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For some people, the best part about eating a bowl of cereal is the sweet-flavored milk left at the bottom. Chef Christina Tosi recognized the appeal of that milk - and its potential to be incorporated into sweet treats - and used it as the launching pad of a thriving dessert empire.
As founder and owner of Milk Bar, sister bakery to David Chang's Momofuku restaurant group, Chef Tosi, 37, has developed a cult following thanks to classic treats with a twist, including "naked" birthday cake, which riffs on Funfetti cake mix, and crack pie, a salty-sweet combination of brown sugar filling and crispy cookie crust.
Ten years after opening her first Milk Bar, the two-time James Beard Award winner continues to expand her empire. With nine locations in New York and additional ones in Washington, D.C.; Las Vegas; Toronto; and Los Angeles, Chef Tosi now plans to open even more outposts across the country and to increase both her e-commerce operations and product lines. She also appears as a judge on the reality TV show "Master Chef."
For cooks who want to recreate Chef Tosi's delicacies in their own kitchens, her third cookbook, "All About Cake," will be released Oct. 23. It features more than 100 recipes, including step-by-step instructions on how to make her famous cake truffles, naked layer cakes, Bundt cakes, cupcakes, sheet cakes, pound cakes and more.
Surprisingly, despite her love of baking, Chef Tosi wasn't always a huge cake fan.
"Cake is the thing you're raised as a child in America to be the most exciting, celebratory dessert you can have, and it was just okay," she explains on "Chef's Table: Pastry," the hit Netflix documentary series. "It's spongy, there's not that much flavor, it's usually dry and there's not a lot of texture. Just a world of missed opportunities."
So, she began experimenting with ingredients and methods and created her famous naked cake. Made with unique fillings and flavors, the modern cake forgoes the frosting, allowing the beautiful layers to be the center of attention.
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Cakes aren't the only dessert that Chef Tosi has redefined. She has also found success blending everyday ingredients like pretzels, ground coffee and potato chips with basics such as flour, sugar, salt and eggs.
"I can be a bit of a snob when it comes to butter," Chef Tosi told ThisIsStory.com. "High-quality, unsalted, European-style butter. While average grocery store butter will do fine, we invest in the best of the best because it makes every recipe taste like the deepest, most delicious version of itself."
Baking has always been an important part of Chef Tosi's life. Growing up primarily in Springfield, Virginia, she loved working beside her mother and grandmother in the kitchen. While getting a degree in applied math and Italian at James Madison University, Chef Tosi told Refinery 29 that, upon finishing her classes each day, she would go home and bake.
After graduation, she moved to New York to study pastry at the French Culinary Institute. Then, after working at a few fine-dining restaurants, Chang asked her to join his growing company in a business capacity.
"I'd run operations at Momofuku and then go home and bake at night and bring all of my baked goods in the next day to work," Tosi told Inc. magazine. "David knew I wanted to open a bakery, and one day, the tenant next to one of his restaurants was leaving, and he said, 'This is your love. I'll help you get the space. Just go and do it.'"
When Chef Tosi opened her first Milk Bar in 2008, she was still baking creative desserts for Momofuku restaurants.
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"I was raised to follow the rules, but the one thing I've loved about baking was always breaking the rules," Chef Tosi told FirstWeFeast.com. "In high school, I'd make Rice Krispies treats with everything but Rice Krispies. I'd melt butter and marshmallows and choose my cereal. Lucky Charms was my favorite."
Chef Tosi's adventurous culinary spirit has served her well. Among her most popular creations are cereal milk ice cream; compost cookies, loaded with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, old fashioned oats, potato chips and pretzels; and birthday cake truffles, made from leftover scraps of cake.
As Milk Bar celebrates its 10th anniversary this November, Chef Tosi is also celebrating two years of marriage to restaurateur Will Guidara.
"When you come to our home, you know you'll be well-fed," she told the NY Post. O
