I’m pretty sure I remember an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown went outside and cooked over a charcoal chimney starter in order to get enough BTUs for a proper stir-fry, because American residential stoves aren’t typically capable of it. (And even if they were, teflon would be both pointless and harmful because it would (a) interfere with the fond creation/deglazing that you’re trying to achieve on purpose, and (b) off-gas toxic chemicals due to the high heat.)
In other words, a teflon-coated flat-bottomed wok is just dumb, even for Americans. It literally has no reason to exist compared to a frying pan because you can’t actually do wok cooking techniques with it.
Edit: I couldn’t find a video of the Good Eats episode, but this article corroborates my memory, at least.
I’m pretty sure I remember an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown went outside and cooked over a charcoal chimney starter in order to get enough BTUs for a proper stir-fry, because American residential stoves aren’t typically capable of it. (And even if they were, teflon would be both pointless and harmful because it would (a) interfere with the fond creation/deglazing that you’re trying to achieve on purpose, and (b) off-gas toxic chemicals due to the high heat.)
In other words, a teflon-coated flat-bottomed wok is just dumb, even for Americans. It literally has no reason to exist compared to a frying pan because you can’t actually do wok cooking techniques with it.
Edit: I couldn’t find a video of the Good Eats episode, but this article corroborates my memory, at least.