Ken Hom's Chinese Cookery (1984)

A wok demonstration from the 1984 BBC series Ken Hom, born in Tucson, Arizona, and a cooking teacher in California before the BBC auditioned him, made stir-frying look like something any British kitchen could manage. He even developed a flat-bottomed wok in the 1980s because round ones did not suit British stoves, and the companion book went on to sell 1.5 million copies. The clips still teach the basics clearly: a very hot pan, small batches and everything prepared before cooking begins. The BBC has brought all eight episodes back on iPlayer in its archive collections, though availability comes and goes.