Momofuku Milk Bar

October 17, 2011
Tosi, the chef and owner of New York’s bakery, Momofuku Milk Bar, has penned the successor to David Chang’s Momofuku cookbook. Chock full of inventive desserts that recall childhood favorite sweets—think cereal milk ice cream pie, Fruity Pebbles marshmallow cookies, and candy bar pie—this isn’t your traditional dessert book. Tosi’s passion for all things sugar-related and her casual tone—“you plop a sauce onto one side of a serving plate or bowl”—make for a fun and inspiring guide. Bits of memoir include insight into the toughness of the restaurant business, and the story of how the under-30-year-old set up shop and caught the attention of Anderson Cooper with her “Crack Pi,” an almost addictive oat-cookie crust–filled concoction. Numbered recipe steps and ingredients, equipment, and techniques sections set up home bakers for the adventure that follows in the dishes that are derived from 10 “mother” recipes. A sampling of savory dishes round out this unique title.

Starred review from November 15, 2011

Tosi organizes this unusual cookbook around ten "mother" recipes for the creamy, crunchy, yummy components of the pies, cakes, cookies, composed desserts, and even breads that have made her Momofuku Milk Bar a New York City institution. In a charmingly casual tone, she offers an insider tour of the bakery, divulging the secrets necessary for home cooks to capture some of the Momofuku magic while making clear the amount of dedication required to create desserts of this caliber. Her recipes combine playful, nostalgic flavors (Fruity Pebbles, peanut butter and jelly, malted milk) with pastry chef acumen. When the recipes call for more esoteric ingredients (passion fruit puree, gelatin sheets, feuilletine), Tosi suggests sources and provides substitutions where possible. This beautifully illustrated book includes such tempting confections as Cornflake-Chocolate Chip-Marshmallow Cookies and Kimchi Croissants with Blue Cheese. VERDICT A challenging but approachable book, highly recommended for ambitious home cooks.--Jane laPlante, Minot State Univ. Lib., ND

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2011
In the beginning, David Chang's celebrated Momofuku restaurants served no desserts. By happy coincidence, Tosi came to work for Chang on a special project and ended up as pastry chef. With a flair for the creatively outrageous equal to Chang's, Tosi soon began producing desserts that wowed customers. Tosi loves to create her desserts to showcase flavors from childhood: the taste of milk in the bottom of her breakfast cereal bowl, Ritz crackers, peanut butter, and grape jelly. These she reimagines and turns into all manner of sweets. She even concocts cookies out of corn. Tosi's pastry aesthetic often relies on the drama and intensity of juxtaposing flagrantly sweet and salty flavors, which stimulate the palate at the risk of exhausting it. Perhaps her most famous creation is Crack Pie, an oatmeal cookie crust with a gooey filling. For adventuresome bakers seeking new challenges.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)