COOKING UP A STORM
Chef Wang Gang has given more than 200 online cookery classes, stirring up viewers’ passion for Chinese cuisine. Li Yingxue reports.
I also want to learn how to make and then teach signature dishes from all of our 56 ethnic groups.”
Wang Gang, chef
‘Hello everyone, today I’m teaching you a tofu dish,” says Wang Gang, holding a fresh white block of it in one hand.
Over the next four minutes, he accomplishes a composition of cutting, seasoning and cooking, as if in just one breath. It’s one of Wang’s most popular cooking videos, with more than 2 million hits on micro blog Weibo.
Unlike other popular short videos about cooking that use delicate techniques, exquisite tableware along with fancy editing and romantic music, Wang’s video was shot in a professional kitchen — all the kitchenware is the same as he would use in a restaurant.
In Wang’s video, his monologue explains each step and the hows and whys of what he’s doing. His words are straightforward and simple — he does not employ superfluous prose — and his voice is calm, with just a hint of a Sichuan accent.
Wang’s fast-paced narration and clean cooking style has taken the internet by storm. Since he posted his first video in January 2017, Wang has accumulated more than 5 million followers across all his social media platforms including Xigua Video, Weibo and YouTube. His cooking videos have been watched nearly 200 million times in total.
As a result, the 29-year-old chef has leveraged his 15 years’ culinary experience and his newly-acquired internet fame to become a full-time video blogger. His days are now filled with cooking, shooting and editing.
Born in Fushun town, Zigong, Sichuan province, which is famous for yan bang cai (salt gang dishes), Wang wanted to be a chef from the age of 12.
“One of the reasons that I wanted to become a chef is because I enjoyed eating the good food from my hometown, and I wanted to be able to replicate that,” says Wang.
Much to his parents’ chagrin, at 15 years old, he decided to quit school and find a job at a food stall in Zhuhai, Guangdong province.
At first, he only did the mundane chores, before getting a chance to clean the vegetables and sometimes help to prepare them. “I would often cut myself when I first picked up the knife, until I realized it’s because I was performing the wrong action with it,” Wang recalls. “So I kept practicing until I developed muscle memory of the correct technique.”
Always eager to learn about cooking, he would watch the chefs at work while he was doing his chores in the kitchen and then practice as much as he could during break times, asking the chefs to teach him their tricks.
Before getting married in 2014, Wang had worked in more than 20 restaurants, each one teaching him more about Sichuan, Hunan and Guangdong cuisine. Eventually, though, it was time to find a stable job as a chef to support his family.
Wang first noticed short videos in 2014 — he liked to watch the ones related to cooking, but he did not know how to go about making and uploading one. In the beginning of 2017, Wang was encouraged by a colleague to post an article about the cooking of an eggplant dish, along with photos, which was soon viewed by thousands of people.
“I was excited to see all the comments, and thought ‘if I make that into a video, I may reach more people,’” recalls
Wang.
Wang then borrowed a smartphone from his cousin, and learned to shoot and edit videos. At first, he used subtitles, but then he started adding his own commentary which helped him garner even more views.
To maintain his online presence while still working as a chef, Wang’s schedule was grueling and he worked until midnight editing his videos and getting up at 6 am each day.
Last September, Wang decided to move back to his hometown with his family and became a full-time video blogger, often referred to as a vlogger. “One reason is that the fans encourage me to keep doing it, and the other is that the income is double — sometimes more than what I earned as a chef,” he explains.
So, he rented a place, installed a professional kitchen and bought a proper camera to create his own studio. Now, each day he takes one hour to shop for and prepare ingredients, shoots for one hour, then spends several hours editing the footage into a video for the web.
The cooking of each dish is filmed in one take, and except for the plating scene which is shot by his wife, all other footage is captured by a camera mounted on a tripod.
Having taught his followers how to make around 200 dishes, Wang says it’s only about one-third of the dishes he knows how to make, excluding the ones he’s created himself. “I also want to learn how to make and then teach signature dishes from all of our 56 ethnic groups,” Wang says.
Roy Chen likes to watch Wang’s videos on YouTube while having meals. Sometimes he goes to the market to buy the ingredients to cook a dish after watching one of the videos. Living in Seattle, the United States, the Chinese cooking videos remind Chen of the flavors of home.
“Watching him cutting and cooking is so satisfying,” Chen says. “His cutting skills are so enjoyable to watch, and he’s not even trying to show off.
“It’s like watching him in a restaurant kitchen, and I wonder where I can go to eat his food?”
Chen’s question may soon have an answer as Wang is planning to open his own restaurant in the next three years.
“Making these short videos is a way for me to realize my dream,” Wang says. “But I still want to be a chef and have my own restaurant.”