Hayden Haas, the TikTok-famous chef with roots in Grand Forks, is releasing a cookbook to the delight of his loyal fans – Grand Forks Herald

EAST GRAND FORKS – For Hayden Haas, food is much more than just nutrition, sustenance or one of life’s basic needs.

The popular online chef and food blogger has written a new cookbook to “bring people together and get them cooking together, hanging out with the people they like, and making the world a better place through food,” Haas said.

His first cookbook, “Simply Delishaas: Favorite Recipes from My Midwestern Kitchen,” was published earlier this week by DK Penguin Random House. It took two to three years to complete, “from start to finish,” he said, and “it was something of a passion project.”

He greeted friends and fans at a book signing at Bernie's Restaurant earlier this month.

Haas has been creating and demonstrating recipes and sharing them with viewers online for about five years. “I use my skills and hobbies in directing, editing and food photography and … now I've managed to create this beautiful piece of literature that I can share,” he said.

Many of his hundreds of thousands of online followers have been asking him to write a cookbook “for a very long time,” Haas said. “I just jumped into it and … (now) it's so nice to have come full circle and be able to share it with everyone.”

At the book signing he said: “I am overjoyed. I am so happy to be here.”

Haas compares the 277-page hardcover cookbook with over 125 recipes to a family album, a kind of tribute to “so many wonderful women in my life” – including his mother and grandmothers – who inspired and encouraged his love of cooking and baking, he said.

The book is “a compilation of all my favorite Midwestern recipes, but of course all my other favorite recipes as well,” he said.

“So it's like a piece of home,” he said, noting his deep roots, having lived in Grand Forks and gone to school in East Grand Forks. The book includes mentions of local restaurants — as well as his favorite recipes — “and a lot of what my mom and my grandmother cooked.”

To prepare the book, he visited his grandmother in Wisconsin, he said. “My cookbook is like a family album, and I reveal so much about myself at the same time.”

“I even took little clippings from my journal and put as much of it in as I could, so it was very therapeutic,” Haas said. “It's just so nice to have such a wonderful media element that's not on your phone, in a time when everything is digital.”

The book, which includes photos by his close friend Tessa Hiney of Grand Forks, has sections on sandwiches, pastas, salads, desserts, drinks and breakfast and brunch. The recipes are mostly traditional, with “sometimes a touch of fusion dishes,” Haas said.

His goal is to provide recipes that are “achievable,” he said, “with what you have on hand in your pantry, your fridge or your freezer – because you're snowed in or you're living on a budget and that's all you can afford for the week.”

“I want anyone from any walk of life to be able to open my cookbook, pick out a recipe and cook it. I think that's the dream – whether it's the mother trying to put something on the table, or the single person who's just trying to feed themselves after working three jobs – because I was definitely that person – or the whole family or a friend inviting people over for dinner and drinks.”

He hopes his home cooking cookbook will encourage people to improvise and be creative in the kitchen, he says, “and that once they come out of their shell, they can be really great cooks.”

Haas said he was both surprised and pleased by the reactions of viewers to his videos. He had not expected such an effect.

“I get comments like, 'You've inspired me to cook again' or 'This is my comfort zone.'”

He said of his career: “I think I am most proud of the safe space I have created online where people can come together, learn to cook and share ideas.

“I am so grateful every day that this is my life and that I have the opportunity to share what I love with other people – and to inspire others to do the same.”

A longtime resident of Grand Forks, he moved to Minneapolis in April, where he felt there were more opportunities to advance his career and “make even more of an impact,” he said. It's a way to “try new dishes and get out of my comfort zone.”

Fans and friends lined up outside Bernie's restaurant to meet Haas and get their cookbooks signed. Some posed for selfies, others got a big hug.

Jan Heitmann said she has been a fan of his for a few years. What she likes about his recipes is that “everything is so simple and easy to follow.”

Heitmann appreciates his friendly, informative videos because “he always has a twist, you learn something new.”

She learned about Haas' food blogs while working with his mother, Kristine Haas, at All Seasons Garden Center, she said. “It's nice to see him grow.”

And some recipes are really special.

“He makes The “The best birthday cake,” explained Heitmann. “The one with the multiple layers of chocolate, oh, it's so delicious.”

Her sister Jill Kiel said: “I've been a fan for a long time. I've been watching his YouTube videos for several years.”

She was thrilled with Haas' recipe for tater tot casserole.

“It has onions on top, which is kind of weird but fantastic. It's a great variation.”

Emily Kulas of Thompson, North Dakota, said she has a fondness for his New Year's Eve soup and “his dill pickle soup is a family favorite.”

“We make a lot of his soups,” said her husband Joe, who attended Sacred Heart School with Haas.

“He's become a cooking sensation,” Joe Kulas said. “It's cool to see how someone changes over time… It's fun to see him do well and make a name for himself.”

When looking through the photos in the cookbook, “we see people we know,” he said, “so it’s fun.”

Eric Hylden/Grand Forks Herald

Another friend, Mary Fontes, is obviously pleased that he has adapted a lemon bar recipe she gave him. “It's on page 270,” she said. “He modified it, with raspberries.”

Fontes, who appears on the book's cover in a picnic scene, said her daughter Jessica went to school with Haas for years, starting in preschool. As they got older, they said, the two cooked together.

“I'm like part of their family,” Fontes said. “It was really fun.”

Molly Yeh was an important mentor and an “outstanding role model” – especially in teaching the skills of recipe writing, filming and editing – on this “unexpected career path as a content provider,” Haas said. “She was always an inspiration to me. She wrote the most beautiful foreword (for the book).”

Yeh is an award-winning food blogger and cookbook author, owner of Bernie's Restaurant, and host of the Food Network show “Girl Meets Farm.”

“I feel like a proud mom,” Yeh said during the book signing at Bernie's. “It's been so incredible to see Hayden blossom and spread joy at work with his delicious food. … Watching his growth brings tears to my eyes.”

“He has so much drive, he is so creative,” she said. “I'm happy that his book has finally been published – and that he's celebrating here.”