Ming

Ming on the Hot Seat

1. What inspired you to become a chef?

Cooking is something that makes me happy and I love cooking for others. I always wanted to be a chef and I worked really hard. It is a very nice profession where you can learn new things daily. When I serve a bowl of a recipe, it contains my love, hard work, and passion for my profession. I do think my Nai Nai had a major influencer in my love for cooking. When I was young, my Nai Nai (grandmother in Chinese) used to cook Kung Pao Chicken whenever I visited her, and she’d let me give her a hand in the kitchen, it gave me joy and I guess that’s when I knew I’m destined to be a chef.

2. What is your signature dish? What do people love about it?

Best in health, best in taste, Ming's Deviled Egg Salad is joy on a plate. Surprisingly, this is also the first dish I cooked in the restaurant, and it immediately took off. Deviled eggs (also known as stuffed eggs, Russian eggs, or dressed eggs) are thoroughly boiled eggs that are shelled, sliced in half, and stuffed with a mixture of yolks and other ingredients such as mustard, jalapeno, and mayonnaise. As far as nutrients are concerned, egg yolks provide protein, vitamin D, folate, selenium, and lutein, and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that enhance your vision.

3. How do you describe your overall cooking philosophy?

I wouldn’t serve anything that I personally don’t love. “Seasoning to taste” means you should actually taste what you’re making and adjust as necessary. Mentally labeling flavors you taste in your mind gives you a sense of how to balance them when you cook. Cutting through fattiness with acidity or countering bitterness with sweetness are some foundational techniques common among almost all recipes. 

4. Is there a chef you look up to? What about them inspires you the most?

I’ve been wondering about cooking role models quite a lot these days. A role model shows us the good life as we want to live it. I think I have a couple of chefs that I look up to. I got an appreciative eye for Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson and their naturally beautiful (and well-styled) cooking and food adventures. They certainly inspire me, in sweet (and often expensive)ways, but their books and cooking fall somewhere in-between eye candy and special occasion inspiration.

5. Tell us a lesser-known fact about Salads.

I’m glad you asked me that, I love collecting and narrating fun facts. Okay here are three fun facts about Salads: lettuce was sacred to the fertility god Min and considered to be a powerful aphrodisiac. The first representation of salad appeared in paintings on Egyptian tombs in 4500 BC. Lettuce was first eaten by the ancient kings of Persia two millenniums ago.