Christina Tosi named Beards' rising star

By J.M. HIRSCH
AP Food Editor

NEW YORK (AP) — Compost, "crack" and something called cereal milk — unlikely ingredients that have propelled Christina Tosi to the head of her culinary class.

The protege and dessert maven of uber chef-of-the-moment David Chang was named rising star chef of the year on Monday by the James Beard Foundation, an honor earned largely by her knack for crafting unusual sweet treats — including soft serve ice cream made from milk flavored by breakfast cereal — and the almost fanatical following they have generated.

But garnering one of the so-called Oscars of the food world — one of more than 20 awarded Monday — didn't change Tosi's sense of the simplicity of what she does.

"For me, it's just about creating things that we feel really attached to," Tosi said during the 25th annual Beard Foundation awards. "The style that we do it is finding a flavor, a texture that we feel attached to and giving it back in a way that we think is cute or playful or approachable and at the end of it of course it's delicious and you want to come back for it.

"And that's where we begin and we end with it," she said."

Tosi oversees desserts, breads and ice cream for Chang's Momofuku restaurant group, and is best known as the woman behind his Momofuku Milk Bar. That's where you can find her so-called compost cookies, oversized treats rich with coffee grounds, potato chips and pretzels, and her sticky-salty-sweet "crack pie," which is as addictive as its name implies.

The James Beard awards honor those who follow in the footsteps of Beard, considered the dean of American cooking when he died in 1985. Monday's ceremony honored chefs and restaurants; a similar event on Friday was held for book and other media awards.

The foundation's outstanding chef award went to Daniel Humm, the chef behind New York's Eleven Madison Park. Humm, a native of Switzerland, has spent his career amassing awards. Most recently, his restaurant — which has four stars from the New York Times and three from the Michelin Guide — was named No. 10 in the world by Restaurant magazine.

Though Eleven Madison Park — a veteran of several Beard awards over the years — has earned high praise since it opened in 1998, most consider it to have shined brightest since 2006, when Humm took over the kitchen, bringing with him an inventive, yet classically French style.

Eleven Madison Park is best known for its tasting-style menu that lists dishes only by key ingredients and encel Presilla of Cucharamama in Hoboken, N.J. (Mid-Atlantic); Tory Miller of L'Etoile in Madison, Wisc. (Midwest); Michael Anthony of Gramercy Tavern in New York (New York City); Tim Cushman of O Ya in Boston (Northeast); Matt Dillon of Sitka & Spruce in Seattle (Northwest); Matt Molina of Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles (Pacific); Chris Hastings of Hot and Hot Fish Club in Birmingham, Ala. (South); Hugh Acheson of Five and Ten in Athens, Ga., and Linton Hopkins of Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta (Southeast); and Paul Qui of Uchiko in Austin, Texas.