Ming Tsai

Tsai was born to Iris (née Lee), who owned a Chinese restaurant, and , an engineer who co-developed the Tsai-Wu failure criterion, and was raised in Dayton, Ohio, He assisted with the cooking as he was growing up in the restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen. Tsai later attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then proceeded to study engineering and play varsity squash at Yale University. and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986. Either the summer after his sophomore or junior year at Yale, he attended culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Tsai is a grandson of Chinese composer . He is a 116th great grandson of Huang Di. ==Career==

Television Tsai began his television career on chef Sara Moulton's cooking show Cooking Live while she had him fill in for one week for her in 1997. He hosted East Meets West on the Food Network from 1998 to 2003. He hosts Simply Ming, a food show on PBS. Tsai challenged Iron Chef Bobby Flay in the sixth episode of season one of Iron Chef America in 2005; Tsai defeated Flay. Tsai was a contestant in The Next Iron Chef in 2010, where he was eliminated in the seventh week. Tsai appeared on an episode of Top Chef in 2014. His other television appearances include participation in a Zoom Out on Zoom, a show distributed by PBS, in 2005 and on an episode of the PBS children's television show Arthur in 2006. Restaurants In 1998, Tsai and Polly Talbott opened his first restaurant, Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Blue Ginger, an Asian Fusion restaurant, and James Beard-recognized establishment, On March 30, 2010, Tsai opened Blue Ginger Noodle Bar, a mini-restaurant, inside Blue Ginger. In June 2017, Tsai closed Blue Ginger after 19 years of business. The reason was due to the end of a lease and Tsai's focus on a new fast-casual stir-fry concept restaurant, ChowStirs, scheduled to open in Boston during the early part of 2018. Tsai opened Blue Dragon in 2013 in the Fort Point Channel area of Boston, an east–west tapas-style gastropub that has become a Zagat's recognized restaurant, which was named an Esquire Magazine "Best New Restaurant" in its opening year. Blue Dragon closed in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. In 2020, Tsai opened BāBā at the Yellowstone Club in Big Sky, Montana as chef and partner. Cookbook author Tsai is the author of five cookbooks: Blue Ginger, Simply Ming, ''Ming's Master Recipes, Simply Ming: One-Pot Meals, and Simply Ming in Your Kitchen''. Awards and recognition Tsai won the Daytime Emmy award in 1999, in the category Outstanding Service Show Host. Tsai's Blue Ginger Restaurant was inducted into the Culinary Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2000, Ming was on the 50 Most Beautiful People list published by People magazine. Controversies In 2023, Tsai issued an apology after making a joke about a roofie, a slang reference to date rape drugs, during an interview with Irene Li for WBUR radio station's Curated Cuisine series. ==Personal life==

Tsai and Polly Talbott have been married since April 1996. They have two sons, David and Henry. They are allegedly named after Henry David Hwang. David Talbott, Tsai's squash coach at Yale, and Mark Talbott, a former World No. 1 hardball squash player, are Tsai's brothers-in-law. According to Henry Louis Gates' PBS program Finding Your Roots, Tsai is a 116th-generation descendant of the Yellow Emperor (27th century BCE). Sports Tsai was a squash player at Yale, playing number two for the team, and he was named as an All-Ivy League player in 1986. While attending culinary school in France, Tsai played professionally on the European circuit. 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. Philanthropy One of Tsai's sons has food allergies, and Tsai has become a food allergy advocate who promotes awareness of food allergens. he has been a national spokesman for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) and in December 2012 was awarded a lifetime achievement award for his advocacy work from the organization, including his work on the state of Massachusetts food safety bill. Tsai was heavily featured on Season 1, Episode 5 of Netflix's "Rotten" discussing his thoughts and observations on the restaurant industry; specifically about food-allergic individuals being able to dine out safely. Tsai is currently the President of the National Advisory Board for Family Reach, an organization that provides a financial lifeline to families fighting cancer. ==References==