Born on March 29, 1964, Ming Tsai was never a stranger to great food. His family owned a restaurant called the Mandarin Kitchen in his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. Ming Tsai worked alongside his parents gaining valuable experience.
Ming Tsai has a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale. He also holds a masters degree from Cornell University where he studied Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing. He studied under renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme in Paris and he later studied with Sushi Master Kobayashi in Osaka between earning his two degrees.
Ming Tsai had been exposed to East West cooking when he was in Paris. He gained more exposure to it when he worked at Silks, the Mandarin Oriental San Francisco’s east west restaurant, as a sous chef. Later he moved to Palo Alto, California where he served as the executive chef of the Ginger Club before moving again. This time he moved to Santa Fe to serve as executive chef of the Santacafe where he was honored as best chef.
Ming Tsai and his wife Polly now own their own restaurant, the Blue Ginger in Wellesley Massachusetts. It has earned many awards including three stars from the Boston Globe and Ming Tsai was honored 2002 Best Chef Northeast by the James Beard Foundation.
Ming Tsai has written three cookbooks. Blue Ginger East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai made it to the Food and Wine Magazine top 25 best cookbooks of 1999. His second book Simply Ming was published in 2003 and his third book Ming’s Master Recipes was released in 2004.
Ming Tsai first appeared on TV via the Food Network where he hosted the show East Meets West. The show won him an Emmy in 1998. Currently he hosts and produces the TV cooking show Simply Ming which was awarded the prestigious CINE Golden Eagle Award in 2005. You can also watch him on his other show, Ming’s Quest.
Ming Tsai is also a founding member of Chefs for Humanity, a charity organization created in response to the needs of those devastated by the tsunami in 2005. They organize fund raising and relief activities for those in need around the world.
Originally posted on December 3, 2008 @ 6:28 am
