NTF: How did you get started in the restaurant business? Ming: Being born and raised Chinese, I was surrounded by food: it's in the culture, so it's in your blood, therefore I began cooking at an early age. I actually made my first fried rice when I was 10 years old. My parents and grandparents were gourmets so I always hung out in the kitchen hoping they'd throw me a scrap. We were actually an atypical Chinese family. Not only would we go to French restaurants a lot, but also my parents loved to travel out of the country so we would check out restaurants all over Europe. This really widened and broadened my palate and made me appreciate food. My parents also owned a Chinese restaurant in Dayton, OH, so I grew up working there in the summers throughout high school and college. NTF: Please talk about your schooling and any travel you've done to learn more about various cuisines. Ming: Professionally, I was first trained in my mom's restaurant. Then I went to Paris and studied at Cordon Bleu. This was a very eye-opening experience. I really learned what the French could do, especially when it came to desserts, pastries, breads and croissants. I also did professional training in Osaka, Japan. Being Chinese, I didn't know a lot about sushi, rice and sashimi and it had always been one of my goals to learn from a sushi master. Fortunately, I trained there for three months with Kobayashi, a sushi master, who took me under his wing and showed me the ways of Japanese cuisine. After working in a number of restaurants in Paris, I did a stint in the hotel business. I went to Cornell University and received my Master's Degree in Hotel Administration and Hospitality Marketing. I ended up in Chicago where I opened the Hotel-Intercontinental and eventually became the food and beverage director. After three years I decided I missed cooking, so I worked at Silks, a restaurant in San Francisco. This is where I first focused on East meets West cuisine. Then I became executive chef of a restaurant in Santa Fe where I did East meets Southwest cuisine before coming here to open Blue Ginger with my wife, Polly. We've been here almost two years. NTF: What are some of the characteristics that differentiate turkey from other proteins, such as food cost, versatility and preparation tips? Ming: I actually put turkey and champagne in the same category because champagne is the most underutilized wine in the world. People tend to drink champagne only for birthdays and New Year's Eve, which is a shame because champagne is the same price as a good Chardonnay or a good Pinot and should be enjoyed all the time. The same thing goes for turkey. I think turkey is completely underutilized. It's used for Thanksgiving, of course, but the only other thing many people think of turkey for is sandwiches. You can actually replace any dish that uses chicken with turkey-it's a very inexpensive, greatly undervalued protein. Turkey is no harder to cook than chicken and you can even get turkey legs and breasts by themselves, sometimes even smoked. So I would say that if you're looking to do a new twist on a dish or you're looking for something trendy, use turkey. Something that has always been a trend and is coming back is Frenching or preparing food tableside. Just as you would carve a prime rib or a chateaubriand, carving a turkey breast is just as elegant in my opinion. NTF: What made you decide to feature this recipe, Grilled Marinated Turkey Breast with Three Pea Fried Rice, on your TV cooking show? Ming: I actually created this recipe for my television show, "East Meets West with Ming Tsai" on the TV Food Network. I wanted to feature something more unique than the recipes we had filmed for previous shows so I decided to feature a turkey dish. I began experimenting with various ingredients, looking to create a light, flavorful dish that was fairly easy to prepare and this recipe emerged. In fact, the demonstration of the Grilled Marinated Turkey Breast with Three Pea Fried Rice recipe was such a success that I was honored with a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Service Show Host for this episode. NTF: What pops into your mind when you think about cooking with turkey? Ming: Turkey tetrazzini. It is a very common dish. Actually if you dice turkey up, it's great for stirfrys. One of the Chinese techniques is blanching it in oil. In a lot of Chinese restaurants it's very traditional to take raw turkey and blanch it in hot oil. This seals the meat and keeps it juicy. I would recommend this especially with dark turkey meat because it has more flavor and more juice. If you use this technique for a stirfry, I think you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between turkey and chicken and the preparation time is going to be less. In my opinion, you'd have a more efficient kitchen using turkey because turkey legs are a lot larger than chicken legs. NTF: Please describe your restaurant. Ming: Blue Ginger has 120 seats and has been open for two years. We consider it an East meets West bistro. We feature cuisine that combines East and West techniques and ingredients that when intelligently combined, produces a cuisine that is bold in flavor. I think this is the most important thing: if your food is not flavorful, start over. I do believe in nuance flavors as well, but I think if there's ginger or lemongrass in the recipe, the flavor should really come through. It's also important to have contrasting textures and temperatures and it should be aesthetically pleasing and inherently healthy. I'm certainly not a diet chef, but many of my cooking techniques and the ingredients I use, like the lack of creams, butters and sauces, and the braising and steaming of some things, make the cuisine a little bit healthier. Blue Ginger is considered a bistro because we have paper on the tables. I just like the idea because it deformalizes it. Some people show up in tuxes if they come here before going to the opera, while others show up in shorts. It's really a mixed clientele. We are moderately priced for our style of food and we offer a lot of nice wines. Business is going really well. NTF: Do you have plans to open additional restaurants? Ming: Well my answer at this time is no. Instead, what I consider my second restaurant is www.ming.com. Having been an engineering major in college and having worked with lots of computers, I've come full circle combining my chef skills with my technological background. I think there are a lot of potential avenues with the web site. Like many web sites, ming.com is mostly informational right now. We offer lots of recipes, wines and techniques, but it's also an e-commerce web site. On ming.com I sell my new book, Blue Ginger; my signature series knives and what I think is the most important, the Ming Pantry, which is a box of all the ingredients you need to use my book or to do this style of food. It's not private label, I've just handpicked brand ingredients I like to use.