The first dish chef Hailee Catalano made that went viral and started her on the path to food influencer was one she didn’t even fully love or understand until she moved to New Jersey: pasta alla vodka.
“That’s how I got a lot of my first followers,” says the Neptune-based Catalano, whose first book By Heart: Recipes to Hold Near and Dear (Penguin Random House) is out now. “Ever since moving to New Jersey, it’s like, Wow, people here really love…vodka pasta and chicken parm.”
Catalano, who is originally from Chicago and has called Jersey home since 2020, says living here has helped her reconnect with her Sicilian roots and Italian-American classics.
“The pizza here, of course, is much better,” she says, adding that one of her favorite spots is the beloved Bradley Beach establishment Vic’s. Her take on the bar-style pies served there—“thin but not extremely, very crisp bottom, the melty cheese and a thicker tomato sauce just sparsely put on”—can be found in her cookbook.
Catalano and her partner, Chuck Cruz, who grew up in Piscataway and is also a chef, started making TikTok and Instagram content, like many, during the pandemic. They quickly achieved a following. Catalano has 1.9 million followers on her personal TikTok and 550,000 on Instagram. Her content is homey, cozy, achievable and fun. She and Cruz also run a popular shared venture on TikTok (@2peoplecooking) and Instagram (@twopplcooking).
Catalano says she approached her cookbook the same way she approached social media.
“It’s the foods I enjoy, that tell the story of my life in food,” she explains. “Comforting foods, and things that I learned in restaurants. The toppings that make them more special.”
Toppings, condiments, dips and butters are a signature of Catalano cuisine, and By Heart features sections devoted to them. Don’t skip her Hot Cherry Pepper Jam, Roasted Garlic Sunflower Seed Dip, and Ranch Butter.
Catalano and Cruz met at the Culinary Institute of America, and both cooked at (the now shuttered) Talde in Jersey City before moving to Chicago together, and then back to the Garden State, where they now focus much of their content. Some of Catalano’s most popular videos see her preparing a huge sandwich to take to the beach for a picnic.
“One thing I’ve learned is, it always comes back to New Jersey,” Catalano says. “Everyone lives here and everyone’s from here. People from New Jersey want you to love New Jersey so much.”
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