Ming Tsai

Ming Tsai (Chinese: 蔡明昊; pinyin: Cài Mínghào; born March 29, 1964) is an American restaurateur, television personality, and celebrity chef. Tsai's restaurants have focused on East-West fusion cuisine, and have included major stakes in Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts (a Zagat and James Beard-recognised establishment) from 1998 to 2017, and Blue Dragon in the Four Point Channel area of Boston (a Zagat recognized tapas-style gastropub favorites named an Esquire Magazine "Best New Restaurants 2013").

Tsai currently hosts Ming's Quest, a cooking show featured on the Fine Living Network, and Simply Ming on American Public Television. Tsai appeared in the Food Network cooking competition, The Next Iron Chef (2010).

Ming Hao Tsai was born in Newport Beach, California on March 29, 1964, to Stephen, an engineer, and Iris, an eventual restauranteur, and was raised in Dayton, Ohio, where he attended The Miami Valley School. He assisted with the cooking as he was growing up in the restaurant owned by his mother, Mandarin Kitchen.

Tsai later attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and then proceeded to study engineering and play varsity squash at Yale University. There, he was a member of the Phi chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986. He received a master's degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell University in 1989. Either the summer after his sophomore or junior year at Yale, he attended culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. Tsai speaks four languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, French, and Spanish.