If you have a healthy appreciation for that gulp of milk left in the bottom of your cereal—or the crumbles of cake leftover from baking—you have found a soul sister in Christina Tosi. The baker has made a name for herself creating "why haven't I thought of that?!" dessert mashups, from Cereal Milk soft serve to chocolate chip, pretzel and who-knows-what-else Compost Cookies. Now, she's taking over your TV as the newest judge on Fox's MasterChef.
But there's so much more to the Milk Bar founder than birthday cake truffles and doling out nuggets of wisdom alongside fellow judges Gordon Ramsay and Graham Elliot. Here's what you may have missed.
1. MasterChef inspired her to take a major risk: Dance classes.
About a month ago, Tosi started learning how to hustle, swing and foxtrot. "There's something about being a judge on MasterChef that makes you really respect how amazing these home cooks are, putting themselves out there each week, so I decided to put myself out there too," explains Tosi, who calls herself an 'enthusiastic dancer' more so than a 'great' one. "I get a little nervous before class—I wonder what I'm going to be thrust into that week—but that moment when you just let go and dance is so freeing."
2. She almost became an electrical engineer instead of a baker.
"I was raised to be a really good student, and there was this expectation to be good at everything, but that meant when I got to college, I didn't know what I wanted to study," Tosi says. "I knew I loved math ... but after my freshman year, I decided electrical engineering wasn't right for me, and I switched to math and Italian."
She had an agreement with her parents that once she had a diploma, she could do whatever she wanted, so she pushed herself to graduate in three years. "The thing I wanted least was to be a normal grownup ... I was searching for something I loved that I wouldn't get tired of, and I realized that, for me, that was baking cookies."
Cue Tosi's move to New York and the eventual rise of Milk Bar.
3. Tosi's version of team-building is more about hot dog-eating contests and late-night screenings of Ghostbusters than trust falls.
"You really become a family when you work together in the kitchen, because of the demanding hours," she says. To keep things lighthearted, she plans regular group outings, like bringing fried chicken to New York's Bryant Park and hosting a picnic during its summer movie series on Monday nights, organizing bowling competitions or closing the kitchen early to have a beach day in Coney Island.
"We'd ride the rollercoasters and have a makeshift hot dog-eating competition," Tosi says. "It's about finding ways to celebrate the ordinary."
4. A few years into her time in New York, she admits she lost a part of herself—and she found one awesome way to get her groove back.
While attending culinary school during the day, Tosi began working in restaurants at night and taking on catering and food styling jobs on weekends. "I had such tunnel vision in terms of chasing down my dream. It was my one and only focus," she says. "When I finally pulled my head out of the sand, I realized I kind of missed out on life. I kind of missed out on a few years of it."
She thought of her mom's ability to "make life happen" by turning holidays and otherwise ordinary days into full-blown parties, which inspired her to start scheduling some fun into the week (hence the trips to Coney Island and bowling parties). "I had to bring my homespun, suburban upbringing to my team at Milk Bar."
5. If you were baking with Christina Tosi right now, she'd probably be blasting reggae.
"It makes you think of being on vacation and going to the islands and drinking a piña colada, even if you're really just in a hot kitchen in the middle of summer," she says.
Other songs she's constantly playing? Jon Batiste, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.
6. During her downtime on set, she goofs off with her fellow judges (yes—even the so-very-serious-seeming Ramsay).
"We're pretty furious goofballs," Tosi says. "It's very important to be serious when you're honed in and focused, but you also have to be able to balance that with the ability to shake it off and have fun. We'll tease each other or watch silly videos on YouTube together."
7. Her worst kitchen injury left her with a burn across her face.
Before she moved to New York, Tosi worked as the head baker for a convention center on an island off the coast of New Hampshire. One day, while wheeling a heavy rack of hot pans of freshly baked bread, the cart hit a bump in the road and one of the sheet pans kissed her cheek. "I had a huge, long burn and scar there," Tosi says.
8. She loves headscarves so much, she wore them for her MasterChef chemistry test.
"I went in and was like, 'If [the directors and producers] want to know who I am on film in the context of judging, this is who I am,'" she explains.
Tosi started wearing them to add a little femininity to her oversized chef's whites, and they became such a part of her look that her mom and family members started making them for her. They now give one out to every person who takes one of her baking classes at Milk Bar.
9. The only thing to rival her headscarf collection? Her sneakers.
"I have at least 20 pairs of high-tops. My favorite is a really old, tattered-up pair of red Converse that have been with me everywhere," she says.
10. Her Ford Ranger is one of her prized possessions.
"My grandmother passed away two years ago, and she had a granny pickup truck," Tosi says. "My big, masculine cousins were like, 'you can't haul anything with that,' but it was perfect for me. I'm a Southern, Virginia girl with roots in Ohio, so it reminds me of home and harnesses the tomboy in me."
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