Ming Tsai
Encyclopedia
Ming Tsai is a Chinese-American fusion cuisine
chef
, restaurateur
, and Emmy Award
-winning television personality.
Tsai currently hosts Ming's Quest, a cooking show featured on the Fine Living Network, and Simply Ming
on American Public Television
. He was eliminated in week 7 of the third season of the Food Network
's cooking competition, The Next Iron Chef
.
, but raised in Dayton, Ohio
, where he attended The Miami Valley School
. He often helped his parents Stephen and Iris with their family restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. Ming's maternal grandfather is the renowned Chinese conductor Dr. Baochen Li; his paternal grandfather graduated from the Department of Economics at Peking University
. Tsai's uncle and brother are mechanical engineers.
Tsai transferred to Phillips Academy
and later Yale University
where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering
. Later, he received a master's degree
in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell University
.
Ming Tsai speaks four languages: English
, Spanish
, French
, and Mandarin Chinese.
Tsai is married and has two sons.
. Ming also hosted a half hour cooking show on the Food Network called "East meets West" from 1998 - 2003. On the show, he presented a blend of Asian-European fusion cuisine. Ming is the author of three cookbook
s: Blue Ginger, Simply Ming, and Ming's Master Recipes.
In his PBS show Simply Ming
, Tsai often uses ceramic
cooking knives and tools manufactured by Kyocera
Advanced Ceramics. On occasion, usually when in the Boston
area doing business in his restaurant Blue Ginger, Tsai can be heard on the radio station WAAF
107.3 as a call in and sometimes as an in-studio guest on "The Hillman Morning Show", in November, 2006, he was part of an "Egg Nog Challenge" against another well known Chef and Morning Show Regular Spaz.
During the summer of 2004, Ming Tsai participated in a "Zoom Out" on ZOOM
, a show sponsored by PBS. In addition, he has been a guest star on the PBS children's television show Arthur
in the episode "What's Cooking?". Tsai also guest starred on an episode of Top Chef
. In 2000, Ming was #16 on People Magazine's Most Beautiful People list.
Tsai battled Bobby Flay
in Iron Chef America
Season 1, battle duck, and won.
In March 2010 Tsai opened Blue Ginger Noodle Bar, a mini-restaurant, inside Blue Ginger.
Chef Tsai competed to be the "Next Iron Chef" on the Food Network Channel. He was eliminated from the final four in Las Vegas semi-final.
Tsai is a national spokesman for FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network); one of his sons has food allergies. He was the first chef in the United States to create a reference book that lists each allergen for every menu item. In 2010, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate that restaurants advise diners about food allergies and advise diners to notify servers of allergies, train staff on food allergies, and that managers have awareness training http://www.foodallergy.org/page/restaurants.
player at Yale
, playing No. 2 for the team, and named as an All-Ivy League player in 1986. While attending culinary school in France, Tsai played professionally on the European circuit.
His squash coach at Yale, David Talbott, is now his brother-in-law, as is the legendary Mark Talbott
, a former World No. 1 hardball squash
player. In 2004 Tsai played a celebrity squash match against professional golfer Brad Faxon
at a Boston squash club. In 2005 he played against Mark Talbott in a charity match at a squash club in San Francisco.
Fusion cuisine
Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not being categorized per any one particular cuisine style, and can pertain to innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s.-Categories and types:...
chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
, restaurateur
Restaurateur
A restaurateur is a person who opens and runs restaurants professionally. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who owns a restaurant, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of the restaurant business.-Etymology:The word...
, and Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning television personality.
Tsai currently hosts Ming's Quest, a cooking show featured on the Fine Living Network, and Simply Ming
Simply Ming
Simply Ming is a television cooking show hosted by chef Ming Tsai, and is produced by WGBH, Boston and Ming East-West, LLC. Simply Ming is presented by American Public Television.-Overview:...
on American Public Television
American Public Television
American Public Television is the largest syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States.-History:...
. He was eliminated in week 7 of the third season of the Food Network
Food Network
Food Network is a television specialty channel that airs both one-time and recurring programs about food and cooking. Scripps Networks Interactive owns 70 percent of the network, with Tribune Company controlling the remaining 30 percent....
's cooking competition, The Next Iron Chef
The Next Iron Chef
The Next Iron Chef, is a limited-run series on the Food Network now in its fourth season. Each season is a stand-alone competition to select a chef to be designated an Iron Chef, who will appear on the Food Network program Iron Chef America....
.
Early life
Tsai was born in CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, but raised in Dayton, Ohio
Dayton, Ohio
Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...
, where he attended The Miami Valley School
The Miami Valley School
The Miami Valley School is Dayton, Ohio's only independent college-preparatory school for grades Pre-K through 12. A 9:1 student to teacher ratio and an experiential learning curriculum have created a unique learning environment. Approximately 190 students comprise grades 9 through 12...
. He often helped his parents Stephen and Iris with their family restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. Ming's maternal grandfather is the renowned Chinese conductor Dr. Baochen Li; his paternal grandfather graduated from the Department of Economics at Peking University
Peking University
Peking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
. Tsai's uncle and brother are mechanical engineers.
Tsai transferred to Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy
Phillips Academy is a selective, co-educational independent boarding high school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, along with a post-graduate year...
and later Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is a discipline of engineering that applies the principles of physics and materials science for analysis, design, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the production and usage of heat and mechanical power for the...
. Later, he received a master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
.
Ming Tsai speaks four languages: English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, and Mandarin Chinese.
Tsai is married and has two sons.
Career
In 1998 Tsai, along with his wife Polly (née Talbott), opened his first restaurant, Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, MassachusettsWellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of Greater Boston. The population was 27,982 at the time of the 2010 census.It is best known as the home of Wellesley College and Babson College...
. Ming also hosted a half hour cooking show on the Food Network called "East meets West" from 1998 - 2003. On the show, he presented a blend of Asian-European fusion cuisine. Ming is the author of three cookbook
Cookbook
A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...
s: Blue Ginger, Simply Ming, and Ming's Master Recipes.
In his PBS show Simply Ming
Simply Ming
Simply Ming is a television cooking show hosted by chef Ming Tsai, and is produced by WGBH, Boston and Ming East-West, LLC. Simply Ming is presented by American Public Television.-Overview:...
, Tsai often uses ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...
cooking knives and tools manufactured by Kyocera
Kyocera
is a multinational manufacturer based in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in 1959 by Kazuo Inamori and renamed in 1982. The company has diversified its founding technology in ceramic materials through internal development as well as strategic mergers and acquisitions...
Advanced Ceramics. On occasion, usually when in the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
area doing business in his restaurant Blue Ginger, Tsai can be heard on the radio station WAAF
WAAF (FM)
WAAF is a Boston, Massachusetts, area commercial Album Oriented Rock/Active rock radio station that mixes music that is popular in the modern rock, heavy metal and classic rock genres....
107.3 as a call in and sometimes as an in-studio guest on "The Hillman Morning Show", in November, 2006, he was part of an "Egg Nog Challenge" against another well known Chef and Morning Show Regular Spaz.
During the summer of 2004, Ming Tsai participated in a "Zoom Out" on ZOOM
Zoom (1999 TV series)
ZOOM is an American educational television series, created almost entirely by children, which aired on Public Broadcasting Service originally from January 4, 1999 to June 24, 2005. It was a remake of a 1972 TV series by the same name. Both versions were produced by WGBH-TV in Boston...
, a show sponsored by PBS. In addition, he has been a guest star on the PBS children's television show Arthur
Arthur (TV series)
Arthur is an American/Canadian animated educational television series for children, created by Cookie Jar Group and WGBH for the Public Broadcasting Service...
in the episode "What's Cooking?". Tsai also guest starred on an episode of Top Chef
Top Chef
Top Chef is an American reality competition show that airs on the cable television network Bravo, in which chefs compete against each other in culinary challenges. They are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the food and wine industry with one or more contestants...
. In 2000, Ming was #16 on People Magazine's Most Beautiful People list.
Tsai battled Bobby Flay
Bobby Flay
Robert William "Bobby" Flay is an American celebrity chef, restaurateur and reality television personality. He is the owner and executive chef of 12 restaurants: Mesa Grill in Las Vegas, New York City, and the Bahamas ; Bar Americain in New York City and Uncasville, Connecticut; Bobby Flay Steak...
in Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America
Iron Chef America: The Series is an American cooking show based on Fuji Television's Iron Chef, and is the second American adaptation of the series, following the failed Iron Chef USA. The show is produced by Food Network, which also carried a dubbed version of the original Iron Chef. Like the...
Season 1, battle duck, and won.
In March 2010 Tsai opened Blue Ginger Noodle Bar, a mini-restaurant, inside Blue Ginger.
Chef Tsai competed to be the "Next Iron Chef" on the Food Network Channel. He was eliminated from the final four in Las Vegas semi-final.
Tsai is a national spokesman for FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network); one of his sons has food allergies. He was the first chef in the United States to create a reference book that lists each allergen for every menu item. In 2010, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate that restaurants advise diners about food allergies and advise diners to notify servers of allergies, train staff on food allergies, and that managers have awareness training http://www.foodallergy.org/page/restaurants.
Sports
Tsai was a squashSquash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
player at Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, playing No. 2 for the team, and named as an All-Ivy League player in 1986. While attending culinary school in France, Tsai played professionally on the European circuit.
His squash coach at Yale, David Talbott, is now his brother-in-law, as is the legendary Mark Talbott
Mark Talbott
Mark Talbott is a squash coach and former professional squash player from the United States. He is widely considered to be one of the all-time great players of hardball squash .Talbott was ranked as the World No...
, a former World No. 1 hardball squash
Hardball squash
Hardball squash is a format of the indoor racquet sport squash which was first developed in North America in the late 19h century and early 20th century. It is sometimes referred to as being the "American version" of the sport...
player. In 2004 Tsai played a celebrity squash match against professional golfer Brad Faxon
Brad Faxon
Bradford John Faxon, Jr. is an American professional golfer. He has won eight times on the PGA Tour.-Early years and amateur career:Faxon was born in Oceanport, New Jersey and raised in Barrington, Rhode Island...
at a Boston squash club. In 2005 he played against Mark Talbott in a charity match at a squash club in San Francisco.