amount, and it won't all fit on a single cutting board anyway. and lastly...I was actually only helping tonight, teaching a housemate how to make this dish herself, so...prepping everything ahead of time is important so she's not completely overwhelmed. the pot was overwhelmed though...need a right proper BIG wok. something that can handle the meal....

[@commenter4898]

This doesn't work with all dishes but sometimes I can get away with cooking and chopping at the same time. I prep some ingredient, send them to the wok, and begin preparing the next ingredients that need to go into the wok. It can get busy though and there is less room for error, but it saves me some counter space and bowls.

[@kelpsie]

2:08 - Please tell me what this knife is. It's gotta be the single coolest piece of cookware I've ever seen.

[@frankunderbush]

I think as far as a home cook is concerned, the exact vessel is irrelevant so long as you do make the separations in ingredients. We all understand (hopefully) that different things need to go in and get out of the wok at different times, so they must at some point be separated somehow. Personally I just grab whatever bowls plates and boards that's convenient at the time to put my ingredients in. For seasoning and spices, usually I'll pour directly from the bottle/jar to save me from having to wash extra items.

[@Spacenarwhal]

fantastic found the topic both interesting and informative

[@brandon3872]

I tend to use small bowls for things like like spices, sauces and aromatics, medium bowls for proteins like meat, tofu and eggs, and big plates with several vegetables arranged in the order they will be added.

[@HO1ySh33t]

I put the meat in one separate bowl and all the vegetables in a big plate, the colander or the cutting board (same one I'm using, not another one lol), sorted into piles. I especially love the colander because the vegetables always have to go through it for cleaning anyway. Anything too small to be in the colander will be put on cutting board. I prefer plates to bowl because they're easier to clean.

[@markust8904]

I love those little metal bowls, and all sorts of chinese type bowls of different sizes, it tells me i have my mise en place, it gets me interested in cooking and for serving, and clean up is a breeze, I cant have shit everywhere on a board, that end up on the floor or all around the stove because i cant hit the middle of the wok. Great episode i enjoyed it very much.

[@tt-ew7rx]

Piles on chopping board - a lot fewer items to wash up later. However I personally use small bowls as when frying it is a lot less easy to make mistakes. I have narrow awareness so this helps reduce the stress. Washing up later is less just a non-thinking manual chore.

[@hxhdfjifzirstc894]

Great video that sums up all angles... if I ever bother prepping things, I usually default to paper plates and then throw them away (don't tell anybody).

[@Pastadudde]

I use a big metal plate to put all the chopped raw (vege/aromatics) components, and any marinated meat in a stainless steel bowl. so basically 2 items to wash in total. In a lot of her videos, Maangchi uses a big flat metal sheet tray (a round one) that doesn't have a lip so that she can easily srape/scoop her ingredients into the pot as needed.

[@reptilezsweden]

I tend to use plates rather than bowl for things other than marinating for the simple reason that my dishwasher accommodates more plates than bowl. Since I often use plastic cutting boards on top of my main cutting board (also for easy cleaning), that one usually gets the "different" corners approach.

[@IanSlothieRolfe]

A few years back I discovered that catering supply companies (here in the UK) are far cheaper than "cookshops" and they don't mind selling to members of the public if you're not just buying a couple of items at a time - I bought a set of stainless mixing bowls, some ceramic serving dishes (scallop shaped) and a couple of knives and spent a fraction of what I would have done if I'd gone to even a cheap cook shop, and the quality was superb. So if you want to get that set of prep bowls that might be a place to look.

[@TalkToMe66]

I do all the ways mixing according what I´m doing, where, when, to whom, why, for how many, profecionally, teaching or at home, writing a recipe, portion size, show cooking, mood, time, ingredients etc. Partly this, partly that at a same time... I have my "Flow" everytime to make as I like and think it WORKS in that situation... Very interesting subject anyway I would say...

[@lazygardens]

This can also be a way of portion control in a restaurant. For example if you use "1 bowl" of the meat and "3 bowls" of the veggie mix in your stir fry it always comes out with the same amount of the expensive meat.

[@bladewolf39]

I use Steph's method a lot. If there are two or three ingredients that have a similar cooking time, they're getting stacked together. Sometimes they all go in together if the cooking vessel I'm using is big enough. Onions and peppers go together, shallots and garlic, carrots and potatoes, and meat is gonna be separate from the veg. Idk, it just feels like common sense to me.

[@viceice]

In the same place where you get the small metal bowls, you can also get wide metal plates. I sometimes use the plate to make the "chopping board piles" hence one plate can save cleaning up to 4 bowls.

[@1jugglethis]

Even in Western cooking, I use prep bowls more often than not. I like to see that I have all of my ingredients cut and ready to add to the dish when they are needed. A quick glance across my assembled bowls will tell me if I am missing something, so I dont have to mince a shallot on the fly, or measure a few knobs of butter to finish my sauce at the last minute. Sure....there are extra dishes to wash, but the ease and peace of mind while cooking make it worthwhile, for me.

[@Krieghandt]

very interesting. I use a combination of board piles, and plate piles.

[@max_meliani]

The prep bowl doubling as the serving dish is my favorite

[@uli11]

Love this video! Prep bowls are the best, for me they actually speed up cleaning time because you don't have a scattered disorganized kitchen when done cooking. But the reason for my comment: can you tell me where you got that knife!? It's kinda intimidating, but also really pretty!

[@ChineseCookingDemystified]

Here you go: amzn.to/3JUF9tP It's carried by our friend. Not cheap though.

[@siohead9021]

for veg/aromatics, my grandma always cut on a large board then just heaped everything into small seperate piles, then washed one board. Separate one for meat/fish. Its a lifesaver

[@BenjiSun]

as a former restaurant manager, the small bowls are a necessity of a professional kitchen. the head chef is at the wok and doesn't really move away from that position. all the prep work are by a team of guys on the other side of the table behind the chef, handling him sets of things for a dish to be cooked, another guy switching in and out stacks of cleaned or dirty woks, it's a very efficient system. the chef only has basic seasonings and various oils next to his station. and they have to be metal bowls. it lasts with all the fast and hard scraping and banging from the wokchan(not in our kitchen but i've seen it used at DPDs) or wok ladle. edit: also because different dishes require different ways to prep something, for example pork, ginger, chilis, scallions, ... diced, julienned, into scallion flowers with a chili ring in the middle, etc... small prep bowls makes it easy for the chef to know what's the dish being made just by looking at the presented set, and what's prepped wrongly or missing ingredients, as opposed to having things on a single platter. switching out can be much faster too. it's all a matter of efficiency.

[@Cyberia398]

I love nothing more than a menu that minimises the use of small bowls. But they are still so useful in Asian cooking, because it’s not as free-style for me than cooking the European foods I grew up with. I guess for me cooking most Asian dishes is an Everything Everywhere All At Once situation - literally! For stir fries I like to put the vegetables on a large rimmed platter - less messy than a board. And aromatics on a plate, like Stef does. Neat to know that we have similar tricks and approaches.

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

Hahaha this is a good discussion since I have, as many other people, wondered why we see so many little bowls in cooking videos. Personally I'm lazy and hate doing dishes so like Chris I do the cutting board pile. If the stuff don't fit, I'll look for a bowl. I also reuse the ingredient bowl for serving as long as it's not been touching raw meat. Stainless steel bowls are pretty easy to clean and stock, so it wouldn't hurt to have some around. I don't know about other people, I also happen to have a ton of little spoons in my kitchen that I use for spooning out sauces in jars. I need a clean spoon every time in order not to contaminate the jar, and I don't do the dishes every day, so having lots of them has helped me a ton. In my sink right now there are dirty steel bowls and small spoons piled up... I'll wash them tonight, I promise.

[@twistmynips]

I use a medium sized metal tray which will fit about 4 or 5 different vegetables. Plus my large chopping board. For any wet ingredients e.g. tomatoes then a plastic container will do.

[@Fuzzi974]

To be honest, I believe in both bowls and chopping board... I'm not going to use 2 chopping boards, but at the end my last 2 or 3 ingredients can stay on the chopping board. I do not see how a chopping board is messy, the ingredients can be neatly placed on them, and in order... but a huge chopping board is not easy to lift in particular with one hand while pushing with the other... I don't remember you guys having a video on which ingredients should go first and which last, and which can go together (I mean, we can piece that together from your videos I guess) but if you did such a video, it would be a nice addition to this one, and also help us pack the ingredients that cook at the same speed together (and yes, I realise the size at which each ingredients is cut will also make a difference, but for stir frying each ingredients is usually always at the same size from one recipe to another and one restaurant to the other).

[@ainzooalgown7589]

I use a large stainless plate, the type used in Chinese school cafeterias, where the plate has several portioning areas used for rice, vegetable and so on. saves me time from washing at the same time allows me to have all the ingredients at one place.

[@Erik_Swiger]

I have used combinations of these methods at different times, for different dishes. Regardless of the method you use, the "problem" with separate bowls seems to be the cleaning-up afterward, but really, the bowls are not "dirty" if they held onions, or celery, for example. These will clean up with minimal effort, as compared to a bowl that held meat or something oily. If a bowl held only celery, I'd just rinse it in the sink, wipe it dry, and put it away. If a bowl had only aromatics in it, I might swipe it with a soapy dish towel and rinse it, takes 10 seconds.

[@kevinmoy5463]

I'm a casual home cook with no training other than a single high school class, watching parents and watching tv/youtube and I use the single board method or sometimes two boards. The only time I use the multiple dish method is if I'm cooking for a larger group. When it's just me, I don't even move the finished food onto a serving dish, just my own eating dish and a leftovers container. Bowls makes more sense from some kind of professional training, is much better for viewer presentation whether it's in person or on video so it'd be odd to not see it in any class/presentation or video. Multiple bowls have that aura of cleanliness and tidiness giving a positive stylistic representation of the person too.