Ming Tsai

 Ming Tsai is a chef and the owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He also created the Emmy® nominated public television series SIMPLY MING cooking show and is a national spokesperson for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network.

He agreed to an interview for my blog and I think you’ll like what he has to say about the prevalence of allergies, the practicality of organics and local food, and what’s missing from the family diet!  Check out his videos and appearance schedule at www.ming.com.

 Why are so many kids getting allergies?

 “Food allergies are probably ten times more prevalent than they were 10 years ago,” Ming said. He knows this all too well as his son was born with severe allergies to soy, wheat, dairy, shellfish, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts.

As a lay person and not a doctor, he thinks the increased incidence is a combination of a variety of things. “First,” he said, “we live in a way too sterile environment. We’re way to clean as a society.  No one grows up on a farm anymore.  No one rolls in cow manure. No one builds up there immune system naturally.  We use too many sterile, antibacterial gels, antibacterial shampoo and soaps.”

“I admit,” he said, “when we had our first baby our house was sterile. We were microwaving everything and cleaning it using antiseptic wipes on everything.  It was like a hospital,” he said.

He also thinks that “as a society antibiotics are over prescribed to kids with a cough or the flu. “The first thing is, boom, take this drug.  When you take (too many) antibiotics it actually compromises your immune system.”

Ming also thinks are diets are filled with way too many processed foods and he’s skeptical of the true impact of genetically modified foods. “When we start playing with molecules and changing the way a soy bean is made, that may play a part – as do insecticides, pesticides, and things like hormone, steroids, that didn’t exist 100 years ago.”

The good news is that Ming’s son has been seeing an energy specialist out of Lexington, Massachusetts who has had success curing people with allergies with an “eastern” approach to medicine instead of a western.  “It’s the only way that cures allergies right now,” he said. “My son used to have a bunch of allergies, but he has been cured of them all.”   (His son has been eating peanuts for the last 12 weeks and is now eating almond butter and tree nuts.)

Ming has also been instrumental in passing the Massachusetts’ new food allergy safety law and a Food Allergy Reference Book for restaurants to make sure that people with food allergies can eat out safely.

Ming on Eating Organic and Local

 “Organic carrots taste better,” Ming said. But he admits they are more expensive. Ming said his family eats 100 percent organic at home but it’s cost prohibitive at his restaurant for many foods.  If his restaurant made completely organic chicken stock (chicken, carrots, celery, onions and thyme) they’d have to charge $14 for a cup of soup, but he looks forward to the day when consumer demand will drive up the supply so the prices will come down.

He does, however, try to buy local foods for the restaurant in season such as spring greens and lots of vegetables in the summer which he pays 20-30 percent more for, but he feels it’s worth it.

“If you get tomatoes from Mexico,” he said, “You’ve got to scratch your head. But, people still want to eat tomatoes in the winter. During the growing season in New England, we get as much local as we can including, veal chops from New York that are that are hormone free, and no antibiotics.  “That we feel great about,” he said.

Ming said he woke up one morning and decided it was also moronic to ship in water. He stopped buying bottled water from Fiji and bought Saratoga Springs from New York. Now his water is locally sourced. He uses his own filtration system which also makes sparkling water. “It was a big investment, but we’ll lessen our carbon footprint,” he said.

What’s missing from the family diet?

Ming feels very strongly about the importance of gathering around the dinner table and the importance of a home cooked meal.  “The dinner table was where we met to talk about our problems and talk everything out.  Everyone is so busy with soccer and ballet and this and that,” he said. When he grew up in Ohio his family sat down for dinner every day at 5:30, five days a week. “I can’t imagine if I didn’t have this of stability.”

As a chef and restaurant owner he wants people to go out to eat, but for full disclosure, he said, “People would actually save money if they get back to the kitchen.  “You can still save money on food, and cook more healthily even if you’re buying organic rather than going to a restaurant – and another bonus is the leftover factor. “(FYI – Blue Ginger does offer a lighter fare menu where you can get in and out for less than $20 for those nights you want to get out!)

I asked Ming for some of his strategies for keeping his kids healthy:  

• If you boil broccoli – of course the kids aren’t going to like it! Sauté it in garlic oil (he buys it from Trader Joe’s) or chop some garlic and sauté just about any veggie in oil.
• Another trick: he puts the vegetables out first at dinner time so when the kids come down hungry – they’ll “chow” on the veggies.
• He gives his kids a lot of apples for snacks and has also just created a healthy brown rice chip with Kelloggs. http://www2.kelloggs.com/brand/brand.aspx?id=2874&terms=blue+ginger/ which his kids munch on.

You can view Ming’s  scrumptious videos at http://www.ming.com/.  Next up maybe the “naked chef?”