Chairman's address honoring Ming Tsai at the Annual Awards Dinner
Thanks, Peter, and good evening. I have the honor tonight to introduce you to Ming Tsai, a man I'm glad I've gotten a chance to know and admire as a fellow restaurateur and Massachusetts Restaurant Association Member. Ming Tsai is a very busy guy. He is busy following in the high-profile footsteps of such notable stars of the culinary world as Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse. Like them, he has spent his career raising the bar of what we do every day to celebrity status.
Ming started out spending many happy hours cooking alongside his parents in their family-owned restaurant, the Mandarin Kitchen, in Dayton, Ohio. He attended school right here in Andover and went on to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University.
You'd think that pursuing an engineering degree would have kept him far away from the kitchen. But Ming couldn't stay away and actually spent the summer of his sophomore year at the very exclusive Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. Thus proving what his fellow restaurateurs know only too well: That you can take the boy out of the kitchen, but you can't take the kitchen out of the boy.
Ming decided to immerse himself in the culinary cultures of both the East and the West. In Paris, he studied under renowned Pastry Chef, Pierre Herme and in Osaka with Sushi Master Kobayashi. Back in the United States, he earned his master's degree in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing from Cornell University. Ming went on to work in the front and back of many of the finest restaurants in the country in Chicago, Atlanta, California and Santa Fe, learning his craft and honing his skills.
Through his immersion in the culinary cultures of both the East and the West, his business and marketing degree, and his years of hands-on experience, Ming now had all the tools he needed to create a very successful culinary empire. But, as we all know in this business, its not enough just to have the tools. You also have to know how to apply them. And it doesn't hurt to have a lot of energy, too!
This modern-day "Ming Dynasty" started to take shape in 1998 when Ming and his wife, Polly, opened Blue Ginger in Wellesley. Polly suggested that name because his favorite color is blue and ginger is one thing Ming says that no kitchen should ever be without. The unique East meets West cuisine featured at Blue Ginger has been a huge hit with both the public and the critics alike. In its first year, when many restaurants are struggling just to keep the doors open, Blue Ginger received three stars from the Boston Globe, was named Best New Restaurant by Boston Magazine, was nominated by the James Beard foundation as Best New Restaurant 1998, and Esquire Magazine honored Ming as Chef of the Year. And just how does one top such a successful, award-filled first year owning a restaurant?
Well, you could pick up an Emmy Award for a cooking show on the Foodnetwork called East Meets West With Ming Tsai. And if you had some time left over you could throw together a cookbook called Blue Ginger: East Meets West with Ming Tsai, which, incidentally, is now in its 5th edition. And, Food & Wine Magazine chose this great set of recipes as one of 1999's best cookbooks, too.
And I know what your thinking, it was easy for him to be a dynamo when he was just a young man in his 30's. Now that he's turning 40 and it's the new millennium, he's just going to have to slow down and stop making the rest of us look like we're moving in slow motion.
But wait, there's more! There's Ming dot com! This site features information, recipes, ingredients, culinary gadgets and one-stop shopping for the signature line of Asian-inspired teas, spices, oils and more that Ming has developed and marketed in his spare time. And they really are delicious and great to cook with.
The sales were so brisk at Ming dot com, that it attracted the attention of retail giant, Target. They approached Ming with the idea of carrying Blue Ginger products for consumers to use to create East Meets West feasts for their family and friends in their own kitchens. And I'm sure they will be able to find many tasty ideas in Ming's second cookbook, Simply Ming.
Its true, Ming is a very busy guy. But one of the things that I've always liked about him is that he's still willing to take the time to honor his commitment to our industry. His heart tells him that attaining all this celebrity status is meaningless unless you use it as a way to give back.
I know, because right now he and I are both serving on the MRA's Food Allergy Awareness Committee. This committee is working to raise awareness of food allergies in the restaurant industry and educate members and the public about food allergies. We're also taking a look at food labeling and being proactive in the legislative issues surrounding this hot topic that is definitely a priority for the MRA this year.
And just yesterday at the New England Foodservice and Lodging Show, I had a chance to hear him speak as a keynote panelist for the Food Safety Sells seminar. He and Roger Berkowitz and Dr. Walter Willett did a wonderful job of explaining how to integrate "food safety" and "sales" into the same equation.
Yes, Ming may always be reaching for the stars, but his feet are firmly planted on the ground as he walks that path worn by culinary celebrities like Julia Child and Emeril Lagasse. And here tonight, we are honoring him as we have some of our other legends and heroes, who have built an appreciation for what all of us in the trenches in this industry do on a daily basis. For building a greater appreciation of the job we do, creating a memorable experience, one person at a time, one meal at a time.
So, it is with great personal pleasure and a strong sense of pride in our membership that I present to you this year's MRA Restaurateur of the Year, the very busy, the very successful, the very committed, the very dynamic, Ming Tsai.
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