Give Me Some Sugar: Christina Tosi

Who: Christina Tosi
Where: Momofuku Milk Bar (Five locations in New York City)

You may know Christina Tosi for her whimsical, sugary creations like cereal milk (think the dregs of the cereal bowl in drinkable or soft-serve ice cream form), compost cookies, and crack pie—all of which she makes as pastry chef for New York City’s Momofuku Milk Bar. What you may not know is that Tosi is a Southern gal at heart. “I grew up in Virginia and have family in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Ohio. Living, cooking, and eating within the region, with a waste not-want not mentality; celebrating tradition and what’s around you on the breakfast, lunch, or dinner table—that was the spirit of my family’s upbringing.”

Read on via The Southern Foodways Alliance

Give Me Some Sugar: Lisa White →

Who: Lisa White
Where: Domenica, 123 Baronne Street, New Orleans, LA

When Lisa White has a bad day, she makes bread. “It’s so simple—flour, water, salt, and yeast—but it’s magical,” she says. “You don’t know if it’s going to turn out, but when it does, it’s so awesome. It hits people on all levels—you can smell it walking down the street.”

She speaks from experience: Bread is what prompted her to change careers and become a pastry chef. “In March of 2008, I took a personal pilgrimage to France. While walking the isolated trails of the Camino of Santiago de Compostela, I was drawn into the village bakeries by the smell of bread baking. It’s then that I remembered what I had always wanted to do.” Three months later, White had enrolled in culinary school to become a pastry chef.

Read on via The Southern Foodways Alliance

Baking with Nothing in the House →

I started baking pies the summer after college. My friends and I had discovered a wealth of berry trees and bushes near the house we shared in Ann Arbor, and we’d go out on frequent picking missions. We collected so many berries that we started baking pies together in the evenings. When I moved away after that summer, my friend Margaret suggested that we start a blog to keep in touch through the pies we baked, and “Nothing in the House” was born.

Nothing-in-the-house pies, also called “desperation pies,” were popular during the Great Depression in the South and beyond. These pies were made from a few inexpensive ingredients, and include vinegar pie, cracker pie, and green-tomato pie. Thus the name of my blog is a nod to history, thrift, and practicality, in solidarity with other home bakers, past and present.

Read on in Gravy.

Give Me Some Sugar: Stella Parks →

 Who: Stella Parks

Where: Table Three Ten, 310 W. Short Street, Lexington, KY

In a kitchen drawer at Table Three Ten in Lexington, Kentucky, pastry chef Stella Parks keeps a set of plastic measuring spoons that her parents gave her when she was 8. “I dug them up recently at my folks’ house and decided to take them to work. It’s a nice sense of coming full circle.”

But Parks, a Kentucky native, didn’t always know that professional baking would be her path. Though she’d baked since she was little and started working in restaurants as a teenager, she always thought she’d write books. When it came time to pursue a college degree, though, she reconsidered. “I knew I didn’t have a personality suited to teaching, or to journalism, or to whatever other English-major-y jobs I could think of. I knew I liked working in restaurants, working with my hands and on my feet. Then I started researching culinary schools, thinking I could work in food service and write on the side.”

Read on via The Southern Foodways Alliance

Outside the Pizza Box: Chicago's New Pie Scene →

As we prepare to celebrate Pi(e) Day on Thursday (Congress established March 14 as a day to honor both the mathematical constant, 3.14, and our nation's favorite dessert), we find a burgeoning pie scene in Chicago. And it's not of the deep-dish variety.

In a busy kitchen in the West Town neighborhood, large trays of deep, round plates are being pulled out of the oven. From the golden crust inside, steam rises and fills the air with enticing aromas that set bellies grumbling. It's not Chicago pizza pie, but fresh apple pie from Hoosier Mama Pie Co., a small, vintage diner-style pie shop owned by pastry chef Paula Haney.

Read on via NPR

Give Me Some Sugar: Cheryl Day →

Who: Cheryl Day

Where: Back in the Day Bakery, 2403 Bull Street, Savannah, GA

According to her family, Cheryl Day’s first sentence was, “Are you having a good time?” That says a lot about her personality, but it says just as much about her baking, which for her is about connecting to other people and having fun. “My approach to baking has always been one person baking for another,” she says. “I realized that baking for others would be my path once I starting thinking about what work I could do that I was truly passionate about.”

Read on via The Southern Foodways Alliance

Give Me Some Sugar: Phoebe Lawless →

Who: Phoebe Lawless
Where:  Scratch Bakery, 111 Orange Street, Durham, NC

“I consider myself more of a baker than a pastry chef,” says Phoebe Lawless, owner and chef at Scratch Bakeryin Durham, North Carolina. Having had my fair share of her desserts—her Shaker Lemon pie, fluffy buttermilk biscuits, and signature doughnut-muffins—I’d say this is not a qualitative statement, but an explanation of her approach, which she calls “pretty pragmatic,” and “homey and delicious rather than perfect and gorgeous.”

Read on via The Southern Foodways Alliance

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Pie: An Illustrated History →

Though there are a few days that claim to be THE “Day of Pie" — the U.S. House of Representatives recognized “Pi Day” on March 14th, and a second somewhat dubiously decreed “National Pie Day” on December 1st — according to the American Pie Council, today, January 23rd, is the actual “National Pie Day.” It was probably chosen so that people have at least one thing to look forward to after the pie-promises of Thanksgiving and Christmas have faded, and you’re left cold and hungry in the depths of mid-winter.

In honor, of this, we present an illustrated investigation and recipe of the legendary 4 and 20 Blackbirds Pie.

Read on via The Hairpin

Belgian Sweets Not Just for Sinterklaas →

Though my grandmother Georgette was born in the United States, she is half Belgian (Flemish) and half French. On top of the cabinets in her blue kitchen you'll find a little Dutch village of porcelain houses. Above the sink are miniature figures of the Statue of Liberty, Manneken Pis and the Eiffel Tower — representations of her three nationalities. In her Delft cookie jar you'll find speculaas (also called speculoos) — the Dutch windmill-shaped gingersnap-like cookie traditionally eaten on St. Nicholas Day.

Although my grandmother has speculaas on hand year-round, St. Nicholas Day, which was last week (Dec. 6), reminded me of our family tradition. We would get together with my grandmother for a little celebration, with gifts from Sinterklaas in our shoes, Belgian chocolates and, of course, her homemade speculaas.

Read on via NPR

Five Ideas for Great Holiday Pies →

The holidays are one of the best times of year for baking, in my opinion. Citrus is in season, cranberries are readily available, and parties and celebrations with family and long-lost or not-so long-lost friends call for a bit of decadence in the form of nuts and chocolate, caramel and whipped cream. Here is a selection of five relatively easy pies made with seasonal ingredients (for the most part) for your holiday dessert tables.

Read on in PBS Food