Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Ming Tsai grew up spending countless hours cooking alongside his mother and father at their family-owned restaurant, Mandarin Kitchen.  While pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Yale University, Ming spent a summer at Le Cordon Bleu in France.  After graduating, Ming continued to study in kitchens around the globe, training in Paris under renowned Pastry Chef Pierre Herme and in Osaka, Japan with Sushi Master Kobayashi.  A graduate of  Cornell University's Master's program in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing, Ming has held positions in both front and back of the house at restaurants in Chicago, Atlanta, California and Santa Fe, always learning and absorbing varied styles of cuisine.

In February of 1998, Ming and his wife, Polly, opened Blue Ginger, a bistro-style restaurant dedicated to East-West cuisine, in Wellesley, MA.  In its first year, Blue Ginger received 3 stars from the Boston Globe, was named “Best New Restaurant” by Boston Magazine, and was nominated by the James Beard Foundation as “Best New Restaurant 1998.” That same year, Esquire Magazine honored Tsai as “Chef of the Year 1998. " Since then, the James Beard Foundation crowned Ming as the “2002 Best Chef Northeast”, and the Zagat Restaurant Guide rated Blue Ginger as the “2nd Most Popular Boston Restaurant” in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

In 2005, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association honored Ming as "Restaurateur of the Year."

Ming is currently the host of Public Television’s Simply Ming, which airs nationally.  He began cooking for television audiences on the Food Network, where he was the 1998 Emmy-Award 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: Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai, Simply Ming and Ming’s Master Recipes. Ming is proud to be a  founding member of Chefs for Humanity. Most recently, Ming was in Gulfport, Mississippi with Chefs for Humanity, cooking for the police force and displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina.