Ming Tsai on Sunday was honored by the American Cancer Society, but it wasn’t until six months ago that cancer truly hit close to home.
“On Oct. 25, my wife [Polly Tsai] was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer,” the celebrated chef and TV personality said while accepting the 2018 Impact Award at the American Cancer Society’s California Spirit 33 Gourmet Garden Party for his work with Family Reach, an organization that provides financial assistance for under-served families facing cancer. “The good news is she’s doing awesome.”
Fortunately, the Tsais can afford Polly’s treatment — she currently takes a daily pill that costs $17,000 a month — but the host of Simply Ming and owner of Boston-area restaurants knows full well that cancer treatment can financially crush a family.
“The average household income in America is $53,000 gross,” Tsai said. “The average cost of cancer in a family is $85,000 gross. You don’t need an abacus to do that math. You’re broke. Period. And what happens when you’re broke? You max your credit cards. Then you can’t make the payments. And can you imagine being a mom or a dad and you have this much money left and you can buy either the drugs to save either your son’s or daughter’s life or you can buy food to keep your others two sons and daughters healthy? No mom, no dad, should ever be in that position and have to make that decision.
“The system is broke,” he continued. “Thank God we have Obamacare, but the system is broke.”
The garden party, which took place on the Sony lot and was co-sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, included about 25 food and beverage stations, offering everything from Wolfgang Puck burgers to sundaes by McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams.
Sherry Lansing served as honorary co-chair along with Phil Rosenthal.
“I really set a record this year with how much I ate,” Lansing said. “When I came back to one of the stations the fourth time, one of the guys looked at me and said, ‘You again?'”
On a serious note Lansing, a co-founder of Stand Up to Cancer, said, “The money that we raised last year here and the money that we raise this year is going for new treatments and cures, particularly in immunotherapy. What that is is that it takes your own cells and stimulates them and they fight the cancer and people who had melanomas that were in their brains are now alive and well and thriving. So because of you, people are living longer with cancer and lives are being saved.”
Before the festivities started, Rosenthal told THR, “If the government’s not going to take care of us, we have to have these events to take care of each other. That’s what I see around the world, wherever I travel — most people are so much better than their governments. Most people you meet are sweet and nice and they want basic human values, like clean air and water and food and healthy kids and happy kids. You’re not going to meet a person on earth who doesn’t want this.”
Rosenthal said Copenhagen seems to be doing everything right. He visited the city for this season of his Emmy-nominated Netflix travel and food series, Somebody Feed Phil.
“Copenhagen seems like a utopian society to me,” the Everybody Loves Raymond creator said. “Half your money goes to taxes and that seems severe, but there’s no great disparity between rich and poor. There’s a real middle class. Are people happy that way? Well, it sure looks that way, because they have the cleanest air, food and water that I have ever seen on the planet so far. Everyone rides a bike. Everyone is outside. Everyone is happy. They get free health care. They get free education for college. It seems ideal.”
Entertainment journalist and former Dancing With the Stars co-host Samantha Harris is a breast cancer survivor and an American Cancer Society ambassador. She is also the author of the upcoming book, Your Healthiest Healthy. “The subtitle kind of tells you a little bit more, which is Eight Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life,” she told THR. “I took my experiences and tried to take the lemon that I was dealt with cancer and really tried to make lemonade out of it by finding the healthiest version of myself, because at 40, when I was diagnosed, I was more fit and healthier than I had ever been, or so I thought. I was blindsided.”
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