Christina Tosi

Be My Guest with Ina Garten

Ina Garten hosts pastry chef Christina Tosi at her Nashville barn to cook and share stories about career pivots, baking innovation, and life transitions. They prepare

Key takeaways

• Christina Tosi transitioned from studying mathematics and electrical engineering at James Madison University to attending culinary school after realizing she wanted a hands-on career making cookies.
• Ina Garten credits Tosi with saving her Boston cream pie recipe by suggesting a Grand Marnier and orange sugar syrup soak to fix the dry cake base.

Main topics

• Career pivots & passion discovery
• Milk Bar dessert innovation

Notable quotes

"If it's not a heck yes, it's a heck no."

Conclusion

The episode offers both practical baking wisdom and inspiring career advice,

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Today is going to be so much fun. My friend Christina Tosi, who started Milk Bar, is coming for the day. She's just fantastic. Christina is the incredibly creative, award-winning pastry chef and founder of the fabulous Milk Bar Dessert Empire. I happen to know she loves to snack, so I'm welcoming her with smoked salmon tartines. She's sharing incredible stories from her life and her amazing career and grilling me about... Dirty dessert secrets? I am a texture hound. I love textures so important in food. Then she's revealing her secrets for assembling her iconic layered birthday cake. Speaker 2 (0:43) I just love Christina Tosi. And one thing I know about her is she's a snacker. So I'm going to make smoked salmon tartines so she can kind of eat them during the day. And I'm going to make a gravlax sauce to put on top of it. So gravlax sauce is like a mustard sauce. I'm going to start with two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, one tablespoon of honey mustard. You can just find it in the grocery store. One teaspoon of coarse grain mustard, and then half a teaspoon of dried mustard. The dry mustard gives it a little heat, like intensity, which is really good. Next is sugar. One and a half tablespoons of sugar. Two and a half tablespoons of good white wine vinegar. Two and a half tablespoons of good olive oil. And then one and a half tablespoons of some kind of neutral oil. I'm using grapeseed oil, but you can use canola oil. This adds the oil without that much olive oil flavor. Speaker 2 (1:33) That's everything. I'm just going to give it a whisk. I mean, this is a great sauce, and all it is is like a list of ingredients from the pantry. Christina and I have known each other for so long. We did things together on the Today Show. I just love spending time with her. Okay, two more things. Two tablespoons of chopped dill, minced dill, and a little salt. Just mix that all together. Speaker 1 (1:56) That's good. Speaker 2 (1:57) Just gonna put it in a little pitcher Okay, and now I'm gonna build the tartines. So first thing is Avocado about a half an avocado put it right on the toasted bread Slice slice like that a little bit of lemon juice to make sure the avocado doesn't turn brown One slice of smoked salmon. Okay, next is a little gravlax sauce. Just kind of drizzle it on. A little salt and pepper, because of course everything needs salt and pepper. I'm going to put a little red onion on it, very thinly sliced, and some fresh dill. Now I'm going to make three more. And while I do that, let me tell you about Christina. Christina Tosi is an award-winning chef, author, entrepreneur, and founder of the hugely successful bakery chain Milk Bar. Born in Ohio, Christina studied engineering at University of Virginia, then transferred to James Madison University, graduating in mathematics and Italian in just three years. After college, she followed her passion and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, immersing herself in the New York restaurant scene and working as a pastry chef in amazing restaurants, including Mama Fuku with David Chang. Two years later, in 2008, she opened Milk Bar's doors, changing the face of baking with her innovative cult creations like cereal and milk ice cream, compost cookies, and layered cakes. Christina has won many awards, including two James Beards, written best-selling books, and created Bake Club, the successful online baking community where thousands of members share recipes across the globe. She hosts the TV series Bake Squad and is a regular judge on MasterChef. Christina lives in Nashville with her husband and two children. There is no doubt that Christina's made the world a sweeter place. Speaker 2 (3:52) I told you she was fantastic. Okay, I'm going to finish up the tartines. I'm just going to put them all on a platter. Speaker 1 (4:13) Finally on your turf come I've got I've got treats for Speaker 2 (4:17) us. It's smoked salmon with gravlax sauce and avocado So I haven't seen I think the first time I saw you was at milk bar If one of the first milk bars right now, Speaker 1 (4:27) I was thinking on the way over here are are like meet cute origin story How did you see it? Well, our cookbook publisher was trying to convince me to write a cookbook with them. This is 2008. Speaker 2 (4:41) Yeah, yeah. Eons Speaker 1 (4:42) ago. Speaker 2 (4:42) You just started Milk Bar, right? I had Speaker 1 (4:44) just started Milk Bar. They were trying to convince me to write a cookbook. I wasn't sure. And they said, well, we're just going to pop in for a coffee. And they popped in for a coffee with Speaker 2 (4:53) you in tow. Needless to say, the rest is Speaker 1 (4:56) history. I mean, I wrote the book. I feel like this is happiness and virtuosity for me. It's just Speaker 2 (5:03) simple. I thought I was inviting you to come from New York. You came from Nashville. You moved. We moved to Nashville. When Speaker 1 (5:09) did Speaker 2 (5:09) you move? About a year ago. I Speaker 1 (5:11) found myself a New York City gal, two kids, a giant dog named Butter, and Will and I looked at each other and we were like, this does not work right now. So you moved to Nashville, convinced Speaker 2 (5:22) mom and sister. I love that. You moved your mother and your sister and everybody. The entire family moved. And why Nashville? Speaker 1 (5:29) I don't know. We just all decided we wanted to take a chance on life together. I mean, what are we living for if not, right? Speaker 2 (5:37) It's really easy to forget about having a personal life. And I think that's what Nashville is for you, right? Isn't Speaker 1 (5:43) it? Speaker 2 (5:43) That actually Speaker 1 (5:43) is a really good Speaker 2 (5:44) point. Speaker 1 (5:45) Not the worst thing I've ever had, right? It's so delightful. It's clean and refreshing and classy, which is all I know. And when that sauce hits you, it's like life in color. Speaker 2 (5:57) Thank you. I have so much I want