Ming Tsai

Ming Tsai
Born	(1964-03-29) March 29, 1964 Newport Beach, California, United States
Education	Le Cordon Bleu, Cornell University, Yale University
Culinary career
Cooking style	Chinese
Current restaurant(s) Blue Ginger (Wellesley, Massachusetts)
Television show(s) East Meets West, Ming’s Quest, Simply Ming

Template:Chinese name Ming Tsai (Chinese: 蔡明昊; pinyin: Cài Mínghào; born on March 29, 1964) is an American restaurateur, television personality and celebrity chef of fusion cuisine.

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.

Biography

Early years

Tsai was born in Newport Beach, California, 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.

His father, Dr. Stephen W. Tsai, born in Beijing and an alumnus of Yale University (B.E. 1952; D. Eng 1961; Mechanical Engineering), is a Professor Research Emeritus, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University.

Tsai transferred to Phillips Academy and later Yale University where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a member of the Phi chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. Later, he received a master's degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell University. He then attended culinary school at Le Cordon Blue in paris.

Ming Tsai speaks four languages: English, Spanish, French, 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, Massachusetts. 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 four cookbooks: Blue Ginger, Simply Ming, Ming's Master Recipes and Simply Ming One-Pot Meals.

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 Hill-Man Morning Show", in November, 2006, he was part of an "Egg Nog Challenge" against another well known chef and show regular, Anthony "Spaz" Parziale.

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. In 2005 he was a judge on the PBS show Cooking Under Fire.

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.

Sports

Tsai was a squash 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.

Awards

• Culinary Hall of Fame Induction

External links

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• Official website
• Simply Ming website
• Ming Tsai at IMDb