Kitchens are the new restaurants and people staying home are trying out new recipes to keep their taste buds happy. Christina Tosi, an award-winning pastry chef and founder of the popular bakery chain Milk Bar, started hosting a daily bake club on Instagram Live where she bakes with her viewers.
"People are tuning in from all over the world, presumably," Tosi told Cheddar Wednesday. "I started it 45 days ago now because I was missing the togetherness of baking that I was accustomed to running Milk Bar before COVID-19 hit."
The chef posts all of the ingredients on her Instagram page at night and goes live at 2 pm ET the next day. Missing some ingredients? No problem, said Tosi.
"[There is] plenty of room for ingredient swaps by the way. You know, the struggle is real. Access to ingredients, I know, is completely varied in community-to-community, state-to-state," she said.
Would-be bakers don't know what they are going to make each day. Tosi said she leaves that as a surprise to give viewers something to look forward to amid the quarantine. She also encourages them to experiment with other ingredients and recipes while on lockdown.
Milk Bar locations are still open for take-out and delivery, as long as employees are okay with working the locations, said Tosi.
"Our kitchens in New York and Los Angeles are still open because what we are finding is that as long as our teams are comfortable and motivated to come to work we are going to do everything we can to provide them with work and provide them with support for their livelihood," she said.
As for customers, they are still ordering. Tosi said many people are still celebrating their birthdays across the country or are surprising their loved ones with Milk Bar desserts, including healthcare workers on the frontlines.
"Sending doctors and nurses on the frontlines cookies and cakes and pies has been the thing that has kept our hearts full and productive," Tosi said.
