Christina Tosi

Ina Garten (0:02)

Today is going to be so much fun. My friend Christina Tosi, who started Milk Bar, is coming for the day. She's just fantastic. Christina is the incredibly creative, award-winning pastry chef, and founder of the fabulous Milk Bar Dessert Empire. I happen to know she loves to snack, so I'm welcoming her with Smoked Salmon Tartines. She's sharing incredible stories from her life and her amazing career, and grilling me about dirty dessert secrets. I am a texture and I love texture so important in food. Then she's revealing her secrets for assembling her iconic layered birthday cake.

I just love Christina Tosi, and one thing I know about her is she's a snacker. So I'm going to make Smoked Salmon Tartines so she can eat them during the day, and I'm going to make a Gravlock sauce to put on top of it. So Gravlock sauce is like a mustard sauce. I'm going to start with two tablespoons of Dijon mustard, one tablespoon of honey mustard. You can just find it in the grocery store. One teaspoon of coarse grain mustard, and then half a teaspoon of dried mustard. The dried mustard gives it a little heat like intensity, which is really good. Next is sugar. One and a half tablespoons of sugar, two and a half tablespoons of good white wine vinegar, two and a half tablespoons of good olive oil, and then one and a half tablespoons of some neutral oil. I'm using grapeseed oil, but you can use canola oil. This adds the oil without that much olive oil flavor.

That's everything. I'm just going to give it a whisk. I mean, this is a great sauce and all it is is like a list of ingredients from the pantry. Christina and I have known each other for so long. We did things together on the Today Show. I just love spending time with her. Okay, two more things. Two tablespoons of chopped dill, minced dill, and a little salt. Just mix that all together. That's good. Just going to put it in a little pitcher. Okay.

Now, I'm going to build the tartines. So first thing is avocado. About a half an avocado. Put it right on the toasted bread. Slice, slice like that. Little bit of lemon juice to make sure the avocado doesn't turn brown.

One slice of smoked salmon.

Okay. Next is a little gravlax sauce. Just kind of drizzle it on.

A little salt and pepper, because of course, everything needs salt and pepper. I'm going to put a little red onion on it, very thinly sliced, and some fresh dill. Now, I'm going to make three more. While I do that, let me tell you about Christina. Christina Tosi is an award-winning chef, author, entrepreneur, and founder of the hugely successful bakery chain, Milk Bar. Born in Ohio, Christina studied engineering at the University of Virginia and transferred to James Madison University, graduating in mathematics and Italian in just three years. After college, she followed her passion and enrolled in the French Culinary Institute, immersing herself in the New York restaurant scene and working as a pastry chef in amazing restaurants including Mama Fuku with David Chang. Two years later in 2008, she opened Milk Bar's doors, changing the face of baking with her innovative cult creations like cereal milk ice cream, compost cookies, and layered cakes. Christina has won many awards including Two James Beards, written best-selling books, and created Bake Club, the successful online baking community where thousands of members share recipes across the globe. She hosts the TV series Bake Squad and is a regular judge on MasterChef. Christina lives in Nashville with her husband and two children. There is no doubt that Christina has made the world a sweeter place.

I told you she was fantastic. Okay, I'm going to finish up the tarteens. I'm just going to put them all on a platter.

Christina Tosi (4:02)

I'm here. Ina, hello.

Ina!

Ina Garten (4:05)

Oh, Christina.

Christina Tosi (4:06)

Oh my gosh.

Ina Garten (4:07)

I'm so happy to see you.

Christina Tosi (4:09)

Thank you so much for having me.

Ina Garten (4:11)

This is like busman's holiday.

Christina Tosi (4:13)

Finally, on your turf.

Ina Garten (4:16)

Come, I've got treats for us. What is this? It's smoked salmon with growl block sauce and avocado. So I haven't seen, I think the first time I saw you was at Milk Bar. One of the first Milk Bars, right?

Christina Tosi (4:26)

Ina, I was thinking on the way over here, our like meet cute origin story.

Ina Garten (4:33)

How did you see it?

Christina Tosi (4:34)

Well, our cookbook publisher was trying to convince me to write a cookbook with them. This is 2008, eons ago.