Quotes from Christina Tosi

My curiosity and love for food started at an early age. My mother was a working mom, so I learned to whip up sweet and savory food using everyday pantry and grocery store ingredients that required little supervision.

I could never really decide what I wanted to be when I grew up, and for a while, I thought that maybe I wanted to be a writer... I've always loved to write, that form of expression.

I love cookbooks. I certainly have my fair share at home, but I'm a really funny cookbook person: I don't really ever cook out of cookbooks. I like cookbooks for the commentary or the pictures or the history.

I guess technically I am a female chef, but I don't really think of myself as such.

As a chef, I got into this because I love the creative energy and I love the science, but I also love to feed people and make them happy.

When I'm menu-developing at Milk Bar, I'll go for weeks at a time where all I'm doing is testing out layer cakes or different cookies and testing out changes.

We always try to remember that at the end of the day, it's just cookies. Don't stress that hard, because it's a terrible thing to take home with you.

Running shouldn't feel like a punishment or an obligation. It should be a treat.

I love to jump around, bounce around, and be active, which is one of the other reasons I decided to pursue a career in the kitchen. I work 12-18 hours a day, and most of it is spent doing just that - jumping, bouncing, and baking.

As a boss, as a CEO, as a creative director, as a chef, I've learned that failure will always come. I've learned to give it a big squeeze, smile at it, humble myself to it and then use it as a springboard to send me on my way to strength, success, and fulfillment.

The 'Momofuku Milk Bar' cookbook is rather technical. I wanted it to feel like you were walking into the doors of our kitchen, it was your first day at work, and we were going to teach you everything.

The hardest thing to do is dig deep and be patient about the things you're going to learn month to month and quarter to quarter.

A bright lipstick is a quick way to glam up my look.

Nothing could be lovelier than running across the Golden Gate Bridge in the middle of the fog.

Nike Air Zooms are what I usually run in. In the kitchen, I wear a beaten-up pair of Converse All-Stars in winter and Keds in summer.

Fruitcakes have a bad rap.

When I was about to graduate, I asked myself, 'What could you do every day and never get sick of?' My answer was really simple: Make cookies.

When you taste something delicious, ask for the recipe! Or offer to trade a recipe!

I'm a fan of the hand-me-down recipes - friends, family, bake sales, community cookbooks - those are the recipes that have withstood the test of time and fed many hungry fans.

I think sharing recipes is such an important part of baking and the baking world.

I approach life with a 'jump' sort of mentality, although I wasn't raised to take crazy risks. I was raised to be a crazy hard worker. It seems to be a pretty good match of qualities.

Nothing feels better then to sit down on a six-hour flight with tired muscles from a workout.

I like to be in over my head always, at all times.

Out of culinary school, I worked as a pastry cook in amazing restaurants for years. I ended up leaving the pastry cook scene because, though I loved the industry, the restaurants and the chefs I worked for so much, I had to be honest with myself. I was never going to be them.