Christina Tosi

[Editor’s note: In this week’s cover story, five NYC icons look back on their first year in New York City. Here’s celeb chef Christina Tosi on her early gigs in the kitchen.] I was raised in the kitchen. I went to college, and I didn’t want to be in a sorority, so I started working in restaurants. In my mind, that was my social outlet. 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. I took a Chinatown bus to New York to enroll in the International Culinary Center’s pastry program. I found my apartment in the Village Voice. It was on the eighth floor of an eight-story walk-up on Elizabeth between Broome and Grand. One block south was Chinatown, so I could get a big veggie steamed bun for 49 cents, and if I wanted to get a pork bun, it was 69 cents. I spent nothing. I ate at school, and I lived off chocolate and hazelnuts. We’d study a different curriculum every week. First was French dough, then into tarts and sweet and savory, then into chocolate work and plated desserts. The uniform was very French: You had your very-pressed white fitted chef’s coat, checked pants, white kerchief, white paper toque. It was almost like being in ROTC. I would always be early to class and try to be the last one to leave, trying to make every single moment of it work for me. I didn’t miss a single day. The only restaurant that would hire me was Aquagrill on Spring Street and Sixth Avenue. I’d leave at 7am,