Ep. 131: Food and Community with Chef Ming Tsai

Talking Beats with Daniel Lelchuk

“Food can help with world peace. Food can bring two groups of people together who cannot see eye to eye on anything. If you just get them to the dinner table—the armor comes off.”

Celebrity Chef Ming Tsai joins the podcast, talking charity, giving back, the meaning of food and community, the power of music, and the role of food across cultures. What has this beloved chef been doing for the past two years? What has he learned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic about food and the role he can play? From food trucks to gourmet restaurants, food gives us a special sense of community and belonging. Chef Tsai and Daniel, in this wide-reaching discussion, touch on some of the most important aspects of this most essential aspect of happy and healthy living, for both mind and body.

If you like what we do, please support the show. By making a one-time or recurring donation, you will contribute to us being able to present the highest quality substantive, long-form interviews with the world's most compelling people.

Ming's passion for food was forged in his early years working in his family's restaurant, and although he earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale, he never strayed far from the kitchen. After spending a summer studying at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris, he went on to train under such greats as renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé and sushi master Kobayashi, and receive a master's degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell. Bringing his dream to reality in 1998, Ming and his wife Polly opened the doors to the highly acclaimed Blue Ginger, a bistro-style restaurant dedicated to East-West cuisine in the Boston suburb of Wellesley, Massachusetts. Ming began cooking for television audiences on the Food Network, where he was the 1998 Emmy-winning host of East Meets West, Cooking with Ming Tsai and Ming's Quest. In addition to television, Ming is also the author of three cookbooks, including Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai (now in its 8th edition and selected by Food and Wine magazine as one of 1999's 25 best cookbooks), Simply Ming, and Ming's Master Recipes. Thanks to a partnership with Target stores, home cooks have the chance to experiment and create their own versions of Ming's East-West fare, with Ming's Blue Ginger line of quality cookware and delicious Asian-inspired ingredients and snack foods. Ming was also honored by Esquire Magazine as "Chef of the Year 1998," and The James Beard Foundation crowned him as the "2002 Best Chef in the Northeast."