Cooking By Heart with Hailee Catalano
The James Beard Award winner® shares her journey from restaurant chef to viral TikTok creator to cookbook author.
2026 James Beard Award winner® Hailee Catalano cooking with her partner. (Photo: Emily Hawkes)
Mon, November 9, 2026
It was the vodka rigatoni cooking video that started it all for Hailee Catalano. It seems fitting that Catalano's "pasta era" would catapult the chef to TikTok virality, given that she grew up savoring Sunday gravy at her Sicilian grandmother's table and cited working the pasta station as one of her most formative professional experiences.
Catalano always knew she wanted to work in food, but after graduating from the Culinary Institute of America and honing her chops at Talde Jersey City and Chicago's Cellar Door Provisions, she couldn't have predicted she'd become a full-time food content creator and cookbook author. With her informative, approachable teaching style, Catalano's cooking videos have garnered millions of followers across TikTok and Instagram. She distilled her home-cooking-meets-professional-cooking ethos into her 2026 James Beard Award–winning cookbook, By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear, with a collection of cozy recipes and simple techniques to help home cooks turn out restaurant-worthy meals in their own kitchens.
We caught up with Catalano to learn more about her journey from restaurant chef to food content creator to James Beard Award winner®. In anticipation of Thanksgiving, Catalano also dishes on her top tips for meal prep and keeping calm on the big day and shares three recipes for sensational Thanksgiving side dishes: Steamed Kabocha Squash with Herby Marcona Almond Topping, Chicken Fat Mashed Potatoes, and Creamed Corn Drop Biscuits.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Hailee Catalano. (Photo: Dana Golan)
It sounds like you knew early that you wanted to pursue a career as a chef.
It never was a doubt in my mind that's what I wanted to do. Even when culinary can be hard, the hours and stuff, that's the only thing that makes me happy and excited. I couldn't picture myself in a more regular school. I was like, 'I need to do something with my hands and my brain.' I talk about this in the book—I have OCD, and culinary school was also where I was able to use the good parts of my OCD, like my organization [skills] and ability to multi-task. Cooking was the only thing that got me out of my rumination.
What made you want to start making cooking videos? What was the transition like leaving restaurants and focusing on food content?
I quit my job at Cellar Door Provisions in late 2019 because we wanted to work in New York City restaurants [her partner Chuck Cruz is also a chef]. In 2020, everything shut down. After random jobs, mainly Instacarting, I got a 9-to-5 job at a small kitchen appliance company testing recipes, which was helpful, because it was my first time writing recipes for home cooks. But I missed the creativity of working in a restaurant, and I had all this extra time, so I thought I could start making TikTok videos for fun. I also heard you could make extra cash through the views; I thought if I could save up, I could open a restaurant one day.
How would your audience describe your cooking style and your videos?
A lot of them say it's calming and cozy food, and fresh takes on classics.
How would you say your style has evolved since the early days?
It took me years to get the confidence to talk to the camera about the steps of what I'm cooking. It was a learning curve for me because I'm generally a shy person; I always preferred to be in the back. Now that I have a connection with my audience, I really enjoy it because I found a love for teaching people to cook and seeing that things come out well for them making a recipe of mine, or I've taught them certain techniques.
Catalano's Chicken Fat Mashed Potatoes are topped with pieces of crispy chicken skin. (Photo: Emily Hawkes)
Let's talk about your cookbook. How did it feel to win a James Beard Award for By Heart?
I still can't believe it. Even just being nominated—I was truly so shocked. Coming from restaurants, it's something that is the highest regarded award for chefs, and I never would've pictured receiving one myself. I'm very honored by it.
We're focusing on Thanksgiving, so we want to hear about some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions.
I always look forward to my aunt Renee's stuffed shells—probably more so than the turkey. She does a very simple herbed ricotta and a basic tomato sauce; there's no meat in it.
Will you be making any dishes from your cookbook this Thanksgiving?
I have a recipe for stuffed shells in the book that’s holiday-ish; it's a lamb ragù so it's very hearty and special, but still pretty easy to make. I like to make that steamed kabocha squash recipe; it's really good for Thanksgiving because you have everything made ahead. It can be eaten at room temperature—honestly, it's maybe better at room temperature. And who doesn't love a squash?
Yes, let’s talk recipes. We picked out three side dish recipes from By Heart that would be lovely on a Thanksgiving table, including the Steamed Kabocha Squash, Chicken Fat Mashed Potatoes, and Creamed Corn Biscuits.
Let's start by talking about the Steamed Kabocha Squash with Herby Marcona Almond Topping.
There is something so lovely and delicious about steamed squash because it really concentrates and locks in all the sweetness in a less caramelized way than roasting, and the texture becomes silky and tender. Sometimes with Thanksgiving food, as much as I love it, if we're roasting everything, everything's brown food; it's nice to have a fresher, brighter vegetable. When you steam the squash, you get that counterpart, especially with the lovely topping of almonds, chili, herbs, and vinegar.
Catalano's Steamed Kabocha Squash with Herby Marcona Almond Topping. (Photo: Emily Hawkes)
Tell us about the Chicken Fat Mashed Potatoes.
My mom would always make roast chicken and potatoes; my favorite part was the potatoes soaked in the chicken fat. I thought, 'How do I put this into mashed potatoes because that sounds amazing.' I rendered chicken skin from chicken thighs, and I put that chicken fat into the mashed potatoes along with some butter; you gotta have both fats in there—it's the holidays! I love that mashed potatoes are very soft, but it's nice to have the crispy chicken skins on top as a crunchy counterpart of chicken-y deliciousness.
Do you have any tips for making mashed potatoes?
I love both Yukon Golds and Russets. You can use them interchangeably, but I wouldn't use a mixture because they tend to cook at different times. I used Russets in this [recipe] because they're more foolproof than Yukons, which tend to absorb more water and can become gluey.
Once they’re boiled, I put the potatoes on a sheet tray and into the oven until they dry out and look chalky. And then I mash them. It makes them nice and fluffy. And the potatoes come out really hot.
How did you come up with the Creamed Corn Drop Biscuits?
My inspiration behind this recipe was corn casserole. We didn't have that growing up, but my sister-in-law makes it for Thanksgiving, and it's one of my favorite sides now. I was thinking it'd be cool if I could make this into a biscuit. It uses canned cream corn—there's nothing wrong with canned cream corn!—and it adds a lovely moistness and intense corn flavor. It's more of a drop biscuit than a flaky, cut-out biscuit—they're really easy. You could serve them with honey and salted butter, but I like to make the Calabrian Chile Honey Butter from my book with them.
Catalano's Creamed Corn Drop Biscuits pair well with a Calabrian chile–infused butter. (Photo: Emily Hawkes)
A lot of people stress about Thanksgiving meal prep. Do you have any tips or advice for streamlining prep and keeping calm?
I think of it the same way as how I would prep at a restaurant when I was a line cook—always trying to keep a day or two ahead and then when the day comes, it's just putting everything together. The first week of November I'll make my turkey stock with roasted turkey wings and turkey backs. I'll also make a gravy with that stock, and freeze both of those things, so I'll have stock for stuffing and other sides. I'll make pie dough and freeze it.
A few days before, cut any vegetables you can. Say you're making stuffing day-of—you can have all your prep ready, so it's just dumping it in a pan, sautéeing it, and then throwing it in the oven.
What about using other pieces of equipment, like a toaster oven or an air fryer?
I feel like the slow cooker is underutilized. You can keep potatoes warm in a slow cooker, or [use it] if you make soup or an appetizer. It's also good to use because it's outside of the stove.
Any other Thanksgiving cooking advice?
We're too concerned about saying 'Dinner's at this exact time.' You can cook your turkey and it can be done two hours before you want to eat—it's better to rest it anyway and it will stay warm for a long time. Just make your gravy really hot! Thanksgiving is about having fun while we're cooking. I think sometimes we take it too seriously.
