Five years ago, Hailee Catalano wasn’t thinking about personal branding or follower counts. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, she had spent nearly a decade working in acclaimed professional kitchens, with dreams of one day opening a café of her own. But when COVID shuttered restaurant dining rooms, Catalano began posting videos of herself cooking approachable yet elevated dishes in her home kitchen, which resonated with the rest of the world also eating every meal at home. Since then, she’s cultivated a devoted following of nearly 2 million on TikTok and over 500,000 on Instagram—and this week, she’s celebrating the release of her debut cookbook.

With over 100 recipes including vegetable-driven pastas, beach-ready sandwiches and Italian-American dishes inspired by her grandmother—plus sample menus and practical tips to remain calm and efficient in the kitchen—By Heart is “definitely the biggest project I've ever worked on,” Catalano says. After all, writing a cookbook wasn’t part of her five-year plan. But if she’s learned anything recently, she adds, it’s that careers rarely follow a script: “It's okay to have a one-month goal and see where that gets you.”