Milk Bar (bakery)

Milk Bar is a chain of dessert and bakery restaurants founded by chef Christina Tosi. Tosi owns the chain with the Manhattan-based Momofuku restaurant group; Momofuku does not control the operations of Milk Bar.[3][4][1][5]

For other uses of "milk bar", see milk bar (disambiguation).

Milk Bar
Restaurant information
EstablishedNovember 15, 2008 (2008-11-15)[1] in New York City
Owner(s)Christina Tosi
Head chefChristina Tosi
Food typePastry and dessert bakery with other sweet (and a few savory) items
CityNew York, New York
StateNew York
Postal/ZIP Code10010
Other locationsNew York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Las Vegas, Toronto, and mail order
Websitemilkbarstore.com
Milk Bar Nolita sign
The Milk Bar's cereal milk - soft serve topped with cornflakes
Milk Bar Pie, a Momofuku Milk Bar original recipe, and in its first cookbook[2]

Tosi is the primary creator of Milk Bar's products.[5][6] Milk Bar makes custom wedding cakes, produces their own line of baking mixes, and ships baked goods internationally. It also runs baking classes at their Williamsburg kitchen, the heart of Milk Bar's nine New York locations. Milk Bar has locations in Washington D.C., Boston, Las Vegas, and Toronto.[7]

History

Christina Tosi graduated from the French Culinary Institute’s pastry arts program, and began her career at upscale New York restaurants including Bouley and wd~50.[6] Tosi started at Momofuku as a food safety consultant in 2005; at that time there were no dessert items on the menu.[8][9] After Tosi brought in various unconventional homemade desserts, owner David Chang demanded she re-create them for a dinner service that evening.[10] She soon became the pastry chef for all of Chang's Momofuku restaurants.[6]

When Momofuku Ssam Bar decided to expand into a neighboring vacant laundromat in 2008, Tosi proposed the idea to add a bakery.[11] The first Milk Bar opened in November 2008, and began selling Tosi's "happy mistakes," including the compost cookie, the crack pie, and cereal milk.[6] In December 2009, Anderson Cooper appeared on Regis and Kelly professing his love for Milk Bar and its crack pie.[12]

By 2012, Milk Bar had grown from one retail sales location in the East Village of Manhattan to nine retail outlets in New York City,[13] one in Toronto, Ontario (opened in 2013),[14] three in Washington, D.C. (opened in October 2015,[15] February 2018[16] and May 2018) one at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (opened in December 2016).[17][18] and one in Los Angeles on Melrose Avenue (opened in September 2018).[19] Tosi opened her first Boston-area store in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts in a partnership with &pizza, a Washington D.C.-based pizzeria chain.[20] The Boston store was Tosi's 16th Milk Bar, and by February 2019, Milk Bar employed 381 people across North America.[21]

In 2019, Milk Bar changed the name of its signature crack pie to Milk Bar pie, following criticism of its allusion to the addictiveness of crack cocaine.[22]

Awards

Tosi received the James Beard Foundation award for Rising Star Chef of the Year for her work at the Milk Bar in 2012.[23] Tosi followed up this award as a finalist for the 2014 Outstanding Pastry James Beard award for rising star chefs.[24] In 2015, she received the James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef award.[25]

Publications

The first book of recipes from the restaurant, by Tosi, was called Momofuku Milk Bar (ISBN 978-0307720498) and released in October 2011.[26] The second, again by Tosi, was called Milk Bar Life: Recipes & Stories (ISBN 978-0770435103) and released in April 2015.

References
  1. Levine, Ed (November 14, 2008). "Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar: It's Damn Good, Damn It!". Serious Eats.
  2. Tosi, Christina (2011). Momofuku Milk Bar. Clarkson Potter. p. 244. ISBN 9780307720498.
  3. Finn, Robin (May 18, 2007). "Rising Star Knows What, Not Who, Is Cooking". The New York Times.
  4. Carman, Tim (October 23, 2015). "Milk Bar is here, and Momofuku's long-anticipated debut is just around the corner". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  5. Aspan, Maria (April 2018). "How Milk Bar's Christina Tosi Went From Momofuku Employee to Bakery Chain CEO". Inc. Magazine. Retrieved April 29, 2019.
  6. Muhlke, Christine (January 6, 2010). "The Nifty 50: Christina Tosi, Pastry Chef". T Magazine. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  7. "Hours & Locations". Milk Bar Bakery. 2017. Retrieved January 3, 2017.
  8. Leve, Ariel (April 21, 2012). "Christina Tosi: 'My diet was crazy for the first 27 years of my life': New York's baking superstar on her very sweet tooth, David Chang, and the success of the Milk Bar". The Guardian.
  9. Choi, Mark HK (September 5, 2017). "Christina Tosi Has a Cookie". Eater.
  10. May, Julia (June 12, 2012). "Queen of the dessert". Sydney Morning Herald.
  11. Krader, Kate (November 28, 2016). "Learn the Secret Ingredient to Momofuku Milk Bar's Success: Owner Christina Tosi reveals how she's made a bakery empire, one Crack Pie at a time". Bloomberg News.
  12. Jones, Carey (December 2009). "Anderson Cooper Loves Crack (Pie) at New York's Momofuku Milk Bar". Serious Eats.
  13. Leve, Ariel (April 21, 2012). "Christina Tosi: 'My diet was crazy for the first 27 years of my life'". The Guardian. Retrieved July 16, 2014.
  14. Henry, Michele (July 19, 2013). "Momofuku's Milk Bar opening in Toronto today: Now Torontonians will be able to get their crack pie — and eat it too". Toronto Star.
  15. Frederick, Missy (October 23, 2015). "Compost Cookies Are Here: Momofuku Milk Bar Is Open Right Now in D.C." Eater Washington DC.
  16. "Cult Bakery Milk Bar Starts Serving Crack Pie in Southwest February 23 [Updated]". Eater DC. Retrieved April 16, 2018.
  17. Stapleton, Susan (December 30, 2016). "Cereal Milk, Crack Pie and Compost Cookies Arrive Via Milk Bar: Christina Tosi's Milk Bar debuts at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas". Eater Las Vegas.
  18. "Milk Bar opens at Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas". Las Vegas Review-Journal. December 30, 2016. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  19. Elliott, Farley (September 18, 2018). "Step inside Milk Bar's sweet new LA home". Eater LA. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  20. Cain, Jacqueline (January 28, 2019). "The World's First Combination Milk Bar and &pizza Opens in Cambridge". Boston Magazine.
  21. Severson, Kim (February 12, 2019). "For Christina Tosi, Building a Dessert Empire Is Not All Milk and Cookies". The New York Times.
  22. Amir Vera. "Crack Pie is no more as Milk Bar changes name of famous dessert". CNN. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  23. "Rising Star Chef of the Year: Christina Tosi". The James Beard Foundation. May 7, 2012. Retrieved March 1, 2015.
  24. "The Complete 2014 JBF Award Nominees". James Beard Foundation. March 18, 2014.
  25. "The 2015 James Beard Award Winners!". James Beard Foundation. May 4, 2015.
  26. Forbes, Paula (September 13, 2011). "First Look: Christina Tosi's Momofuku Milk Bar Cookbook". Eater. Retrieved March 1, 2015.

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