The Celebrity Chef Behind The Tastiest Line Of Frozen Meals
Surely we've all daydreamed about having a celebrity chef cook us a quick, top-tier meal on a super busy day. That level of luxury would certainly be nice, but it's safe to say that most of us don't have access to famous chefs in person. We do, however, have access to their culinary creations in a pretty convenient way — through the frozen meals section at the grocery store. When Tasting Table tested six celebrity chef frozen meal brands, we found that Mings Bings, the brand belonging to popular TV chef Ming Tsai, beat all the rest.
These little frozen pockets are made in the style of traditional Chinese flatbread called jianbing (or simply bing) but come with recognizable Western flavors, such as pizza, cheeseburger, buffalo-style chicken, taco, and others. Blending together East and West cuisine with a purpose is at the very center of Tsai's professional culinary career, and the creation of Mings Bings is a great representation of that.
However, there is also a personal element behind this brand — after Tsai's wife was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017, she decided to switch to a low-inflammation diet alongside the medical treatment. While the diet was sustainable with homemade cooked meals, it became a challenge whenever the need for convenience meals arose. Tsai found the freezer meals at the grocery store quite lacking, recognized the gap in the market, and Mings Bings was born.
The convenience of Mings Bings is largely found in the versatility of its meals
Mings Bings aren't limited to a specific daily meal. You can have them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or as a quick snack during the day. Regardless of the flavor you opt for, the cooking time is between 10 and 15 minutes, depending on whether you're making them in the air fryer, the oven, or the grill. Once they're done, you could even pack them up and eat on the go. But it's not just the convenience that delivers — it's also the flavor. Our taste tester specifically highlighted the way the flavorful interior of these meals pairs perfectly with the crispy exterior and noted that the cheeseburger version emerged as a clear favorite.
The entire lineup of these frozen dinners is gluten-free, in alignment with the diet Ming Tsai's wife started following after her cancer diagnosis. The meals are also free of nuts, sesame, and shellfish. The delicious fillings, packed inside a rice wrap, range from classic meaty options to completely vegan ones — and according to our taste tester, the plant-based options can easily rival the other flavors.