Super Hunger Brunch Features Ming Tsai

Over $60,000 raised by local diners to help feed those in need around Mass.

  It's not every weekend that your brunch helps raise $60,000 to fight hunger--it does during Super Hunger Brunch.  Wellesley took part in the Brunch, with Ming Tsai's Blue Ginger participating. Participating restaurants designed special brunch menus with fixed prices, ranging from $25 to $35 to $50 per meal.  Across 21 restaurants, 1,500 diners chowed down over the weekend, a Greater Boston Food Bank press release said. The $60,000 raised will turn into over 140,000 meals for people in need around Eastern Mass.  A GBFB release announcing the Brunch also noted that Tsai is both a longtime champions of The Greater Boston Food Bank, and served on the Super Hunger Brunch Culinary Committee. Below is the full release from Greater Boston Food …

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Wellesley Businesses Expect to be Wining and Dining at Boston Wine Expo

The 2013 Boston Wine Expo features a Wellesley chef and a local seller of cheeses, as well as a number of wines.

  What makes a particular cheese go well with a particular wine? There's one store in town which will shed some light on the subject at an upcoming expo. A couple of the names coming to the 2013 Boston Wine Expo are local Wasik's - The Cheese Shop, a thriving Wellesley Square business, and Ming Tsai of Blue Ginger. Brad and Brian Wasik will run a seminar on pairing wines with cheeses, according to a press release from the Boston Wine Expo, and Tsai is one of the headlining chefs. The Expo runs Feb. 16 and 17, see the press release below, or the website for a schedule.  Below is the full press release from the Boston Wine Expo: Boston Wine Expo Announces 2013 Seminar Lineup - Keynotes Jean-Charles Boisset & Gina Gallo headline while many …

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The Digital Side of Cooking with Ming Tsai

Celebrity chef Ming Tsai discusses his new book and shooting 80 complementary videos.

For most, writing a cookbook would be painstaking enough. But Ming Tsai’s latest literary endeavor is being served with a side of video. Eighty videos to be exact. To coincide with the release of his new cookbook, Simply Ming: In Your Kitchen, Ming Tsai, celebrity chef and owner of Blue Ginger restaurant in Wellesley, Mass., produced 80 Web videos to correspond with the book’s 80 recipes. “Before the actual photo shoot [for the book], I decided 'Why don’t I shoot me making the food?'” he said in an interview at Blue Ginger in September. Tsai looks to innovate with In Your Kitchen. A known chef, Tsai said TV is what got him his celebrity status, but it’s the Web he wants to tackle next. The first two videos corresponding to each chapter are…

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Phantom Gourmet Creators Propose Repeal of Eat-to-Drink Bylaw for 100-Seat Restaurants

A Phantom Gourmet-owned trade organization wants the town to consider allowing 100-seat restaurants to serve alcohol without food.

  Due to a November 2011 Town Meeting action, restaurants in Wellesley with a minimum of 50 seats may apply for a license to serve beer, wine and liquor when previously, only restaurants with 100 seats or more could do so. Though this decision was made in an effort to bolster business, the move is not sitting well with everyone. The Restaurant and Business Alliance, an Allston-based trade association founded by the creators of The Phantom Gourmet television show, submitted a proposal to the Board of Selectmen Tuesday night that would eliminate a longstanding bylaw that says a patron must order food to be served alcohol at any Wellesley restaurant. A provision of the proposal, officially submitted by Restaurant and Business Alliance …

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Bret Silverberg

1:18 pm on Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Great thought, Dan, and this is likely why Errichetti didn't outright admit to this at the meeting, but the owners do. But would you agree the large restaurant owners have a point? Should they be allowed some advantage now, or is this just how it goes sometimes and all local restauranteurs have to live with it?   more ›

Patch Facts

5 Things You Need to Know Today: Aug. 9

Still plenty of time to get some sun.

1. There's still plenty of summer left... 2. Have you been to Morses this year? 3. If you're looking ahead to fall, here's the school calendar. 4. ...and a story about the new superintendent. 5. Have you heard about Ming Tsai's new restaurant?

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Details Emerge on Ming Tsai’s New Restaurant

Grub Street has gotten its mitts on details of the local celeb’s sister restaurant to Blue Ginger.

Ming Tsai’s plans for a have been detailed in a new post by local food site Grub Street Boston. The new restaurant, Blue Dragon, will likely open next year, according to Grub Street, who published a list of five details that have recently come out on the familiar-but-different cuisine. Grub Street mentions some differences between his locally-based Blue Ginger and Blue Dragon. Namely, burgers will be served at the new spot, which will be located on A Street. Tsai owns and operates Blue Ginger in Wellesley.

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Ming Tsai to Open Boston Restaurant

The celebrity chef and owner of Blue Ginger will open a second area restaurant.

A spokeswoman for Ming Tsai confirmed today that the celebrity chef and owner of Blue Ginger will be opening a restaurant in Boston sometime soon. Here is what Lauren Klatsky, spokeswoman for Tsai, said Tsai was willing to divulge: "I am opening a restaurant on A Street. Very early stages. Details to follow." Wellesley Patch will publish updates as they develop.

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Ming Tsai Rumored to Open Restaurant in Boston’s Fort Point District

Grub Street is reporting the local celeb could open a new restaurant in Boston.

Ming Tsai could be expanding his east-meets-west cuisine empire locally. Grub Street is reported July 5 that Blue Ginger’s owner and head chef may open a restaurant in Boston’s Fort Point district. “Tsai has been spotted scouting out the area in recent weeks, but maybe he's just on the prowl for a decent sandwich?” the popular food blog said. Grub Street speculates that Tsai could open up shop at the corner of A and Melcher streets. “Right now, the desolate corner is home to an abandoned deli and some very interesting graffiti. Intriguing!” the post said.

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MassHort and Blue Ginger Bring the Garden to the Table

A garden at Elm Bank will supply the local restaurant with a portion of the restaurant’s local produce needs.

Wellesley’s longstanding, renowned Blue Ginger restaurant just got a bit more local. The Massachusetts Horticultural Society recently chose Blue Ginger to serve as its restaurant partner in the society’s Garden to Table initiative. Staff and volunteers have planted a garden at Elm Bank, home of MassHort, which will supply Blue Ginger with herbs, Asian greens, Thai basil and chile peppers, according to Blue Ginger’s Facebook page. The idea behind 22-vegetable bed garden is “to help people start with a seed and end with a meal,” according to a press release. "Our menu is very ingredient-driven. Using locally grown produce, when it's available, makes our East-West cuisine that much better.  And having our own garden, tended by the community, …

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New Regulation Allowing Small Restaurants to Apply For Alcohol Licenses Passes

The Board of Selectmen unanimously passed a measure last night, which allows restaurants with a minimum of 50 seats to apply for alcohol licenses.

Cafe Mangal, Susu Bakery and several other smaller Wellesley restaurants may soon be able to serve beer, wine or a liquor drink at a customer’s request. The Board of Selectmen last night passed a measure, which allows restaurants with a minimum of 50 seats to apply for an all-alcohol license effective today. Until today, restaurants had to have a minimum of 100 seats to apply for a license to serve alcohol. There are 17 available all-alcohol and six beer and wine only licenses, according to Hans Larsen, executive director of general government services. The board’s approval was the final step toward the passage of the amended bylaw. The town voted overwhelmingly in favor of the new regulations at the March 13 election. Not everyone in the …

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