A review of Milk Bar, Milk Bar Life, and All About Cake but it’s just a love letter to Christina Tosi
I’ll admit it, I did not find one of my favorite Chefs on my own. In my very first professional kitchen job, my Chef asked me if I had ever heard of Milk Bar. I had already described my personal cooking philosophy as ‘do weird shit’, (I once made spicy pickle sorbet on a slow day at work) and my Chef at the time was a fan of Chef David Chang and his Momofuku restaurant group. He told me to research Milk Bar over my weekend, and like the stereotypical college student, I fell down an internet rabbit hole instead of doing my homework.
I loved that Tosi did not subscribe to the ‘super-secret recipe’ doctrine with her creations. She doesn’t just have books, she has approximately 1 million YouTube videos about her food, she has made a few appearances in some of my favorite shows on Netflix (counts as reading if you turn on the subtitles). She has an episode of the dessert season of Chefs Table and makes a few appearances in David Chang’s season of Mind of a Chef. I love that she shows how she got the ideas for her desserts, most of her ideas come from the snack food isle, or old memories of her childhood. I feel like this is what makes her food so different but also familiar.
I love all of Christina Tosi’s cookbooks…
Momofuku Milk Bar was published in 2011 and centers on the restaurant’s recipes, including plated desserts for other restaurants in the Momofuku restaurant group. Because the book centers on creating the restaurants menu at home many classical techniques, like making croissants from scratch, some newer cooks might feel intimidated reading through the contents. But the recipe instructions are written in an easy to understand language and each recipe is infused with Tosi’s fun and original ideas. The book includes one of my favorite desserts from Milk Bar- Crack Pie, I love everything about it; the ooey gooey caramel flavor, the oat cookie crust, and its addictive nature. I think that this recipe is all you need to make/eat to fall head over heels for Tosi.
Milk Bar Life (2015) is the second edition of Tosi’s cookbooks and it goes in the complete opposite direction of its predecessor. I would describe this book as a Chef’s Cookbook in that it is filled with ‘family meal’ style dishes and ‘party food’. Essentially this is what chef’s and cooks eat on their own time, a quick lunch before a crazy service eaten while sitting on milk crates or over a trashcan. These recipes sure aren’t as classy as Milk Bar’s recipes, but they have the same people and soul behind them.
All About Cake (2018) is different than its previous counterparts, with a mix and match style that allows for creativity from the reader. I used this book to make my own version of a birthday cake, making a more traditional style cake. While I love the Milk Bar cake style, if I make a cake, its usually on my days off from work so any cake I make must be able to hold up in the fridge for a few days (2-3 any longer, I’ll just freeze it). Naked cakes are pretty and if you use all the cake soak specified in the book, you should not have to worry about the cake drying out. Traditionally frosting a cake is like an insulator, keeping the cake moist. So, I read through the book, and found an amazing frosting recipe, Yellow Cake Frosting. I mean who thinks of that? Dry cake mix is baked until safe to eat and used to make an American style buttercream. I was making the German Chocolate cake, so I used chocolate cake mix. I also don’t really like American frosting, once trying a merengue-based butter cream it was ruined for me, so I made a cream cheese frosting with the cake mix and it was transcendent. I am still surprised that I had enough frosting for the cake I was making, I could not stop eating it. While there are some more basic recipes like a classic chocolate cake, I found myself wishing that the recipe was something more out of the box. It was a good recipe, but as a professional baker I have enough chocolate cake recipes to make one every week until the sun explodes. I didn’t really have a problem with the inclusion of the Chocolate Cake recipe, seeing as this book was made for everyone, not just cooks.
In conclusion, I worship at the altar of Milk Bar and you should to.