NYC or nowhere
plus: simple crispy pan pizza + an interview with natasha pickowicz
Monday, January 26, 2026
Good morning!
Matt Rodbard on AI, the Future of Food Media, and the Role of Cookbooks
Event: I’ll be in conversation with Ali Rosen, Sarah Fennel (Broma Bakery), and Ayesha Nurdjaja (Shukette) to celebrate Ali’s new book, The Slow Burn, at The Strand this Wednesday. [Tickets]
Some mixture of hitting my 25-year anniversary in New York City, feeling impressed by how unbothered the city is by the blizzard this weekend (including our 15 friends who piled into our apartment for moules-frites on Saturday like it wasn’t too cold to go anywhere), marveling over the pancake ice accumulation on the Hudson River this morning, and laughing over our new mayor’s snow messaging, has had me gushing about my city more than even lately. Thus, today’s newsletter is a love letter to iconic NY classics, from bagels to knish to matzo ball soup, soft pretzels, chow mein, and black-and-white cookies. Plus, I’ve got a new recipe this week for the easiest crispiest pan pizza, ever, the kind that’s perfect for home ovens.
But that’s not all this week! Today we have an interview with one of the best human beings in food, Natasha Pickowicz, whose second cookbook, Everyone Hot Pot: Creating the Ultimate Meal for Gathering and Feasting, is out tomorrow.
Finally, in case you’ve been stalking the Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser, I wanted to let you that it came out in a new color this month: a stunning off-white (and, believe it or not, the color I’ve requested the most because it makes food look so classy). I share more about it — and a starter pack of recipes — at the end.
Cheers,
Deb
I’ve written three cookbooks and one audiobook and I’m a tiny bit biased, but I think you’d love them all. Not sure which one to check out first? Take a look at the recipe index and see which collection jumps out at you most.
simple crispy pan pizza
New: The simplest, fuss-free pan pizza with a thick, airy dough rippled with blistered cheese on top, and browned to a seasoned crouton-like crisp underneath, the kind that makes an audible crunch when you cut through it. This is a recipe directly from my forever files, and I hope it finds a home in yours.
easiest fridge dill pickles
These are our go-to fridge pickles, and they are ludicrously easy. Do you have salt? Do you have vinegar? You’re set. They’re not bad at all an hour later, excellent 6 to 8 hours later, and you can also enjoy them three weeks from now — though by then, we’ll be on our third batch.
soft pretzels, refreshed
Soft pretzels are a wholly underrated baking project, just a simple dough, a cute twist, a baking soda boil that makes them smell and taste unmistakably pretzley, and a quick bake and you’re going to be so proud of yourself for pulling them off. Plus, they make the tiny sandwiches of my dreams.
peter reinhart's bagels
Missing warm, shiny, dense and a little stretchy seeded rings of bagel bliss? I have just the Sunday project for us, no special “New York water” (or other myths of perfect bagels) required.
potato knish, two ways
Classic Knish, with Russets and caramelized onions, and a Red Potato Knish with Kale, Leeks and Cream Cheese. Both as delightful as you would expect from carbs, wrapped in more carbs, brushed with egg, baked until flaky outside and steamy inside and filling enough to require the cancellation of all other meals for the remainder of the day.
hot and sour soup
A celebration of the unapologetically inauthentic and a 10-minute, hearty, totally unslippery and difficult-to-find-ingredient-free hot and sour soup that's the best we've had. My only regret is not having made double.
matzo ball soup
The best thing since chicken noodle soup, I’m going to (humbly, so humbly) assert that this is the only recipe you’ll ever need for perfect-every-time matzo ball soup that your local deli could only dream of. Make your bubbe proud and your belly happy.
chicken empanadas with chorizo
Looking for something cozy to bake this weekend? The filling of these empanadas is some of the best braised chicken I’ve ever eaten. The pastry is a cinch to work with, bakes up beautifully, and makes individual pockets perfect for now, to rewarm tomorrow, or to stash in the freezer for future lunches.
bodega-style egg and cheese sandwich
A simple bodega-style egg-and-cheese sandwich I make at home that takes approximately 3 minutes, while promising that the cheese inside will always be melty and spectacular -- hooray.
really simple homemade pizza
Flour, water, salt, yeast, a splash of oil, and 1 to 2 hours hands-off time are all you need to make really simple, impossible to mess up pizza at home. This is one of the oldest and most-used recipes on SK.
sheet pan chow mein
A crispy-soft, vegetable-full sheet pan spin on chow mein from Hetty Mckinnon that will become an instant favorite, I am absolutely sure of it.
chicken gyro salad
Grilled chicken, tzatziki, pitas, and a salad in a great big help-yourself platter is one of my favorite recipes on Smitten Kitchen.
new york cheesecake
Big, loud and over-the-top, just like my favorite city.
black and white cookies
As New York as bodega bacon-egg-cheese sandwiches and as old-school as egg creams, there’s no good reason to settle for stale black-and-white cookies when they’re this easy to make at home.
new york crumb cake
Hasn’t it always been too long since your last slice of profoundly perfect crumb cake? You know, the kind that’s a hefty square with at least as much height from big brown sugar and cinnamon crumbs as from a golden, buttery, sour cream-enriched and vanilla-scented cake? Yes, me too and I’ve got just the fix for us. [Video below!]
the perfect manhattan
My favorite place, my favorite drink.
AN INTERVIEW WITH NATASHA PICKOWICZ
My shelves are full of wonderful cookbooks I don’t get to talk about enough, so I’ve added this section so you can get to know the cool people behind them. Today we’re chatting with Natasha Pickowicz. Her second cookbook, Everyone Hot Pot, comes out tomorrow.
1. What inspired your cookbook?
I think most readers know me as a pastry chef and layer cake obsessive, but enjoying Chinese-style hot pot at home was something I grew up with as a child and later brought into my own adult life as a broke 20-something with a deep desire to entertain and have great parties. I would have hot pot dinners with friends who had never done it before and bear witness to the exhilaration and sense of discovery on their faces—that was a feeling I later chased working as a chef in restaurants. It’s an honor to play some small role in someone else’s pleasure.
I had toyed around with the idea of writing more extensively about hot pot, and the more I thought about it, the more I felt that there was so much I could say about this seemingly narrow topic, because I felt it was both underrepresented in Asian-focused cookbooks and also because people who were new to the meal always told me that they felt overwhelmed and intimidated by all the moving pieces. I wanted to provide a framework for all of those questions, and chances for people to truly make it their own—which I think all successful cookbooks can do.
2. What recipe are you the most proud of in the book, or felt the most triumphant when you got it right?
I’m most proud that it’s a truly family affair. My mom, Li Huai, is a classically trained oil painter and conceptualist, and illustrated my first book, More Than Cake, with so much inimitable style. Collaborating with her was a revelatory experience—both in the way that her artwork animated the text, and in the way that it brought us closer as mother and daughter—so I asked her to illustrate Everyone Hot Pot as well, because I see the two books as twinned in some ways, both formally and also conceptually. They’re books about bringing people together through food, the importance of those bonds and that care, and of course everything I know about hot pot I owe to my parents.
Her work adds so much depth, comedy, and narrative texture to the book. It was a joy going through all of the submissions, and to collaborate with her on everything from the color splashes that open each chapter to the inky calligraphy that opens the book. And I didn’t leave my dad, a Chinese historian, out! He knows more about the culture and rituals around hot pot than anyone I know. I was worried that I would get some of the research wrong, which would be easy because hot pot is a broad subject in Asia with dizzying regional variety, and I wanted to be respectful of how I was talking about these traditions, especially in other countries. He fact checked and proofread the manuscript—multiple times! And for free!—and advised me on everything from my Chinese romanization to cultural details about urban life, as well as contributing a charming standalone essay of his own. I’m really proud of how this book feels like a synthesis of all of our interests: my mom’s artistic eye, my love of food and writing, and my dad’s passion for history and scholarly research.
3. What recipe is so low-effort, high-reward that it’s worth cooking for dinner tonight, even if we’re tired and don’t want to cook?
I feel like nothing is more low effort than a from-scratch broth: combine all the ingredients, usually most of them from a pantry, cover with water, and wait. It’s total alchemy. I love the Mushroom and Dashi Broth, because a dashi is traditionally not a long-simmered type of soup; it comes together through the process of rehydrating deeply flavorful ingredients like kombu, a type of seaweed, and bonito, a smoked skipjack shaved into translucent flakes. I added shiitake mushrooms because I like the earthy contrast with the more oceanic ingredients, and shiitake packs a ton of flavor in just a few seconds. You could sip it in a mug, curled up in a blanket, and it’s the most nourishing and warming thing. I have caught Tini, my cat, sneaking sips out of a bowl multiple times.
4. What’s something you wish more people knew about your book?
I think my main hope is that people who expect only sweet recipes from me, or maybe follow me for my bake sale community organizing work, will feel like this book is for them, too. And that even if they’re not familiar with the ingredients, or this style of communal eating, they might try it anyway, and be thrilled by the world that unfurls before them. I have a deep, lifelong love for traditional Chinese ingredients like ginseng, jujubes, hawthorn berries, fermented tofu, black vinegar—but I also want to encourage people to bring in their own diasporic favorites, whether it’s a French jam or a Jamaican hot sauce, to their hot pot table. I’m not here to say what’s right or wrong. I’m here to show you what’s possible, what’s infinite, what stretches before you, waiting for you to discover it, on your own terms and in your own way.
Thank you, Natasha! You can order Everyone Hot Pot right here.
new york crumb cake
The Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser is a lower-walled enameled cast-iron Dutch oven that works as well as a deep sauté pan as it does a soup pot, roasting pan, or even casserole dish that perfectly fits a pasta bake. It’s the ideal size and usability (dishwasher safe!) for everyday cooking. Not a week has gone by in the 14 years I’ve had mine when I don’t cook in it at least three times, so when it was no longer sold in U.S. stores, I asked Staub — a French cast-iron manufacturer originally from Alsace; you can watch me tour the forge/factory here! — if they would partner with me to bring it back, because I knew you’ll fall in love with the pan too. We launched the Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser in spring 2024. As of fall 2025, the Braiser is exclusively sold at Williams-Sonoma and available in seven gorgeous new colors! The seventh, a classy off-white (pardon, French Crème) with a bronze knob, launched just this month.
Cranberry (bright red)
Grenadine (deep red)
Sage (light green)
Basil (dark green)
La Mer (dark blue-green)
Sapphire (dark blue)
(New!) French Crème (off-white) ✨
The Staub x Smitten Kitchen Braiser Recipe Starter Pack: Oh, you did get a new braiser? I’m so happy for you. Here are a few recipes you can kick off your cooking with!
Braiser: An entire category of recipes on smittenkitchen.com
My “I Dream Of Paris” Menu for the French Crème launch: Dijon Roast Chicken, French Onion Soup for a Crowd, and a Perfect Apple Tarte Tatin
Baked Ziti with Meatballs and Ricotta (Williams-Sonoma, Video)
Apple Butterscotch Crisp (Zwilling, Video)
Braised Chickpeas with Kale and Burrata (Zwilling)
shop my favorites
Ever wonder where I get my cutting boards, paring knives, offset spatulas and more that you see when I cook? I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. This isn’t just an Amazon storefront. For each item, I attempt to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer.
See you next week!
