How an American pastry chef reinvented the hotpot with immigrant-inspired twists

Most people who have spent time in a kitchen will tell you that baking and cooking are fundamentally different crafts: the former tends to follow strict formulas that require absolute precision while the latter is largely adaptable and often intuitive. But New York-based Natasha Pickowicz, a four-time James Beard Award-nominated American pastry chef and cookbook author, argues the two are more alike than many think, citing similarities between making artisanal pastries and Chinese hotpot. Born in San Diego to Li Huai, a visual artist from Beijing, and Paul Pickowicz, a European‑American Chinese film historian, Natasha Pickowicz was raised on “very culturally specific foods,” a background that shapes her cross‑cultural culinary perspective. She says her mother is “a phenomenal cook” who works instinctively and influenced her own “confidence and free-form nature” in the kitchen. Pickowicz never planned to become a chef. After graduating with a degree in English Literature from Cornell University in New York state, she moved to Montreal, Canada, where she got a job as a baker through a friend. She had never worked professionally in a kitchen before and did not think of baking as a long-term profession, but quickly fell in love with the “creation, repetition, being on your feet all day and making things for people”. For her, hotpot is ‘effortlessly fun, joyful and disarming’ Pickowicz, 42, loves creating food for people to celebrate their major life moments, whether that is getting married, having a baby or landing a new job. “That was where I felt like I truly loved being a chef,” she says. “It’s the privilege of participating in these amazing moments. It’s also why I gravitated towards hotpot as a meal, because it’s a highly interactive, communal style of dining that is effortlessly fun, joyful and disarming.” But baking remained her primary creative outlet for many years. After moving to New York in 2013, she rose to prominence as head pastry chef at acclaimed restaurants Altro Paradiso and Flora Bar. After being furloughed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, she wrote her debut cookbook, More Than Cake, which The New York Times named one of the best cookbooks of 2023. For her new book, Everyone Hot Pot, Pickowicz chose to explore hotpot, which is far less structured than baking pastries, as diners share cooking duties around a table, adding the ingredients they each like. The initial idea came from her literary agent, who noticed Pickowicz frequently documenting her hotpot gatherings on social media and encouraged her to write about the subject. Just one month after publishing More Than Cake, Pickowicz successfully pitched Everyone Hot Pot, and spent the next two and a half years writing it. The book, which is dedicated to her parents, with illustrations by her mother, was released in January 2026. “People are like, ‘Oh my gosh, hotpot book after baking book’ – I get that it’s different material and it’s a different subject – however, symbolically, I think they share quite a lot,” Pickowicz says. “Whether it was when I lived in San Diego, Montreal or New York, hotpot was a tool in my back pocket for introducing myself to a new circumstance – living in a new place, starting a new job, having new roommates. “I think I’m subconsciously drawn to cultural practices that are about building community and sustaining relationships.” How to give traditional hotpot a playful twist In Hong Kong, rich and flavoursome hotpot bases – such as Sichuan numbing-spicy soups or satay broths – are popular, but Pickowicz says she is used to gentler flavours. Because her mother came from Beijing, the family would start hotpot using a clear water base in the Chinese capital’s style. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Belletrist (@belletrist) Far from just a cookbook, Everyone Hot Pot pays homage to the different regional styles in China and the Sinosphere while incorporating unconventional ingredients and methods. One of the recipes is for a spicy beef bone broth enhanced with chilli and Sichuan peppercorns, and there is a chapter dedicated to breads and dumplings – starchy accompaniments used to soak up the dregs of the soup. Pickowicz also shares a salsa verde- and chimichurri-inspired variation of Northern Chinese scallion pancakes. “My mom would buy these shaobing [flaky flatbreads from Northern China], split them open like a pita and make little sandwiches by filling them with bites of food – thinly sliced lamb, lots of herbs and all the dipping sauces – from the hotpot,” she recalls. “For me, that’s something necessary at the hotpot table.” Pickowicz believes in challenging the notion of “authenticity” and expanding the definition of hotpot to include “more idiosyncratic ingredients”. She puts this into practice with recipes that include British marmalade in a dipping sauce, and a cashew and lime salsa macha that she sees as a variation of Chinese chilli crisp. Hotpot has always been about freedom and adding different toppings as the meal progresses. Perhaps the only rule is that diners must come hungry and leave stuffed. Pickowicz is not one for rigid rules. To her, the most exciting part of writing a cookbook is meeting the reader where they are and giving them the autonomy to weave their own experiences into her storytelling. Take her first book, More Than Cake, as an example. She says it was less about prescribing how to make a sandwich cake, but more about “presenting the different paints so you can make your own picture”. With that said, her hotpot recipes do have one simple formula: some leafy greens, preferred herbs, a bit of protein and a flavourful broth or dipping sauce. “However that comes together for you is legitimate, and it’s still hotpot,” she says. “It’s not necessarily a meal where you have to do any cooking at all or follow any recipes. It could be just buying great ingredients and putting them all out – that’s sort of the magic of hotpot. “It’s more about this modular idea of ‘choose your own adventure’. I wanted to give people a lot of different ways to enter this world and to make it their own.”

How an American pastry chef reinvented the hotpot with immigrant-inspired twists

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Inspired by her cross-cultural upbringing, Natasha Pickowicz breaks traditional hotpot rules to blend regional Chinese styles with new ingredients

Inspired by her cross-cultural upbringing, Natasha Pickowicz breaks traditional hotpot rules to blend regional Chinese styles with new ingredients