Milk Bar Pie

The American chef Christina Tosi created Milk Bar Pie, initially known as Crack Pie, for a staff meal while working at the New York City restaurant wd~50 .^[1] She described regularly making desserts from "whatever mise-en-place was left over from the previous night's service".^[2] When missing ingredients one morning, she came across a recipe for chess pie in Joy of Cooking. Tosi describes chess pie as something "the old gals of yesteryear made when there was nothing to really make pie out of".^[2] She substituted heavy cream for the called-for buttermilk to create a gooier consistency and corn powder and milk powder for the called-for flour to create a more interesting flavor.^[2] The pie was popular at family meals.^[3]

When Tosi opened Momofuku Milk Bar in 2008, she revised the Crack Pie to include an oatmeal-cookie crust.^[2] It became her signature product. According to Vice, "Tosi’s Milk Bar has been synonymous with the Crack Pie".^[4][5][6] Gourmet called it Tosi's "defining dessert".^[6] Bon Appetit called it her "most buzzed-about dish".^[7] New York Daily News called it "New York's favorite sugar high".^[8] In December 2009, Anderson Cooper appeared on Regis and Kelly discussing the pie.^{[9][5][6][10][3]} The New York Times called the appearance a "seminal moment".^[11]

The Los Angeles Times in 2010 said the price of the pie, then $44, was "jaw-dropping"; it attributed the pie's having "taken New York City by storm" partially to the price.^[9] Axios in 2022 called the dish a "cult favorite".^[12] Tosi's first cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar (2011), contains a recipe for the pie.^[13]

Some food writers and others have criticized naming foods including Crack Pie after addictive substances as insensitive and offensive.^[4][14] In May 2019, Devra First of the Boston Globe criticized the name in a column for making light of addiction by alluding to the addictiveness of crack cocaine.^[15] The following month, Milk Bar changed the name to Milk Bar pie.^[4][14][16]