How TikTok-Famous Chefs Hailee Catalano and Chuck Cruz Designed Their Dream Kitchens—Yes, Plural

"The kitchen is all I care about in a house. It’s the heart of our home," says Hailee Catalano, a professional chef-turned-food content creator, whose feed features delightful videos of her breaking down cozy, accessible home-cooked meals. So when she and her partner Chuck Cruz—also a trained chef with a social following—serendipitously stumbled on a 1954 ranch-style home in New Jersey with two functioning kitchens, one on the ground floor and one in the basement, they took it as a major sign to move in.

"This house reminds me of my grandma’s house, who had a kitchen in her basement too. She’s Sicilian, this family [who lived here before us] was also Italian, and a lot of Italian homes had a second kitchen," Hailee says. (Her grandmother’s influence has been foundational to Hailee’s culinary career; a whole chapter in Hailee’s debut cookbook, By Heart, which was released in April and made the New York Times bestseller list, is dedicated to her grandma Tina’s recipes.)

Even though the house had been well maintained ("You could tell they really loved this house and took care of it," says Hailee, of the former owners), the duo wanted to fully renovate the interiors and reconfigure the layout to better suit their needs. Hailee and Chuck tore down the original ground-floor kitchen, which was a bit dark, and relocated it from one of the far corners to the very front of the house. The original kitchen is now the dining area. The original entrance initially led down a dim hallway, so a wall was removed and the ceiling was vaulted, to open up the space for the new kitchen. Windows were added to the dining area; skylights were added to the kitchen.

On the other side of the upstairs kitchen are two box rooms—the living room and primary bedroom. The couple was also presented with the option to have the kitchen at the back of the house (where their bedroom currently is), but that would have required plumbing changes. In the end, they decided on the kitchen at the front of the house, a recommendation from Chuck’s father, who was the couple’s contractor. The whole renovation project was a family affair, in fact: Chuck’s sister handled the interior design and Chuck’s brother-in-law helped with the build.

After months of planning, designing, and construction, the kitchen of Hailee’s dreams features floor-to-ceiling wood textures, stainless-steel accents, roomy cabinets that hide everything, and abundant natural light. The basement kitchen, where Chuck primarily cooks, emanates its own unique energy. Think: vintage chalet cabin meets, as Hailee describes, "a shop kitchen vibe."

In By Heart, Hailee writes that "[the] kitchen is where I have always found calm and serenity." As first-time homeowners, the professional chef couple shares how they created not one, but two, sanctuaries where they spend most of their days cooking for their audience and also each other.

Wood = warmth