 Even at age 10, Ming Tsai ’82 was an entrepreneur with good business sense. His parents owned a Chinese restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, and each day young Ming would peddle 100 egg rolls from a street cart for $1 each. He’d proudly return to the restaurant with $70, explaining that he had given away 30 egg rolls free to potential customers. “It’s public relations,” he told his mother. “They’ll come to the restaurant later.”
His words proved prophetic. Today, crowds flock to Blue Ginger, Ming’s East-West bistro in Wellesley, Mass., which was rated by the 2002-03 Zagat Restaurant Guide as the “Second Most Popular Boston Restaurant.” Ming was named “2002 Best Chef Northeast” by the James Beard Foundation, and, in a program that began this fall, millions of cooking devotees are learning to prepare East-West dishes from his new public television show, “Simply Ming.”
“Cooking, like any form of art, is an expression of the individual,” says Ming, “but cooking is the only art that uses every sense.” He believes all artists are influenced by three factors: mentors, environment and available materials. Born in the United States of Chinese descent, he trained as a chef in Paris and Osaka. His combination of Eastern and Western techniques and ingredients produces food that is bold in flavor and has contrasting textures, temperatures and colors. Although many of his creations are inherently healthy, he emphasizes he is not a diet chef.
“Simply Ming” is co-produced by Ming and Boston’s WGBH, which hasn’t produced a full national cooking program since Julia Child’s series went off the air. In each of 26 episodes, Ming prepares a master sauce and then uses it to make three dishes. For example, in one show, a curry-ginger oil is the base for wok-stirred curry ginger chicken with zucchini; wok-stirred curry and ginger beef with leeks; and oven-baked curry ginger sweet potato fries. Celebrity chefs making guest appearances include Todd English, Jody Adams, Ken Oringer and Jasper White. The show is videotaped in a custom-built kitchen in a new 30,000-square-foot showroom in Milford, Mass. A companion cookbook, also called Simply Ming, is in bookstores nationwide.
“The fact that I can help people bring East-West cuisine into their homes makes me feel good,” he says. |
Spicy Mango Salsa |
(from Simply Ming, 2003, courtesy of Clarkson Potter)
Makes 6 cups Lasts 1 to 1 1/2 weeks, refrigerated
5 large, ripe mangos, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 medium red onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 red jalapeños, stemmed and minced
1 tablespoon peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons Traditional Spicy Sambal (from Simply Ming, page 56)
or store-bought sambal or hot pepper sauce
1/3 cup fresh lime juice (from 6 to 8 limes)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste |
| In a large, non-reactive bowl, combine the mangos, onions, jalapeños, ginger, sambal and lime juice, and blend gently. Season with salt and pepper. Use or refrigerate. Use the salsa as you would any other—as a dip with chips, with burritos, and so on. Great as a condiment for grilled meats and fish, curries and other spicy stews. For a big flavor lift, add the salsa to black bean soup before serving it. |
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Ming’s enterprises also include the Blue Ginger line of cooking and preparation accessories, created in partnership with Target stores to allow home cooks to experiment and create their own versions of East-West cuisine. His Web site at www.ming.com features an online store carrying his signature Kyocera ceramic knives, apparel, tea rubs, sauces, maitake mushrooms and chopping blocks.
Although he values his education at Andover, where he enjoyed varsity soccer, squash and tennis and was active in the Asian Society, Ming says he wasn’t inspired by the food. He remembers complaining to a cook in Commons about fried fish being served two days in a row. The chef replied, “No, yesterday we had fried fish; today we have fried fish with cheese.”
Following in his father’s footsteps, he earned a degree in mechanical engineering at Yale. For a seminar on entrepreneurship, he wrote a business plan for opening a restaurant. After graduation, his parents supported his decision to become a chef, advising, “You can do anything as long as you do it 120 percent.” He studied at the Cordon Bleu in Paris, then with a sushi master in Japan. After earning a master’s degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell, he worked at restaurants in Chicago, Atlanta, Santa Fe and several California towns, but he says he kept getting fired for wanting to do things his way.
The last straw was a restaurant owner who brought Ming a copy of Sunset magazine containing a chicken caesar recipe which she asked him to follow exactly. Ming walked out, and five years ago opened Blue Ginger, where he knew he couldn’t get fired, he says. “I’m not a control freak. I just like the freedom to make decisions for myself.” In 1998, he became the Emmy Award-winning host of the Food Network’s “East Meets West: Cooking with Ming Tsai” and “Ming’s Quest.” His first cookbook, Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai, was selected by Food and Wine magazine as one of the 25 best cookbooks of 1999.
Ming says his restaurant took off because of the food and service. “Our motto is ‘You’re only as good as your last plate,’” he says. On a recent Friday afternoon at 5:15—just 15 minutes before Blue Ginger opens for dinner—the chef resembled a general getting his troops ready as he conferred with his three sous-chefs on the new swordfish dish on the menu, checked reservations with the maitre d’, joked with the wait staff and eyed the gleaming silver, cobalt blue glasses and spotless white tablecloths. Later, he strolled from table to table, greeting guests who were delighted to meet the celebrated chef and taste his food.
Ming delights in the celebrity resulting from his television exposure. In August, he was invited to throw the opening pitch at a Red Sox game in Fenway Park. However, he points out the distinction between those he calls “true” celebrities, like Tom Cruise or Jennifer Lopez, and chef celebrities. “I make food, and in general the food is really good,” he says. “Foodies love to talk to foodies. People who come up to me just want to talk about food and wine, and I could talk about that all day.”
Ming and his wife, Polly Talbott, reside in Natick, Mass., with their sons, David, 3, and Henry, 1. Last spring, he was invited to give a cooking demonstration for Andover’s Asian Arts Week. It was his first visit back to campus in 20 years. His advice to the students who packed the Underwood Room: “Follow your passion.” |
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