Christina Tosi Biography Essay

Christina Tosi, who is the founder and owner of Milk Bar, has taken the food industry by storm with her innovative desserts and new twist on designing cakes. The culinary trendsetter is the author of two cookbooks, Momofuku Milk Bar and Milk Bar Life. Tosi’s Momofuku Milk Bar showcases the recipes for the most popular items from the milk bar kitchen, while Milk Bar Life highlights easy to make recipes for the everyday home cook. Along with being an author, Tosi is a two time award winning James Beard recipient and a Crain’s New York 40 under 40 honoree. Not only is Christina Tosi an extremely accomplished pastry chef, she also “serves on the board of directors for Hot Bread Kitchen and Cookies for Kids Cancer and is an advisor and investor

Although Tosi is now well known within the industry, when she was in college at the University of Virginia, she intended to become an electrical engineer. After a year, Tosi transferred to James Madison University and studied a semester in Florence, Italy to study Mathematics and Italian. After graduating with a degree in Mathematics, Christina Tosi moved to New York City because she, “really felt drawn to New York” (Witchel, 1). In New York City, Tosi studied at the French Culinary Institute for Baking and Pastry during the day and at night, worked at the Aquagrill as a hostess and then eventually, as a maitre d’hotel. After graduation, Tosi never rested and began to, “help people [she] knew who were food stylist or caterers” (Witchel, 1). While Tosi began to explore the possibilities within the food industry, she was hired by David Chang, the creator of the Momofuku group, as an office assistant with no specific description other than, “et cetera” (Witchel, 1). Since Tosi was stuck doing office work for Chang, she began to bake at her house where she would constantly supply her coworkers with unique baked goods with combinations, such as potato chips and peanut butter, that had people dumbfounded by the simplistic, yet complex