Natasha Pickowicz, Hot-Pot Alchemist
Natasha Pickowicz is in possession of the key to personal fulfillment. Standing in front of an H Mart in Long Island City one recent afternoon, the chef and cookbook writer confided, “I feel like I’m sitting on this secret to happiness. And when people do it, when they experience it, I feel smug.”
The secret? Hot pot. A communal vat of bubbling broth in the middle of a table, surrounded by plates heaped with frilly cabbage, thin-sliced lamb, pale cubes of tofu, and bright crescents of kabocha squash, all ready to be poached and eaten. It’s the kind of meal that requires more shopping than actual cooking, which is why Pickowicz, who was wearing black jeans and a leather jacket over a red sweater, was prowling the produce aisle, eying enoki mushrooms and Napa-cabbage hearts.
Her first cookbook, the James Beard-nominated “More Than Cake,” was an ode to fancy layer cakes strewn with flower petals and tarts made with fresh fruits and vegetables. Pickowicz swerved away from sweets with her newest book, “Everyone Hot Pot,” which is an introduction to soup-centric dinner parties, illustrated by her mother, Li Huai. (Friends have suggested that Pickowicz get a tattoo of one of the images. Her mom hates the idea: “She’s, like, ‘Please don’t do it!’ ”)
Studying an array of soy-based products on offer—she particularly likes fried tofu rolls, which get pleasingly soggy in broth—Pickowicz admitted that she’d had some reservations about doing a cookbook devoted to communal soup-eating, especially in the post-pandemic era. She knew she’d be up against cultural prejudices about the potential germiness. “You look at something like a cheese board that is big in Western cultures, and everyone’s putting their fingers on the cheese board! Chinese cultural traditions are being held to a different standard,” she said.
The Long Island City H Mart, set next to train tracks and a Home Depot, is special for Pickowicz. The wide aisles—a little slice of the suburbs—make her homesick for the 99 Ranch Market where she shopped with her mom as a kid, in San Diego. The only child of an artist mother from Beijing and an academic father from Massachusetts, Pickowicz ate hot pot on Christmas Eve and birthdays. “Growing up, we didn’t go out for hot pot once,” she said. “I didn’t even know it was a meal you could have at a restaurant.” Later, living in a Bushwick loft while she worked as a pastry chef at Diner and Marlow & Sons, she hosted elaborate soup feasts at home, using thin-sliced meat, offal, and bones supplied by her butcher boyfriend.
Recently, Pickowicz went out for hot pot with a chef friend who was new to the experience. She was charmed to notice that the friend did a few things that looked “effortlessly Chinese.” Pickowicz said, “She was fishing bites of food out of the broth and putting them on my plate. It’s a very auntie thing to do!” Her dream quartet of hot-pot guests would include Ina Garten (“an American domestic goddess”), George Saunders (“a little more enigmatic”), Maggie Cheung (“elegant and severe”), and Zohran Mamdani (no explanation needed).
Pickowicz said that she’ll eat almost anything in broth—tripe, heart, “blood can be really good!”—but confessed, “I struggle with brains.” Lately, she’s been preferring vegetable-focussed meals. The best part of hot pot, she said, is how changeable it can be: “Are you vegan? Are you broke? Are you cooking for twelve people or two people?” One constant: “I’m a bit of a control freak, so I like to make the same sauce for everyone.” Her go-to is a white-sesame-and-cumin mixture.
Among the store’s wares, Pickowicz admired a cute pink camp stove, her preferred heat source for hot pot. “There’s something about seeing the open flame that’s very evocative for me,” she said. But she resisted, knowing that she could probably get a cheaper one next door at Home Depot. Even though one of her chapters features a surf-and-turf banquet of king crab and rib eye, she’s keen to teach her readers that hot pot can be affordable. Cookbook writing “is just one small piece of the puzzle for me, in terms of income,” she explained. Pickowicz has worked with a laundry list of brands, ranging from All-Clad to J. Crew. Maybe someday H Mart would join the rotation. But, until then, she’d have to get her butane elsewhere. ♦