Misstropolis

Monday, August 11, 2008

It Only Works if you Believe - Ming Tsai on Feng Shui

by Abigail Jones

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I am sitting with chef Ming Tsai and his feng shui consultant Natalia Kaylin, at a corner table in Blue Ginger, Ming’s award-winning restaurant in Wellesley, MA. A waiter brings us a large bottle of sparkling water. Ming opens it and pours.

“I’m a rational guy,” says the much beloved, world famous chef. “I’m tactile in a way, but I believe in this stuff - I don’t have to be sold on it.”

Ming is talking about Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese practice of finding the flow of energy in an environment and the interconnectedness of life. People may know it as a way of figuring out where to put the couch, but spend five minutes with Ming and Natalia and you’ll realize that it’s not about decorating. Feng shui literally translates “wind and water,” the two fundamental forms of life energy. Part of ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, it tries to understand the movement of energy in our environment. Among other things, feng shui uses positive ‘chi’ to improve chances for success - and Ming swears by it.

When you walk into Blue Ginger, you are surrounded by fountains, orchids, small decorations, and delicious aromas wafting from the open kitchen. It’s easy to feel calm and unharried here, and that’s entirely on purpose. Ming’s space feels like an escape. After a recent expansion (Blue Ginger debuted its new lounge, bar, and private dining rooms this past May) the restaurant fits seamlessly into Ming’s East-West world - thanks, in part, to his collaboration with Natalia.

They met two years ago, eleven years after Natalia left the Ukraine with her son, $1,000 in her wallet, and a Masters in physics on her resume. Now a feng shui consultant, she spent many years working as an electro-optical engineer. “And that’s what sold me on Natalia,” says Ming, who was an engineering major at Yale. “You picture a little Chinese man with the long beard - he’s going to be the best feng shui master. She completely has blown that out of proportion for me, because she’s a physicist.” Ming flashes his signature smile, “E=mc2, that’s what feng shui is; it’s energy.”

As Ming and Natalia give me a tour of Blue Ginger, Ming in his crisp white chef’s jacket, with leading-man poise, Natalia in casual comfort, they explain some of the basics. A toilet for example, should never be in the middle of a home, as it’ll flush away wealth. A front door should never line up with a back door, because that means money in, money out. When lying in bed, a person’s feet should never face the door - that’s what happens when you die.

Natalia points to the front of the restaurant and explains that it faces Southeast, which corresponds with wealth and the energy of the rising sun. As the sun rises, good chi rises, which in turn means rising fortune. “In some ways you are really lucky,” she says to Ming, “because many businesses in China struggle to have Southeastern front and Eastern door, and that is exactly what [you have] here.”

There is one aspect of Blue Ginger that is not so lucky, and it’s perched on a lovely piece of grass across the street. “Oh my God, a funeral home!” Ming remembers his mother saying ten years ago, when she and Ming’s father first visited the space he’d found for his restaurant. To combat the negative chi, Ming consulted his parents’ feng shui master in Taiwan, who suggested that he hang a Ba Gua talisman (a mask) on the wall facing the funeral home, to block negative energy. On the day Blue Ginger first opened, Ming also performed a clearing ceremony by running every single water source in the restaurant.

“I’ve only known my staff for maybe a week. I had them run dishwashers, sink, urinals, bathroom, locker room. I said, ‘okay guys, go!’ And I guarantee some of these guys were like, ‘who is this guy? He’s crazy. He had me flushing a urinal for five minutes.’”

But it worked. Over the past decade, Blue Ginger has become one of the most lauded and successful restaurants in greater Boston. The food is phenomenal (just try the sake-miso marinated butterfish) and everyone has taken notice. (For more on Blue Ginger, Ming, and his many awards, see http://www.Ming.com.) Yet as any good chef knows, the key to a winning restaurant is not just great food.

“I hate this from a chef’s point of view,” Ming says, “but it’s true: If [a guest has] mediocre food but fantastic service, he’ll probably come back, because he’ll probably remember how great the [ambiance and] service was.”

Ming doesn’t have to worry about this; he has Natalia. The newly renovated Blue Ginger is now teeming with designs inspired by feng shui. Details that seem merely decorative carry great meaning. There are fountains framed by octagonal designs, because water is good in the southeast and eight is a lucky number. There are flowerpots and orchids (for beauty), plus a bronze dragon perched on a shelf on the wall that you see when you first walk in. To balance the wood in the lounge, there is a decorative metal coin box.

Nearby, a curved hallway leads to the private dining rooms; curves are important in feng shui as they allow the easy flow of chi – the energy that connects people with their environment. But the long corridor also means that energy could move too quickly, so three alcoves gently divide the space. At the end of the hallway is the ladies room - the most pleasant I’ve seen in a long time. Natalia would probably tell me that’s because there’s a lot of metal in it, as the West needs metal.

Back in the lounge, Ming gestures to the windows overlooking the street. “Natalia suggested [I] do bamboo-edged glass,” he says, “which is great, but no we’re not gonna do that; it’s not an aesthetic thing, it’s a money thing. But you have—” He pauses, turns towards the wall behind us, and points to a potted bamboo plant. “Bamboo!  Which is not $50,000!”

After a blessing ceremony and a feng shui-chosen re-launch date, Ming debuted the newly renovated Blue Ginger to rave reviews. With all the fanfare about the food, and the beautiful crowds and staff, it’s easy to miss the changes Ming and Natalia made, but that’s almost the point.

“When you walk in, you don’t feel rushed,” Ming says. “We feel [Blue Ginger is] twice as good, because now the look of the space is to the level of the food and service.”

I ask Ming if he applies feng shui to food. “Ah,” he says, “interesting.” The answer, though, is no. “When I make a dish all I think about is how can I make this piece of salmon taste awesome this time of year. I want crunchy, I want smooth, I want spicy, I want sweet… a balance.”

“The key word is balance,” agrees Natalia. “That’s what we do with environment, and Ming does with food.”

“It only works if you believe,” Ming adds. “Not believe because your wife tells you to believe or your friends, your parents. You have to sincerely believe it and everyone in the core has to believe. Because it’s energy, and energy is 24-7.”