Ming Tsai (born March 29, 1964, Newport Beach, California) is an American fusion cuisine chef and restaurateur who currently hosts two cooking shows – Ming’s Quest on the Fine Living television channel and Simply Ming on American Public Television – and formerly hosted East Meets West on the Food Network, for which he won an Emmy Award. He has also appeared as a challenger chef on the Food Network’s Iron Chef America beating Iron Chef Bobby Flay in “Battle Duck” and was a judge for Cooking Under Fire on the PBS network.

In 1998, Tsai, along with his wife Polly (neé Talbott), opened his first restaurant, Blue Ginger, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S.. He is the author of three cookbooks: Blue Ginger, Simply Ming, and Ming’s Master Recipes.

During the summer of 2004, Ming Tsai participated in a “Zoom Out” on ZOOM, a show sponsored by PBS. In addition, he has been a guest star on the PBS children’s television show Arthur. Tsai recently guest starred on an episode of Top Chef.

Tsai grew up in Dayton, Ohio (his family having moved there from Newport Beach, California), where he attended The Miami Valley School. He grew up working with his parents Steve and Iris in their family restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen.

From Dayton, Tsai transfered to Phillips Academy and later Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. Later, he received a master’s degree in hotel administration and hospitality marketing from Cornell University.

Ming’s maternal grandfather is the renowned Chinese conductor Dr. Baochen Li, his paternal grandfather graduated from the Department of Economics at Beijing University, and his uncle and brother are mechanical engineers.

Ming’s father, Dr. Stephen W. Tsai, is a Professor Research Emeritus, Aeronautics and Astronautics, at Stanford University and is also a graduate of Yale University
Tsai was a formidable squash player at Yale, playing No. 2 for the team, and named as an All-Ivy League player in 1986. While attending culinary school in France, Tsai played professionally on the European circuit. After returning to the U.S. Tsai was an elite player known for his speed, conditioning, and tenacity. His squash coach at Yale, David Talbott, is now his brother-in-law, as is the legendary Mark Talbott, a former World No. 1 hardball squash player. In 2004, Tsai played a celebrity squash match against professional golfer Brad Faxon at a Boston squash club. In 2005, he played against Mark Talbott in a charity match at a squash club in San Francisco.