Being a great baker and pastry chef requires the upmost open mind. I try every dessert that comes my way!
— Christina Tosi
I love the warmth of apple pie.
If you're coming to dinner at our house, you know you're gonna be well-fed.
I like to move around a lot - I'm a big runner, and I often get on a bike and ride from meeting to meeting.
Out of culinary school, I worked as a pastry cook in amazing restaurants for years. I ended up leaving the pastry cook scene because, though I loved the industry, the restaurants and the chefs I worked for so much, I had to be honest with myself. I was never going to be them.
I'm not a normal person with normal tastebuds, so I'll save you all from cringing/dissing on my late night flavour pairings, but I will say when I was a kid, with little to no access to anything but my mother's pantry, I'd dip everything in ranch dressing, Miracle Whip, katsup, barbecue sauce, honey, mustard, etc.
When I opened Milk Bar in November 2008, I was quite adamant about making sure the bakery was an honest reflection of life and food through my eyes. I had no intention beyond that.
There are other things that set me off a lot more than what it's like to be a woman in the kitchen.
I have worked my way up in the food industry being strong and steady about who I am as a person, first and foremost, as a chef and professional, and certainly as a woman.
My curiosity and love for food started at an early age. My mother was a working mom, so I learned to whip up sweet and savory food using everyday pantry and grocery store ingredients that required little supervision.
I have this nook at Milk Bar that's my office, and my desk was just full of every box of Kellogg's cereal, and at different times during the day, I would open up a box, eat a bowl of cereal, and I live in a world of Post-it notes, so I would leave tasting notes on all the cereal.
When I'm menu-developing at Milk Bar, I'll go for weeks at a time where all I'm doing is testing out layer cakes or different cookies and testing out changes.
I used to exist on just two or three hours of sleep, no problem, like sleep wasn't even a thought. Sleep was just like a chore that you had to do late at night.
For me, I love Portland. I love the food scene, I love the vibe, the environment.
I like to be in over my head always, at all times.
Any team member, any community member wants and needs to know they count, that they're welcome, and that they're important.
Eating together was a big part of my upbringing and a tradition we keep daily amongst the amazing team at Milk Bar.
I love roasted pecans. I'll make a sort of granola with the roasted pecans, turn that into a super nutty pie crust, and top that with apple-syrup pudding and top that with cooked custard and maple syrup.
There's something about fall that very much translates into those nurturing, nostalgic food flavors. It's the season where you can really make the marriage of fresh produce with spices and aromatics.
My family, as you can probably guess, was more into Christmas cookies and not so much the fruitcake.
Whether I'm making a gluten-free cookie or a lactose-free milkshake, my end goal is always to make it so awesome, clever, and creative that you'll want to indulge whether you have a sensitivity, dietary nuance, or don't.
When you taste something delicious, ask for the recipe! Or offer to trade a recipe!
I think my biggest heartbreak was when I just couldn't get an American cheese cake/pie with a saltine cracker crust and green tomato sorbet to work out in my favor.
I approach life with a 'jump' sort of mentality, although I wasn't raised to take crazy risks. I was raised to be a crazy hard worker. It seems to be a pretty good match of qualities.
I worked in a bunch of really tough kitchens, but when I got yelled at and screamed at, it wasn't really for being a woman. It was just for making a bonehead mistake.
The matriarchs of my family loved to bake, and the apple didn't fall far from the tree. Baking became something I did every day; it became a time where my creative and nurturing side took stage.
I really didn't have a big relationship with Vegas until I was in my 20s, and now I probably come out four or five times a year. I love it.
There are so many messages out there about what you should be eating and drinking and what you should be putting in your body at the beginning of the day. It's confusing, and people get very overwhelmed. Really, one of the greatest options is just a bowl of cereal and milk.
I think a lot of people think being in the kitchen is being really serious, and especially that baking is very serious, very straitlaced. For me, it's about figuring out your voice, finding your personality, and getting in the kitchen to explore.
Milk Bar is a quirky American bakery, where the original inspiration is the humble beginnings of American-style baked goods and loving trips to Dairy Queen.
I chose a career in the kitchen because the thought of sitting and doing the same thing every day and being stationary was not something that I could get my head around.
Baking's meant to be done at home. It's meant to be a good time. It's not about, like, hoarding secrets. It's about sharing them.
Know who you are and stay true to it. Have a point of view, keep your head down when noise tries to drown out your inner voice, and whatever you do, keep pushing.
No matter how bad your day is, when you start talking about cookies or cakes or pies, or you bring someone cookies, there's just not bad news. The worst news is, 'Hey, there's sugar in that.'
People underestimate the power of the root vegetable.
Fruitcakes have a bad rap.
I love a good challenge of looking with new eyes at a tried and true recipe in my recipe Rolodex.
As a chef, I got into this because I love the creative energy and I love the science, but I also love to feed people and make them happy.
I'm a fan of the hand-me-down recipes - friends, family, bake sales, community cookbooks - those are the recipes that have withstood the test of time and fed many hungry fans.
I was an infamously picky eater as a child but also had an infamous sweet tooth. All I wanted was dessert for every meal of the day.
I like trying to keep as honest and straightforward of a point of view in our kitchen as possible.
I guess technically I am a female chef, but I don't really think of myself as such.
I was always taught to be myself, be honest, and be true to my roots.
The thing I love about Vegas is there's something for any type of mood you're in and something for any kind of adventure you seek out.
I love the challenge of thinking about how we might approach a bowl of cereal. People are getting so involved in foodie culture and becoming more educated about their food, and yet it can be really simple to do something that's so good for you.
Baking without gluten is an awesome challenge in terms of the opportunity to learn so much more about what you can create.
There's nothing worse than not being excited about a trip.
I love cookbooks. I certainly have my fair share at home, but I'm a really funny cookbook person: I don't really ever cook out of cookbooks. I like cookbooks for the commentary or the pictures or the history.
I feel like a lot of the pastry chefs and chefs I worked for and worked under were always really, really big on the philosophy of 'everyone's in it together in the food world.'
I can't think of a community that couldn't benefit from communal thinking.
