genConnectgenConnect » Ming Tsai

Chef Ming Tsai: Boston Bites Back Was ‘Go Big Or Go Home’ (VIDEO)

Ming Tsai — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 18:06:55 +0000

Ming Tsai (R), owner of Blue Ginger and Blue Dragon and Ken Oringer, owner of Clio, Toro, Coppa and Uni at Fenway Park/Patrick Whittemore, Boston Herald

Chef Ming Tsai is passionate about what he does and where he comes from. “I do what I love to do and the best thing about Aspen Food & Wine [Classic] is that the people who come are passionate about food and wine,” says Tsai.

The Boston chef took time away from his two restaurants – the newest of the two, the Asian gastropub Blue Dragon, opened just four months ago – to really entertain and have fun with his cooking demonstrations at the 31st Annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. ”I like to have fun,” says Tsai. “A cooking demo is great, but it’s mostly about entertainment. People want to be entertained.”

WATCH: What It Takes to Produce the Aspen Food & Wine Classic

Watch Ming Tsai discuss his comic cooking demos, how latest restaurant, and his work with Boston Bites Back, an organization that works to help first responders and those affected by the Boston Marathon bombings:

Tsai likes to have a good time, but he also knows the importance of taking on more serious projects, as well. After the Boston Marathon Bombings in April, Tsai and celebrity chef friends quickly put together Boston Bites Back, a fundraiser held at Fenway Park that raised money for the Boston community and included survivors of the bombings. ”I said, we have to go big or go home,” says Tsai. ”It wasn’t a celebration. It really was to unite Boston Strong.

“We raised $920,000. …And people just had so much fun, eating some really great food out of Fenway.”

Tsai worked with chefs such as Mario Batali, Ken Oringer, Jasper White, Todd English, Tiffani Faison, Michael Schlow and Gordon Hamersley.

“At the end of the day it really did bring the Boston community together,” says Tsai. “We can’t change the world, but we can remain incredibly positive.”

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more Food & Wine Classic videos from world-class chefs, bakers, sommeliers, and other movers and shakers in the food and wine industry

Follow the #FWClassic on Twitter and Instagram

Follow us on:

Boston Bites Back: Chefs Unite to Raise $1M for The One Fund

Ming Tsai — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:43 +0000

Ming Tsai (R), owner of Blue Ginger and Blue Dragon and Ken Oringer, owner of Clio, Toro, Coppa and Uni at Fenway Park/Patrick Whittemore, Boston Herald

One Night. One City. One Fund.

Join 100 of Boston’s top chefs as they come together in a show of strength and solidarity to raise $1 million for The One Fund.

Spearheaded by celeb chefs Ken Oringer and Ming Tsai, the Boston Red Sox, Governor Patrick, Mayor Menino, and ARAMARK, Boston Bites Back (BBB) will be a once-in-a-lifetime tasting event at Fenway Park bringing Bostonians together to eat, drink and demonstrate Boston’s unrelenting spirit, while raising money for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.

“BBB is an opportunity for the city to join as one and acknowledge our strength as a community,” said Ken Oringer, owner of Clio, Toro, Coppa & Uni. “Nothing speaks more to our collective resolve than an evening of hospitality, unity and hometown pride in one of the most iconic venues in Boston – Fenway Park.”

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience,” said Tsai, owner of Blue Ginger & Blue Dragon. “This event is an occasion for Bostonians to reconnect over food, mingle with chefs and honor our city’s inspiring resilience. It’s an opportunity for Bostonians to literally ‘bite’ back.”

Held Wednesday, May 15, 2013 from 6 to 10 PM at Fenway Park, chefs will be cooking and serving guests from behind concession stands as well as at tables throughout the Big Concourse and the Budweiser deck. Click here to buy tickets for the Boston Bites Back tasting event

Only 5,000 general access tickets will be sold at $200 each. There will also be 200 VIP tickets at $1,000 each, allowing additional access to an intimate and exclusive gathering in Fenway’s EMC Club.

WATCH: How Ming Tsai’s E-Book Can Help You Become a Cooking Pro

An online auction leading up to the event will feature many one-of-a-kind packages including unique dining experiences from Oringer & Tsai, personal shopping with fashion expert Gretta Monahan, and hometown sports venues.

To learn more, buy tickets or bid on auction items, please visit www.bostonbitesback.org.

For more daily expert updates, follow genConnect on Twitter and Facebook.
To stay on top of the latest contributions from experts: Sign Up for genConnect.

You Are What You Eat: Food as Medicine (VIDEO)

Ming Tsai — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 09:30:39 +0000

Move over pharmaceutical companies. Celebrity chef Ming Tsai says food is the cure for disease. The restaurateur, TV personality, cookbook author and father of two boys is passionate about healthful eating. “If you eat the right groups of food you can always stay healthy for the rest of your life – no cancer, no diabetes, no obesity, no nothing,” Tsai says.

Watch Ming Tsai extol the benefits of healthful eating and describe his sons’ favorite dishes:

Related: Obesity Crisis: ‘It’s a Messy Business’ to Get America Healthy (VIDEO)

Tsai says eating right can help you have balanced angiogenesis, the growth of new capillary blood vessels in the body. It is an important natural process used for healing and reproduction, according to The Angiogenesis Foundation.

Chef Ming Tsai

“It will not only keep you healthy, it will completely prevent your blood vessels going to bad places, which are cancerous tumors or fat cells,” Tsai says. “If you can’t feed them, these cells, a tumor can never grow.”

As a chef contributor to the foundation, Tsai has created recipes that promote balanced angiogenesis, including cauliflower and Maitake mushroom stir-fry, five-vegetable miso stew, and ginger chicken thighs with parsnips.

“That really combines what I believe in, which is medicine and health and wellness, with tasty food,” Tsai says.

Follow us on:

Celebrity Chef Ming Tsai’s New Interactive Cookbook (VIDEO)

Ming Tsai — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 13:30:15 +0000

All of his adult life, celebrity chef and award-winning television personality Ming Tsai has been teaching people how to cook with his bestselling cookbooks and Food Network and PBS programs. Now with his latest cookbook Simply Ming in Your Kitchen: 80 Recipes to Watch, Learn, Cook & Enjoy" target="_blank">Simply Ming In Your Kitchen: 80 Recipes to Watch, Learn, Cook & Enjoy, Ming actually comes along with the cookbook.

Click here for an interactive video and to purchase chapters and recipes

Well not him in person, but the next best thing.

Each of the 80 recipes – which can be prepared in 30 minutes or less – comes with a 10-minute video of Ming cooking the dish from start to finish as he shares time-saving tips, techniques, chef’s secrets, ingredient information, and, even, his plating artistry. A QR code embedded with each recipe unlocks the video along with a free interactive shopping list. Sixteen videos – two from each of the eight chapters – are complimentary. The others can be purchased from www.ming.com.

Watch Ming discuss with genConnect how a true e-book can help you become a culinary whiz:

Related: Feng Shui Proponent Proponent Ming Tsai on Family Dinners

“As a chef, I love bringing something new to the table. So I’m really happy to present this book. Not only does it deliver great, easy recipes, but for the first time you also get me,” says Ming. “Simply scan the code with your smart phone and you get a video of me showing you how to make the dish. Which means you’ve just downloaded your own personal sous-chef, me again. You also get a complete shopping list for the recipe, so no more scribbled-on scraps of paper to bring to the store.”

The book is organized by food types, like poultry and sweets, and emphasizes simplicity andtechnique. For the first time, though, Ming pours his love of entertaining on the page in the form of three special chapters. The first, Platters, provides recipes for hors d’oeuvres and other starters to kick off any festive occasion. There is even a section on hosting your very own sushi-making party, for which your guests make and plate their own maki.

WATCH: Mac & Cheese, Please!

The other “entertaining” chapters are on sweets and cocktails, and include great party desserts like Lemongrass Panna Cotta, Cardamom Chocolate Cake, his addictive Almond Oatmeal Cookies, Blue Ginger’s signature cocktails, Sake Cucumber Martini and Passion Fruit Mai Tai.Ming rounds out the book with chapters on Salads and Soups, Seafood, Meat, and Poultry.

Wow your friends with a platter of Honey Crab Wontons and Onion Burger “Hot Dogs” with Sweet Chile Relish at your next cocktail party. He will have you incorporating more seafood into your weekly cooking with such creations as Soy-Sake Salmon with Almond Fried Rice. Try something new with chicken by cooking Japanese Chicken Curry for an easy mid-week dinner. Ming also encourages his fans to eat more veggies. “I’ve always been sensitive to the need to create vegetable and grain dishes, which I never think of as a compromise,” says Ming.

Vegetable lovers and meat-eaters alike should find dishes like Hunan Glazed Eggplant with Rice and Three-Mushroom and Jicama Chow Mein just what the doctor ordered. Also with Ming’s style of cooking – heart-healthy oils in place of butter; lots of veggies; braising, steaming and wok-cooking, which allows you to cook in very little fat—his dishes are better for you and your family. If you are really craving a good steak, try Teriyaki Hangar Steak with Garlic Yukon Mashers.

Ming’s ultimate goal is to get people to cook.

With a drink pairing for each recipe, invaluable advice from Ming, and entertaining anecdotes, cooking for friends, family, and yourself has never been easier or more delicious.

“Nothing, I believe, is more rewarding that cooking for family and friends. The better people eat, the happier they are, and the happier they are, the better. I’m betting that this book will aid the cause. And I’m hoping you’ll agree.”

For more daily expert updates, follow genConnect on Twitter and Facebook.
To stay on top of the contributions from experts on the site: Sign Up for genConnect.

How Ming Tsai’s E-Book Can Help You Be a Cooking Pro (VIDEO)

Ming Tsai — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 13:00:05 +0000

Looking for an easy new way to try great new recipes? Leave it to renowned celebrity chef Ming Tsai to come up with a solution. Tsai’s fifth and latest cookbook, Simply Ming in Your Kitchen, is an e-book that will include 80 photos, recipes, videos and QR codes to help you cook delicious food. Scheduled for release in October, the book’s QR codes allow the reader to download a free video of Chef Ming demonstrating the whole recipe, start to finish, as well as an interactive shopping list. Watch him discuss how a true e-book can help you become a culinary whiz:

“It’s truly, really the first e-book,” Tsai says. “But the romance of a book – it’s tacked up and dog-earing and getting it dirty – that, I think, is always going to stick. People will want a physical book. The iPad I love, but you can’t snuggle with an iPad, a book is different.”

Tsai’s e-book combines the romance of a book with the benefits of technology, allowing cooking pro wannabes to watch and learn, instead of just reading how to make a dish or learn a technique—like how to roll sushi.

“They always say a picture’s a thousand words, well the video’s a million words,” Tsai says. “The idea is just to get people to cook.”

genConnect was credentialed press at the 2012 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo., where we interviewed the top chefs, wine experts and culinary gurus from the event. For more of our video interviews and articles from the 30th Annual Food & Wine Classic, click here.

For more daily expert updates, follow genConnect on Twitter and Facebook.
To stay on top of the contributions from experts on the site: Sign Up for genConnect.

Asian Sloppy Joes by Ming Tsai (RECIPE)

Ming Tsai — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:49:31 +0000

Asian Sloppy Joes; photo by Antonis Achilleos

Asian Sloppy Joes

2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
2 medium red onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 cup diced celery
1 tablespoon sambal or hot sauce of your choice
11/4 cups hoisin sauce
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork
Juice of 2 limes
8 ounces roma tomatoes, fresh or canned, chopped
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 hamburger buns
1 small head iceberg lettuce, shredded

[ Serves 4 ]

1. Heat a stockpot or other tall wide pot over high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the onions, garlic, ginger, celery and sambal. Sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft, about 2 minutes. Add the hoisin sauce and sauté 1 minute. Add the beef and pork and sauté, breaking up the meat, until just cooked through, about 6 minutes. Add the lime juice and tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the mixture has thickened enough to mound when ladled, 20 to 25 minutes.

2. Toast the buns and place a bottom half on each individual serving plate. Top generously with the meat mixture. Top with the lettuce and the bun tops. Serve with Blue Ginger multigrain brown rice chips or other chips and pickles,

Click here for more Healthy Back-to-School Lunches From Top Chefs

Kung Pao Chicken with Brown Rice (RECIPE)

Ming Tsai — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 15:48:44 +0000

Kung Pao Chicken; Photo by Antonis Achilleos

Kung Pao Chicken with Brown Rice

[ Serves 4 ]

1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons sambal
1/4 cup Wanjashan naturally brewed soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2 pounds dark chicken meat (from the legs and/or thighs), cut into 1/2-inch dice
1/4 cup cornstarch
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
1 teaspoon coarsely ground Szechuan peppercorns
2 cups carrot nubs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
5 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 cup unsalted roasted peanuts

50-50 White and Brown Rice, for serving

1. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, sambal, soy sauce, sesame oil and lemon zest and juice, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the chicken and cornstarch, and season with salt and pepper. Toss the chicken to coat it lightly in the cornstarch, remove the chicken to a plate, and set it aside.

3. Heat a wok over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the pan. When the oil is hot, add half the chicken and stir-fry, separating the pieces, until the chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate, add 2 more tablespoons of the oil, swirl, and when the oil is hot, stir-fry the remaining chicken. Transfer the chicken to the plate.

4. Add the remaining tablespoon oil and swirl. When the oil is hot, add the garlic, ginger and peppercorns and stir-fry until softened, about 30 seconds. Add the carrots, celery and peanuts and stir-fry until the flavors have combined, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar mixture and, when it simmers, return the chicken to the pan. Stir to combine.

5. Make a bed of the rice on a platter, top with the stir-fry, and serve.

______________________________________________________

House Steamed Rice (50/50 Brown & White Rice)

1 1/2 cups of brown rice
1 1/2 cups of white rice

1. Rinse brown rice and let soak in fresh cold water to cover for about 1 hour

2. In the meantime, rinse the white rice by filling a bowl with water and stirring by hand. Drain and repeat until the water in the bowl is clear

3. Add both the brown and the white rice to a saucepan. Flatten the rice with your palm and without removing it, add water until it touches the highest knuckle of your middle finger

4. Cover and boil over high heat for 10 minutes.

5. Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the rice stand, covered, to plump, 20 minutes. Stir gently and serve

Click here for more Healthy Back-to-School Lunches From Top Chefs

Feng Shui Proponent Ming Tsai On Family Dinners (VIDEO)

Ming Tsai — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 13:52:24 +0000

Watch Ming Tsai spend “2.5 Minutes With genConnect.” At the Food & Wine Classic, we connected with the Emmy Award-winning chef

Click the play button below to watch Tsai discuss his new cookbook, Simply Ming One-Pot Meals, and the importance of family dinners:

Ming Tsai is the host and producer of American Public Television’s “Simply Ming,” now in its eighth season. The multi-talented chef has also written four cookbooks: Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai, Simply Ming: Easy Techniques for East-Meets-West Meals, Ming’s Master Recipes and Simply Ming One-Pot Meals. Ming is a James Beard Award winner for his expertise in the kitchen and is currently the chef/owner of Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA. Tsai also finds the time to be a national spokesman for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN).

genConnect is credentialed press at the 2011 Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, Colo, where we are interviewing the top chefs and wine experts from the event. For more of our video interviews and articles from the 29th Annual Food & Wine Classic, click here.

Sign up for genConnect.com and automatically be entered to win a trip to Aspen! Follow us onFacebook and Twitter (@genConnected) for additional Food & Wine coverage from the Classic (#fwclassic)