Ming Tsai is an American restaurateur, television personality, and celebrity chef. He plays the voice of “Ming” in the movie “Kung Fu Panda 3,” and he currently hosts “Ming’s Quest,” a cooking show featured on the Fine Living Network and “Simply Ming” on American Public Television.
In 1998, Tsai opened Blue Ginger in Wellesley, MA, which quickly became critically acclaimed and was nominated for the James Beard “Best New Restaurant” award in 1998. That same year, Esquire Magazine honored Tsai as “Chef of the Year.” In February 2013, Tsai opened his second restaurant, Blue Dragon, which was named one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants.
Tsai’s love of cooking was forged in his early years, when he spent hours cooking alongside his mother and father at Mandarin Kitchen, the family-owned restaurant. Tsai graduated from Yale University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, and later earned his MA at Cornell University in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing. In 2012, he was invited by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to represent the U.S. with the Diplomatic Culinary Partnership Initiative/American Chef Corps, which uses food as a foundation for public diplomacy efforts at home and abroad.
Tsai, a member of the Committee of 100, shared his “Chinese American Journey” at the C100 Annual Conference in Los Angeles on April 16, 2016. Launched in 2015, “Chinese American Journeys” is a series of TED-style presentations that showcase the inspiring stories of extraordinary Chinese Americans.
The next lineup will take place May 18-20 in Washington, D.C.: http://bit.ly/c100conf2017
Speakers from 2015-2016 include:
NASA commander Leroy Chiao – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4ZRy…
AIDS researcher Dr. David Ho – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAm9w…
Actress, director and producer Joan Chen – https://youtu.be/q5yOH9DDQDU
The Committee of 100 is a national nonpartisan leadership organization of prominent Chinese Americans in business, government, academia, science, and the arts. Founded by famed architect I. M. Pei, master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and many other extraordinary Americans of Chinese descent, the Committee has served for over a quarter century as a high-level bridge in the U.S.-China dialogue, fostering exchanges with the leadership of Beijing, Taipei, and Washington. C100 members are all pioneering U.S. citizens of Chinese descent who leverage their collective influence and resources to strengthen U.S.-China relations and serve as a policy resource for the Chinese American community.
