Michael Tsang

The Place Chinatown is the biographical ground for the work: Michael Tsang and Jason Liu grew up there, and that neighborhood sits behind the opening of Soft Swerve in New York City in 2016. The co-founder title matters here less as a status marker than as proof of where the ice cream program is anchored. The geography stays tight. Chinatown names the background; New York City names the public site of the work. Soft Swerve is where Asian-inspired soft serve became the center of the menu, and where Tsang’s name enters the record through a specific venue and date.

The Method Asian-inspired soft serve ice cream is the craft language here. It is a focused medium, built around soft serve as form and ice cream as material, with flavor direction drawn from Asian inspiration rather than a broad dessert list. Ube carries the clearest read on the work. The ube soft serve is the venue’s most popular flavor, which makes it the strongest single reference point for understanding the line Tsang and Liu established at Soft Swerve. The named dishes show the method in direct terms. The Woodside sundae uses ube ice cream with toasted coconut on top and bottom, plus a ring of mochi. The structure is simple but specific: one base flavor, one repeated texture, one shaped element.

The Range The range is narrow by design, and that narrowness is part of the craft. Ube soft serve gives the clearest expression of the program, while the Woodside sundae extends the same ingredient into a more layered build. Placement does the work in the sundae. Toasted coconut is set both on top and bottom, and mochi is formed into a ring. Those choices define the dish’s shape without pushing beyond the ingredients already named. Since 2016, Tsang’s co-founding role at Soft Swerve has been tied to a small set of recognisable forms: Asian-inspired soft serve ice cream, ube as the most popular flavor, and the Woodside sundae built from ube, toasted coconut, and mochi.

Signature

Michael's signature dishes include ube soft serve and Woodside sundae.