CING stands for The Creative Industries Networking Group – and boasts some of the most connected people on social media i.e. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. So when they invited me to join their panel of speakers to share how Sweet Mandarin uses social media, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t turn down. I tweet my +7,000 followers, Facebook my +2,000 fans, write blogs to my 10,000 website visitors per month and create YouTube videos for over 10,000 viewers. So the CING network is something that excites me, and to be invited to speak is a great honour. Meeting the other speakers and listening to audience commentary in real life as well as on live tweet made the talk electrifying. Just a huge thanks to the CING team – Phil and Benny for organising – and their members for making me feel so welcome. All CING members are most welcome at Sweet Mandarin. Follow us on Twitter (@sweetmandarin).

Here is a youtube video giving a snapshot of the talk I gave at CING (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJlTukvXLlk).

Thank God for Peter Kay. I love the Bolton born comic and man-of-a-thousand-faces who loves Chinese food.
Here’s my favourite joke (thanks Peter) ….. So I went to the Chinese restaurant and this duck came up to me with a red rose and says “Your eyes sparkle like diamonds”. I said, “Waiter, I asked for a-ROMATIC duck”.

Finally, Peter has returned to us in Manchester with his tour which has people in stitches as he turns the most trivial of daily nuisances in the world of the working class family, and turns them into comedy gold. Without this man, life would, quite simply, be a bit boring.

I’ll feed Peter and I’ll feed all you lovely people who are going to see Peter Kay’s show at the MEN. We are next door to the Crowne Plaza Hotel which is a short 5-10 minute walk to the MEN Arena. Approximately 40 furry footsteps and you are door to door. Click HERE for the AA Routeplanner and Map.

OK, and I’ll get you revved up with that uber-annoying (because once heard you can’t get it out of your head) ‘Is This The Way To Amarillo’ song that Peter forced upon us, Peter Kay at his exasperated best.

Breathe. Breathe again. I’ve got some news my friends. I’m going to be starring on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 on 12th – 17th 12.30pm – 1.30pm. This is like a dream come true for me. Thank you God. You’ve already given me an amazing blessing when Sweet Mandarin received the most prestigious accolade, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award. Deep breath. My heart is racing because I love Iron Chef. I’ve watched all the American versions and am in love with Chef Morimoto and Bobby Flay. I can’t wait to get to Kitchen Stadium – this is an experience of a lifetime.

I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef and will dedicate my dishes to Manchester, my followers on Twitter and to all my clients at Sweet Mandarin. I’m gonna tweet throughout the cook off so follow me for more of the action http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin.

PRESS RELEASE: 1st December 2010
Lisa Tse to star on Iron Chef UK

Lisa Tse, CEO and head chef of the award winning Sweet Mandarin is to star on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 in December. Lisa has already received one of the most prestigious accolades, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award and her cookery school is now fully booked for months. This latest challenge will see Lisa battle against the Iron Chefs in a specially created Kitchen Stadium.

Iron Chef originated from Japan and its American version has received cult status as well as receiving the blessing of Michelle Obama who invited Iron Chef to the White House. In each episode, a new challenger chef battles one of the resident ‘Iron Chefs’ in a one-hour cooking competition based on a theme ingredient. In April/May, the UK will witness Iron Chef which is like no other cooking show before it. It combines haute cuisine, sports broadcasting and martial arts. It is crazy, zany and addictive.

Chef Lisa said “I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef. My three passions in life are cooking, people and business, and Iron Chef ignites all three. For everyone in Manchester, for my Twitter friends and my customers at Sweet Mandarin, I will rise to this challenge and try my best. I’ve been told that when the secret ingredient is revealed, we are free to choose what to cook and have an hour to produce something amazing. The Japanese call it omikase. I call it omigod — cooking without a net!”

For more of the action follow Lisa on Twitter http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin as she proposes to tweet throughout her cook-off.

About Chef Lisa Tse

Lisa is the CEO and brainchild behind Sweet Mandarin, an award winning Chinese restaurant, cookery school and corporate team building events organizer in Manchester, which she set up with her two sisters in 2004. Lisa won the prestigious award of Best Local Chinese Restaurant 2009/10 on the F Word and Gordon Ramsay was highly impressed with Lisa’s cooking. Sweet Mandarin has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Times, on BBC Newsnight and on the front cover of the Shanghai Daily. Lisa is the third generation of women in her family in the restaurant business and their story, self titled Sweet Mandarin was published by Random House in 33 countries and covered in a documentary by the BBC and the Chinese Channel. In 2010, Amoy chose Lisa as their chef of the year to celebrate Chinese New Year. Lisa has been cooking from the age of 11 years old and now cooks at Sweet Mandarin and for celebrities.

Go-Social Bootcamp launches with Manchester social event at Sweet Mandarin.

CEO of Sweet Mandarin, Lisa Tse has been invited by the prestigious Go-Social Conference to speak about her expertise in social media marketing – namely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Youtube.  The audience which will be drawn from as far a field as Scotland, London and Manchester will be listening to Lisa talk about how her love of food, people and business led her to social media networks. Lisa now has over 7,000 Twitter followers, over 1, 100 Facebook Friends liking her page and her Youtube Channel has had over 30,000 hits.

Tweet Mandarin – A Wok N Roll Story

The phenomenon of @sweetmandarin -  a Chinese restaurant using social media to take bookings, orders and organise Tweet ups has caught the eye of the Times newspaper (click here),  Big Hospitality (click here) and the BBC (click here). Oh and don’t forget Gordon Ramsay – Chef Lisa and he had a good ole banter about Twitter whilst she cooked her way to success, winning the title Best Chinese Restaurant in the whole of the UK for her 70 seater restaurant and cookery school, Sweet Mandarin.

The organiser, Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp followed Lisa on Twitter and was so impressed with her use of Twitter that he came up to Manchester to meet Lisa, and invited her to speak on the platform. The co-speakers at this event are heavy weights in the world of social media such as Olgilvy PR, Staniforth PR, Huggies and Brother.  Lisa representing Sweet Mandarin is the only restaurant business to speak. Lisa said “I am extremely honoured to be asked to speak and I would be happy to share with the audience about my journey into social media,  how much fun it is to express oneself in 140 characters and how it has helped Sweet Mandarin grow from a small orange to a blossoming tree of fruitful opportunities”.

About Go-Social
Go-Social has been organised by Intelligise in association with The Drum and Marketing Industry Network.

  The keyman is Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp, a popular social media blogger at The Drum, who has promised that Go-Social would “cut through all of the false mystique and guru talk that hides the real practical applications of social media in marketing”.

In a lively format, five influential companies give snappy 30 minute presentations about social media and its potential.

 The decision to hold the inaugural event in Manchester was momentus especially since the organisers are from Scotland. The reason for this is that 7 percent of UK Twitter users live or work in the greatest city in the world, Manchester (of course :0).

 And Lisa’s tweets are resoundingly sweet. Follow Lisa here

If you are attending the #Gosocialuk event on Thursday 25th November 2010, be sure to visit @sweetmandarin for lunch or dinner. Book a table here.

Book A Table: here

Buy Gift Vouchers: here

Buy Cookery School Voucher: here

Facebook – Like Our Page: here

Have you ever wondered who is that person you’ve been tweeting to morning, noon and night? Or perhaps you are a Flickr? Well you are invited to the Tweet up/Flickr up and you’re gonna meet your tweeters and flickrs from the Manchester area at Sweet Mandarin.  I have a confession to make. I aka (@sweetmandarin follow me please click here and Flickr member click here to friend me) am a ”certified twitterholic” and I cook n tweet, serve n tweet and can’t wait to meet you in person. I’ve already got butterflies as I’m preparing the dim sum extravaganza for the Tweet up / Flickr up.  It is customary for the Chinese to offer small gifts, so please enjoy our complimentary dim sum (literally translated means from the heart). My dream is to meet all the tweeters and flickrers in the Manchester area.

Twitter is such an amazing discovery. Not only is it fun, but its a way to help our fellow Mancunians. Through tweets with fellow tweeters, I know Manchester folk are suffering with the downturn. Everyone can do their bit and we’re going to hold these events for free.  To my Manchester friends - its the Year of the Ox -  Be strong. Turning up is half the battle and I know that networking helps boost the spirits, if not create an opportunity. Follow us @sweetmandarin.

HOW TO GET A TICKET

1. Email lisa@sweetmandarin.com with your full name, mobile number and your Twitter/Flickr username.

2. A confirmation secret code will be sent to you by email together with the date and time and venue. (this is to prevent gate crashers)

3. Print it off and bring with you. Your invitation is a personal inviation and cannot be transferred to another person.

4. Tickets are limited. Once they are gone, they are gone.

5. The cost is free. Dim sum will be served on the house. There will be a cash bar for your refreshments.

Twitterers (T) (photo 1) Meet the Flickrs (F) (photo 2) could be come Jazz Hands Extravaganza (photo 3)

I Tweet (a lot), I Flickr (quite a lot), I Eat (all the time). I host Tweet Up meetings for Twitterers and Flickr Up meetings for Flickr, so I’ve decide to link up these two groups. It could be a smash hit with splattering of photographic evidence (check out the third photo with the aptly named Jazz hands effect lol). Or it could be a bit like the first school disco where each group cliches to their own – the Ts verses the Fs. Its worth the experiment. So here is its my friends, I’m hosting the first ever Twitter Meets the Flickr Tweet Up @sweetmandarin.

Date: Sunday 18th July
Time: 5-8pm
Cost: Free
Bring: Blackberry/Phone/Iphone/Camera/Your own sweet self
RSVP: lisa@sweetmandarin.com or DM me on Twitter @sweetmandarin (oh and please follow me)
Food: I’ll sort out the dim sum
Drinks: Pay as you go
Reminder: There is a Threewitter party beforehand from 1-5pm at Madlabs. Have your cake and eat it! Here’s the Threewitter link http://threewitter.eventbrite.com/

#987 Sweet Nothing – High Energy Students

I must have been very wicked in a former life, because I am a glutton for punishment. Straight after an intense Friday night service, I’ve scheduled a cookery school session for Saturday morning. And straight after an even more intense Saturday night service, I’ve scheduled a cookery school session for Sunday morning. Often, its a battle against the clock. Wake up. Get washed. Drive – on road, avoid pedestrian. Open up just before the queue forms and psche myself up to teach.

I teach every weekend at the Sweet Mandarin Cookery School. I love meeting the students and it is their high energy which keeps me going, pumps me alive and they make me forget about that lie-in and trashy daytime tv. I teach three courses – beginners Chinese cookery, intermediate Chinese cookery and dim sum masterclasses. Courses are booked up till August (give or take one or two slots) and although my body is physically knackered, I’m up fighting, ready to teach and love bouncing off the energy in the class. If you want to find out more about Sweet Mandarin’s cookery school, click here

#1000 Sweet Nothing – The Last Ticket of the Night!

My job is the head chef at Sweet Mandarin. That means, I generally have to cook. And cook. And cook. Thank God I love cooking. Since we’ve opened Sweet Mandarin the tickets have flown in as soon as the doors open until the doors close. After a while, its dizzying – tickets just whizz in left, right and centre – soups, starters, second courses, mains, desserts – salt and pepper ribs dot the tickets, nearly every ticket orders our house special, the Mabel’s Claypot Chicken and don’t forget those sweet, light, lick-your-lips banana fritters drizzled with sweet syrup. Luckily, I’m at my best when the pressure is on and I suppose being a woman who can multi-task is awfully helpful. Phew! Control and execution are key to feeding the nation our delicious food and keeping clients happy. Having slaved away in front of rocket fuelled bunsen burners that heat to 750-950 degrees Celsius for hours my #1000 Sweet Nothing is cooking the last ticket of the night. I love you, my dear clients, but when the jobs done, I’m gonna love you and leave you.

To book a table click here