Ming Tsai Pulled an Office Prank on John Krasinski

Chef Ming Tsai and actor John Krasinski appeared at the Family Reach’s Cooking Live event in New York on Tuesday, November 2. Photo by Cindy Ord / Getty Images for Family Reach Foundation

After pranking Dwight Schrute for all of those years on The Office, John Krasinski finally got a taste of his own medicine at a fundraiser on Tuesday night.

Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt were in New York for the Cooking Live charity event to raise money for Family Reach, a foundation that provides financial help for families of children with cancer. Serving as celebrity sous-chefs for culinary stars Ming Tsai and Masaharu Morimoto, the couple helped create five-course meals in front of a crowd at the Ritz Carlton.

Tsai decided to have a little fun with Krasinski before the festivities kicked off, so he hid the Newton native’s knife in a block of Jell-O, similar to a prank his character Jim Halpert would pull on The Office.

“He laughed when he got the Jell-O knife and he just rolled with it,” Tsai told Boston magazine.

While Blunt got a chance to work with an Iron Chef in Morimoto, her husband teamed up with Tsai to cook a lobster stroganoff dish. The decadent meal was an homage to Krasinski’s mother, who used to make a beef version for the actor and his siblings.

PHOTO BY CINDY ORD / GETTY IMAGES FOR FAMILY REACH FOUNDATION

Tsai admitted that Blunt was the better cook between the two stars, although Krasinski wasn’t that bad in the kitchen.

“Emily was much better with a knife,” Tsai said. “John and I were quite please with the stroganoff we created… it was great to be able to dedicate a dish to his mom, who obviously did a hell of a job with her son. So he’s a pretty good cook.”

The Boston chef, who is the president of the charity’s advisory board, got in contact with Krasinski after meeting his brother Paul at Tsai’s restaurant Blue Dragon.

As avid foodies, the couple couldn’t resist helping out, especially since it was for a good cause.

“John and Emily were not only the nicest human beings, they were both really inspired by what we do with Family Reach,” Tsai said. “And they’re funny. I’m not going to say John’s like Jim, but Jim was a very sarcastic guy on The Office. John was hilarious.”

Since Cooking Live started over four years ago, Tsai said that a number of celebrities have participated in the event including former Celtics star Paul Pierce as well as actor Matt Damon.

As for how Krasinski’s skills stacked up against past participants, Tsai said that he was a better cook than Damon.

“I think he was better than Matt Damon, I’ll say that,” he said. “I didn’t say better person or actor, just a better cook, for the record. Don’t get Matt mad at me because he’s one of our ambassadors too.”

Learn more about Family Reach at familyreach.org or on the foundation’s app.