Before Cereal Milk™, Compost Cookie®, and Crack Pie™ joined corn dogs and cupcakes in the C section of the pop-food lexicon, there was another C: Christina Tosi. Raised in Virginia, Tosi, 30, is the sweet to David Chang’s savory within the Momofuku empire, whipping up humorous and, some say, brilliant desserts to match Chang’s envelope-pushing Korean-American cuisine.

After graduating early from college with a degree in mathematics and Italian, she attended New York’s French Culinary Institute. From there, she made stops at Bouley and wd~50 before landing at Momofuku. Now chef-owner of Milk Bar’s five locations (plus a Montauk pop-up), Tosi spends her days making the Snickerdoodle look about as inspired as a stale rice cake. Here, she talks us through what she calls “the timeline of my love affair with sweets.” Go ahead: Try to make it through the list without raiding the vending machine.

The following interview has been edited and condensed.