Hailee Catalano’s videos—which include scouring a farmer’s market for husk cherries, building a two-foot-long sandwich, and plating turnips—aren’t manufactured to grab attention. If you scroll through her TikToks, you’ll find that the genre’s gimmicks—pulsating music, aggressively quirky commentary, and dudes in tank tops—are noticeably absent. And yet, more than 2 million people are following Hailee’s every meal.
Of those 2 million people, many watch because Hailee—a culinary school graduate and former line cook at Chicago’s Cellar Door Provisions—is a badass in the kitchen. With a soft, sincere voice and an arsenal of well-trained culinary techniques pouring into each of her videos, Hailee is the epitome of quiet confidence.