Momofuku Milk Bar: The Mouthwatering Manual

By Reena Jana
October 27, 2011

Christina Tosi, the 29-year-old chef and owner of Momofuku Milk Bar, a spot Bon Apetit has called "one of the most exciting bakeries in the country," began her baking career by whipping up pies and cakes in her spare time as a college student.

Christina Tosi

Momofuku Milk Bar chef and cookbook author Christina Tosi (photo by Gabrielle Stabile)

Turns out off-duty projects have often led to her biggest career breakthroughs. When she was attending the French Culinary Institute in New York after college, she offered to volunteer at legendary Manhattan restaurant wd-50, an establishment helmed by superstar chief Wylie Dufresne, in her free hours from school. Dufresne later helped her get a gig with one of his friends, David Chang, the chef/owner of Momofuku, one of New York's hippest restaurants. Chang didn't have a glamorous chef opening for the budding baker; instead, he hired Tosi to work on food-service safety planning.

In her free time, Tosi began baking. She stirred salty pretzels, coffee grounds, and potato chips into chocolate chip cookie dough; she took Proustian memories from her childhood—like the joy of drinking sweetened milk at the bottom of a cereal bowl after eating sugar-dusted cornflakes—and turned them into inventive desserts such as Cereal Milk Ice Cream, a dish that is exactly what it sounds like.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Tosi shared her kitchen experiments with Chang, his staff and the foodies that flocked to his critically acclaimed mini-restaurant empire in New York. Ultimately, in 2008, with Chang's support, she opened Momofuku Milk Bar, a growing chainlet of shops that are gaining a following addicted to her Crack Pie. (It's as irresistible as it sounds—a pastry shell filled with a sugar-butter mix.)

And now Tosi is the author of a new book, Momofuku Milk Bar, just out from Clarkson Potter. It's the follow-up to Chang's New York Times bestselling cookbook, Momofuku. In it are Tosi's signature sweets—yes, the Compost Cookie (the one with potato chips, coffee grounds, and pretzels)—as well as her savory treats, such as "volcanoes" (dough balls that encase fillings such as scalloped potatoes and caramelized onions) and croissants with blue cheese and butter made with kimchi (a Korean condiment made with fermented vegetables).

left: the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook

Although she's busier than ever (she also just opened a new branch of Momofuku Milk Bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side), Tosi took the time to share her favorite sweet ingredients for both eating and living with us.

The Inside Source: Would you advise to people who love to cook to experiment once in a while by mixing sweet and savory, or applying one unusual taste to a favorite dish?

Christina Tosi: Yes! Salty and sweet are always a great balance in any savory dish or dessert. It's all about cooking in balance with a sense of humor, knowing what you like, taking risks, not being afraid to spit something out (ew!) if it's a failure, but being brave enough to know the next great cookie, cake or pie, could be the next concoction out of your oven!

The Inside Source: When you were coming up with the original recipes for the Milk Bar food items, did you ever have a cookbook in mind? Or was it fully improvisational?

Christina Tosi: It was fully improvisational, or rather, just tracing the footsteps of my love affair with dessert—from my favorite concoctions as a kid, to my favorite things to bake as a teenager, to failed family meals as a pastry cook in NYC.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Momofuku Milk Bar cereal milk

The Inside Source: What types of foods do you enjoy eating at home and making for friends?

Christina Tosi: I love to make cooking and baking a challenge at home, only using ingredients and see how far I can get, or not going to the grocery at all and seeing what I can make with some spare veggies, some eggs and whatever is hiding in my pantry! Limitations always breed the most creativity for me!

The Inside Source: What is the must-have baking equipment that every baker should have in his/her kitchen?

Christina Tosi: Quality unsalted butter is a must. Having a stand mixer is key—Breville makes a great one. And I find it's necessary to have an oven thermometer. Most people think they're baking a cake or cookies at 350 degrees, but most ovens are totally off and the baked goods suffer as a result.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Momufuku Milk Bar savory treats

The Inside Source: What are your favorite ingredients to cook with?

Christina Tosi: Right now, I'm really enjoying cooking with cinnamon sugar, cheese, brown butter, and mushrooms. My favorite ingredients of all time are pretty basic: sugar and salt. And of course, butter!

The Inside Source: You've come up with some of your scrumptious and unusual treats by experimenting with flavors that might seem to mix tastes like an artist mixes media. What inspires you?

Christina Tosi: I love all things cultural—fashion, art, music, cinema, writing... I'm absolutely inspired by creative people in any and every other world outside of mine.

(images courtesy of Momofuku Milk Bar)

Christina Tosi's favorite items for baking and cooking are available on eBay. Use them to test drive some of the recipes in her new cookbook.

Breville Stand Mixer

(buy it now price, $299.99)

A standing mixer makes it easy to blend ingredients for pie crusts and fillings, cookies and other treats. Tosi recommends this one from Breville.
Oven Thermometer

(buy it now price, $9.99)

Tosi recommends using an oven thermometer to guarantee your cookies and other treats are baking at the correct temperature.
Valrhona Cocoa Powder

(buy it now price, $32.99)

When Tosi cooks up luscious chocolate-y treats such as her brownie pie or a creamy fudge sauce, she likes to use fine cocoa powder, ideally, by Valrhona.
Kosher Salt

(buy it now price, $19.95)

It's a very basic ingredient, but one of Tosi's favorites. Kosher salt appears in almost every single one of her recipes, from cookies and pies to savory dishes.
Red Pepper for Kimchi

(buy it now price, $49.99)

Tosi is unafraid to experiment with strong and unusual flavor combinations. One of her signature creations is a croissant made with blue cheese and butter infused with the flavor of kimchi, a fermented vegetable condiment that's popular in Korea. Kimchi is prepared with a red pepper mix such as this one.
Ground Cinnamon

(buy it now price, $10.99)

Tosi tells us one of her current favorite ingredients is cinnamon sugar.