Pastry Industry in the U.S.: Famous Pastry Chefs

Folks with a distinct sweet tooth tend to have a stronger passion for desserts and greater inclination to flavor. This may not be the ultimate diagnosis for what’s acceptable in someone’s eating behavior, but it’s definitely something necessary if you’re one to pursue a career in pastry and dessert. A lot of growth has been following suit in the pastry and dessert market with retail sales of bread and baked goods becoming a breakfast staple for the average American.

Baking and Pastry Making in the US

In 2015, the retail of bread and pastries totaled an estimate of $27.46 billion, with artisan bread making 30.2% in shares and $3.06 billion was earned in specialty bread and baked goods, according to Statista. Tasty bread, cakes, pies, and sweet rolls that are usually purchased in early morning breakfast rushes make up 2.1% of the gross domestic product in the US in 2019. This has contributed to the escalating revenue of the market, averaging at over $30 billion annually, with 6,000 retail bakeries, and almost 3,000 commercial bakeries in the US.

Baked goods, pastries, and bread are products beloved by many, establishing a huge economic impact on the US, selling a total of $424 billion. According to Small Business, $3 billion in revenue are generated by retail bakeries, while commercial bakeries find success in selling bread and pastries worth a total of $31 billion. The skill and art of baking and pastry making have become rather more precise throughout the years, and developing concept stores and businesses that focus on just the marvel of baking bread has been challenge; a challenge the baking wiz and MasterChef Christina Tosi have gone above and beyond for.

Culinary geniuses have grazed the international stage for every meal’s palate cleanser; sweets and desserts. The likes of Nigella Lawson, Jordi Roca, Will Goldfarb, and Master Chef judge herself, Christina Tosi are top notch culinary artisans in their own rights for finding ways to make sugary treats one for all, and all for one. Christina Tosi, one of America’s finest pastry chefs has carved out a name for herself with nothing but hard work and drive towards giving people a literal sweet escape for the senses.

The 37-year-old professional and celebrity pastry chef is not just the first ever female Master Chef to host and judge the show with the likes of Michelin icon Gordon Ramsay, but she happens to be one of New York City’s finest entrepreneurs and cultural markers in the culinary scene, with her signature desserts available at Milk Bar.

The Woman Behind the Bar

Cookies, pies, rice crispy treats, sundaes, and birthday cakes are all just some of the most beloved desserts in various parts of the world. Such sweets though aren’t served the way Christina Tosi serves them; broken down into the most playful yet innovative way both kids and adults can enjoy. According to Entrepreneur, Tosi rose into culinary fame when she decided to make desserts more for kids play and delight like ice cream and cookies, rather than for fancy and elitist structures the way a creme brulee dictates deserts in various culinary spaces. She’s been one of the leading women in cooking and baking that have definitely changed the world of food in the last decade.

Milk Bar started not as a cool and hipster pop up in the streets of New York, but right in the kitchen of Michelin star Japanese restaurant, Momofuku Noodle Bar back in the mid-2000s with restaurateur and Korean American chef, Dave Chang spearheading the place. The two-time Michelin star restaurant was said to have been down in the dumps until Chang’s friend brought over amateur pastry chef Tosi to do managerial work than work on deserts right away. It was Chang started to notice Tosi pulling away from her true passion, and pushed her to go back to baking and to make a signature dessert for the restaurant’s menu.

With Tosi’s combined passion and inventiveness in baking that got her to produce some of Momofuku’s best desserts, namely the Strawberry Shortcake and the Miso Crack Pie. According to the New York Post, Milk Bar first opened its own establishment with the seed funding from Tosi’s then employer and friend, Chang who helped stere people’s direction towards Tosi’s mind-blowing desserts. Some of the most notable and recommended by the chef herself include the Compost Cookies and the Crack Pies.

Milk Bar Magic

When Tosi opened Milk Bar in 2008, she had to drastically change the way she worked and adapted a paradigm shift in how she operated her kitchen. “I realized that operating a bakery was so different from operating a restaurant. Your margins are different; your strategy is different. You're busy early in the morning. People are coming and going in greater volume because you're selling a cookie, not a dining experience. I realized very quickly that I was going to need to build my own team.” Tosi tells Inc. Fast forward 10 years later, the two-time James Beard Award winner just opened her 16th Milk Bar in Cambridge last February with lines plaguing the area at least three blocks down. It’s no surprise that people are willing to line up for a Composite Cookie baked by a Master Chef baker. Last 2018, Milk Bar has racked up to a demand for staff and has jumped up to 70% in the demand in the last year, to 381 in Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood. Tosi is known for employing quite the brigade of chefs to help make all her Milk Bar branches one that people will keep coming back to. It just so happens that all her staffers are women as well as her management team, led by Sujean Lee, former senior vice president at a restaurant called Chobani, according to the New York Times.

The Future of Milk Bar

Tosi’s love for baking has evolved over ten years into a dessert diaspora for all the senses. Looks like the dessert-junkie isn’t done with the grander pursuits and will be opening her most ambitious project to date in the Ace Hotel. According to the New York Times, Tossi plans to open her New York flagship store in the famed hotel and will feature a build-your-own-dessert station as well as a mini bodega in the premises. Tosi will be funding her flagship store with the help of RSE Ventures, an investment firm that bestows an estimate of $10 million to make the passion project happen.

Aside from New York, Tosi plans to open Milk Bar in other parts of the US, including prospects like Chicago and Miami, while also upgrading the e-commerce side to the Milk Bar empire, giving fellow dessert junkies alike the chance to order a mouth-watering Birthday Cake with sprinkles and meringue frosting with just one tap of a finger through the customer’s mobile device. Nevertheless, according to Entrepreneur, Milk Bar has led to 14 stores and renowned partnerships with grocery chains like Target and Jet Blue that are bound to show consumers what they can truly get from the grocery shelves, an instant Milk Bar experience at its best.

Christina Tosi is not one for the attention of being a famous dessert chef, TV presenter and judge, cookbook author and award-winning baker all at once, however, she is one to make noise when it comes to converting people who don’t like sweets into automatic sweet tooths with just a bite from her delectable Milk Bar delights; a gastronomic experience for the 8-year-old inside of you constantly craving for desserts for lunch and dinner. Let Christina Tosi lead the way into a culinary touchstone, one Crack Pie at a time.