Athleisure Mag #61 Jan 2021 | The Ultimate Bite with Chef Ming Tsai

We've been a fan of Chef Ming Tsai for a number of years from attending a decadent editor's event where he paired savory dishes with a premium alcohol brand, watching him on his shows sharing his love for East meets West cooking, to seeing him on a number of shows judging - we love seeing his passion when he is creating his dishes. As someone who is known for his restaurants, TV shows, cookbooks, cooking line and more, we wanted to see how he has been navigating the past few months, find out how he came to the food industry and to find out more about one of his newest projects, MingsBings!

ATHLEISURE MAG: Before we delve into your culinary career, you were a professional squash player and played at Yale – what is it that you love about the game and do you still play it?

CHEF MING TSAI: I am one of the most competitive people I know and squash to me is one of the most intense sports because you are enclosed in a small room with one other person and there is nowhere to hide. If you are on a team sport like football or basketball you could in theory get lost in the shuffle. On a squash court, it’s two people and you’re responsible for your own actions and you control your own fate. The one curious rule is if you hit the other person with the ball you actually win the point. To someone outside the sport, you could in theory keep hitting the other person, but the other person could also keep hitting you back and they might hit you harder. Squash is a game of true sportsmanship, it’s a pre-requisite.

I continue to play today mostly because I’m coaching my son David who proudly is following in my footsteps at Yale. As a side note, as a Chef, I love playing to burn a ton of calories, but it’s also a great way to get rid of stress (it’s very therapeutic), particularly right now during COVID which has hit the restaurant industry really hard.

AM: What was the moment when you fell in love with food?

CHEF MT: Apparently my first word was Nui Nai, which means milk. As soon as I could walk without falling over, which was maybe around 2 years old, I was always hanging out in the kitchen. I would watch my parents or grandparents in the kitchen cooking admiring the wok over the fire, their knives with the cutting board, but most importantly I learned early on that by hanging out in the kitchen, you’ll be fed faster there. I kept coming back for more, I knew there was something about being in the kitchen that made me happy, and I was, still am and always will be hungry.

AM: When did your interest in food turn into wanting to work in the industry?

CHEF MT: I became interested in the food industry early on because my parents used to do private catering events and festivals. As early as age 10, I was frying egg rolls for thousands of people next to my grandfather. My first epiphany with food was also at age 10. My parents had friends over, unannounced because the couple happened to be driving through Dayton which is where we lived at the time. In the Chinese culture, you don’t ask “How Are You?” when greeting someone at the door, you actually ask, “Have You Eaten?,” so I took it upon myself to make them my first fried rice. It by no means was my best, but in an instant when I watched all four of them, my parents and their friends, enjoying the meal, I realized I could make people happy through food. It was a true epiphany that to this day, is why I love being a chef.

AM: How would you define your cooking style?

CHEF MT: East-West, blending of techniques and ingredients that produces food that is bold in flavor and contrasting temperatures and textures that at the end of the day is inherently healthy. I’m more plant-based now more than ever.

AM: What was your culinary journey that you led to opening Blue Ginger?

CHEF MT: I cooked at the Mandarin Kitchen, with my mom. During college, I went to Paris for apprenticeships and then went to Le Cordon Bleu. After college, I moved to Paris and worked as a Pastry cook at Fauchon with Pierre Hermé. After that, I worked as a Sous Chef at the restaurant Natasha. That was the first time I was able to first blend East-West flavors in a professional sense. After two years in Paris, with the goal of opening my own restaurant one day being a good Chinese son, I went to Cornell to get a masters in Hospitality and Marketing. After I received my masters, I went to open a bunch of restaurants in hotels and ended up at the Intercontinental where I helped open 5 restaurants and 2 hotels. I realized I missed cooking in the kitchen and wanted to get back into the kitchen. That’s when I went to the Mandarin Oriental and worked at Silks. In 1990 Ken Hom was the head chef and he greatly encouraged me to keep ,cooking the East-West style, it was really significant for me. Funnily enough, Silks was also where I met my best chef friend Ken Oringer. After Silks, I went to Santa Café in Santa Fe, where I did East-meets-Southwest food. It was a significant period because not only was it my first executive chef job, when I got my highest Zagat rating, but was also when Food Network “discovered me”. I took a liking to teaching what I knew in the kitchen and spreading my love of food to the masses. After two years though, I was ready to open my own place. I decided to move back to East to Boston and from there I opened Blue Ginger in 1998.

AM: What were the biggest lessons that you learned when you opened your first restaurant?

CHEF MT: There are three big important lessons. The first is design build. The architect and general contractor have to speak the same language. You can’t build a 13foot wall because planks of wood come in 12 feet foot pieces. You have to think about the way materials come in when you design something. A round booth costs twice as much as a square, but they can seat the same amount of people. The second piece to this is you have to be there daily to save time and money. Plus if you are there every day, everyone works a little faster and you’ll save time with decisions and money. This helps to not only finish on time and but, will help save with your budget. The other piece to this is Inspect your space before you take over the lease really well. Make sure you drill into walls for water damage, asbestos etc.

The second is cash-flow. When you raise money, if you did zero covers the first month, you should still be able to cover payroll, taxes, insurance etc. Restaurants fail because they open later than scheduled and they don’t have enough cash flow to sustain them. They don’t have enough money to pay rent, insurance, taxes even though they aren’t operating. If you open 2 months late, you have more financial pressure, so you have to do x amount of covers to pay for payroll, insurance etc. Then they start buying cheaper products or taking shortcuts and lowering quality and the downward spiral can’t be stopped. Make sure you raise enough money to open on time and on budget.

The third most important thing is who you surround yourself matters. Your team matters, they represent you. You have to find true hospitality professionals. They have to think like you and want to be in the restaurant industry. You want people that believe in hospitality and you have to make sure that every person in your organization believes that. As a chef the front of house for the customer experience is more important. For example, you could have the best food in the world, but if the service is condescending or arrogant, they won’t come back. You could have mediocre food, if the customer was entertained, treated well, the server remembered their name, it was the best service in the world, the customer will come back. You need loyalty, it makes a restaurant successful. Front of house is 70% of your dining experience, if you have the right pricing, the magic experience and the best food, it's the secret formula.

And just as important, as the leader, you have to lead by example. I’ve never walked by trash in the middle of the dining room, a cigarette or trash outside the restaurant and not picked it up. There’s no job too small for the owner. Ideally you aren’t the only one doing it, you have to roll up your sleeves and get dirty. You have to do it, lead by example and show others how to get it done. And always use, “please and thank you”. You always have to ask, it always helps get the job done.

AM: You have won a number of awards including James Beard, Zagat and more – how important was it for you to receive the accolades?

CHEF MT: None of us are chefs to win the awards. We are chefs to make delicious food for people. The only reason having a large platform has helped is that it allows you to do more good, I’ve been able to do a lot of good because of my platform. Family Reach is an organization that provides a lifeline to families fighting cancer. In 10 years, I’ve helped raise over 8 million dollars through live charity dinners, but I’m fully aware that it’s because of my platform I’m able to do this. It’s a lot of waste of opportunity if you don’t take the opportunity to do good with it.

AM: Tell me about Blue Dragon and what people can expect when they come there?

CHEF MT: Blue Dragon has been closed since May 30th, we were proudly a partner with the Lee Initiative providing meals to restaurant workers in the Boston area. We were able to use Jamaica Mi Hungry food truck to provide thousands of meals to restaurant workers. Reality is real, where Blue Dragon is located, there is no business hence Blue Dragon is in hibernation for now.

AM: You are also the chef/partner at BABA in Yellowstone. What is this restaurant and what should we know about it?

CHEF MT: BABA is my one year old restaurant at the Yellowstone Club in Montana. I’ve always loved the mountains and Montana is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I got to create a new signature dish, Tea-Smoked Peking Duck and bring back some old Blue Ginger favorites as well, plus some touches like Potstickers and shumai from Blue Dragon as well. It’s a culmination of all my favorite dishes and foods I’ve cooked throughout my career and absolutely my favorite way I love to eat. I know I’m very blessed to be able to go to Big Sky as often as I do.

AM: We have yet to try them, but we know they’re on their way – tell me about Mings Bings, why did you want to offer these, what they are and will you have additional offerings as well?

CHEF MT: In 2017, my family and I received the world-shaking news that my wife Polly had been diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. While we explored medical treatment options at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Polly also made the life-changing decision to transition to a strict vegan diet with the hope of lowering inflammation by using food as medicine.

As I dove into cooking all-plant based food, I found a lack of healthy savory meal replacements while strolling the grocery aisles. I was quickly disappointed by the variety and quality of the options on the market. It was in this moment that I recognized a new mission. While I created plant-based meal options to help Polly heal as she improved, I also realized there were likely many more people out there like her who were possibly making the same changes.

I continued to search and create vegan alternatives that were delicious and nutritious. After experimenting in the kitchen, MingsBings was born. The first flavor, the Original, is a veggie filled patty that launched the end of 2020 packed with watercress, red onions, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, garlic, ginger and pepitas all wrapped in a gluten-free brown rice wrapper. Found in the frozen aisle of Dave’s Fresh Market in Rhode Island (and soon other local grocery stores in MA) and online on MingsBings.com. Plus I’m so proud to say that a portion of our proceeds give back to both Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Family Reach, two organizations that are incredibly near and dear to my heart. Stay tuned for new flavors coming out soon too!

AM: I have been a fan of yours for years and remember you on East Meets West with Ming Tsai and then seeing you're on a number of shows on Food Network, being on the Today Show for the Beijing Olympics as well as your current show, Simply Ming. How important is it for chefs to share their personality and passion for food through these shows as well as socially?

CHEF MT: I’ve always loved to teach, cooking and sports. It’s also why I love being a father. You have to love teaching if you want to be a dad. I love all the outlets to be able to continue to teach. It’s why I loved East Meets West, Simply Ming and why it’s been a lot of fun to continue to do it on social media like Instagram and latest Pinterest and TikTok accounts. It’s so important to show your authenticity, to explain where the dish was created and where it came from. The meteoric rise of social media is like the invention of the TV, but the difference is when the TV was invented, you still had to buy one to join. Now, everyone has their phone and it’s free to join. It’s scary because it’s not going to slow down. I was only one of 8 chefs on TV in the early Food Network days, now I’m one of 70,000 on TikTok, the points of entry have been removed, anyone can be a chef on TikTok, if you have one follower, you’re a success. Just like a restaurant, you have to differentiate, fortunately I truly enjoy teaching and showing people how to do cooking hacks, cleaning a cast iron pan, how to make a simple fried rice dish. Paramount for anyone in this medium, you have to stay authentic to your craft, but it doesn’t mean you can’t play to the edges and have fun with it.

AM: You’ve also had Simply Ming cookware on HSN as well. How important has this been to your brand?

CHEF MT: I’m so happy I’m still with HSN and we’re delving into food as well. It’s a key relationship for me because I’ve always wanted to level the playing field and have people cook with the same equipment I’ve had to make the task easier. The cookware is nonstick so that less fat can be used if desired. My favorite demo is cooking salmon with no oil so the salmon doesn’t stick. I’m so excited we are going to start selling some MingsBings on HSN the next few months.

AM: COVID has definitely had an impact regardless of your vertical and the food industry has been affected – how have you navigated this time with your restaurants?

CHEF MT: I closed Blue Dragon for in-restaurant dining 2 days before the governor closed all restaurants. We remained open for take-out and proudly participated in the Lee Initiative operating as a food pantry to serve restaurant employees. We also partnered with the Jamaica Mi Hungry food truck to be able to bring more meals to surrounding Boston neighborhoods where the majority of employees live. We quickly realized it was difficult for them to come to Blue Dragon because of public transportation with COVID, so we decided to bring the meals to them.

Fortunately, BABA has amazing COVID protocols for both staff and members and has safely remained opened.

AM: You have written 5 cookbooks – what is that process like and do you have additional plans for future ones?

CHEF MT: A cookbook is a major project. The reason I have not started another one is lack of time to dedicate to it. I plan on writing more, however my next one may be more my philosophy of cooking and living than recipes, though it will still include some recipes.

AM: We’ve loved seeing your plank chal- lenges – what was the thought behind that and why did you want to share that with your followers?

CHEF MT: Honestly it was first done as a needed distraction for not only what I thought we needed as a country, but for me as well. January being a new year, I think the entire world thinks about a new health regime. I wanted to do something that I would have to continue to do for 31 days and by putting it out there in the social media world, I knew it would help hold me accountable for 31 days. What I love about this challenge, there are no winners or losers, there are only winners. No matter how much time you do, even if you add one second, you have still accomplished something great. I was looking for positive resolutions and this was one way to get it moving. I have loved doing it so much that I will likely continue doing it with a push-up challenge for 28 days in February.

IG @MingTsai

@SimplyMingTV

@MingsBings

PHOTOS COURTESY | Chef Ming Tsai