Alison Roman is speaking out for the first time since the New York Times put her recipe column on hold on May 19, after her drama with Chrissy Teigen.
In a lengthy Instagram post shared on Tuesday, May 26, Roman, 34, began by showing her appreciation for those who reached out to her after she criticized Teigen, also 34, and her business model, in an interview with New Consumer earlier this month.
“I want to thank everyone who’s reached out and taken the time to write to me over the last few weeks. I am still working my way through each email (of which there are…a lot!), so if I haven’t gotten back to you yet, please know I will. The kindness, empathy, tough love, vulnerability and, honesty demonstrated by everyone who wrote in sharing experiences, book recommendations, anecdotes, and thoughtful advice has been overwhelming in the best way,” the Nothing Fancy author wrote.
In one of her apologies to Teigen, Roman explained that she wanted to be a “better listener” and encouraged people to share their “knowledge, guidance or opinions” with her using an email address she provided.
“I’m genuinely excited to turn this moment into positive, actionable change and so insanely grateful for even having that opportunity. This was a huge shake-up for me both personally and professionally, and I’m still processing so much, but know that I’m working on it and thinking about it 24/7,” the culinary pro added in Tuesday’s post. “The issues brought to light by this whole thing won’t be fixed overnight, and the healing process for many will be long, but I’m committed to doing the work to make it better.”
Though Roman didn’t mention The New York Times by name, she noted that her recipes won’t be appearing in the publication anytime soon. The paper confirmed to Us Weekly last week that Roman’s column is on “temporary leave,” though no reason was given for the decision.
“As for the other kind of work, for the foreseeable future, you can find me in that newsletter I started 3 years ago and never sent out lol. There will be recipes, reader emails, recommendations, and discussions about things that I hope you will like or find helpful,” the Dining In author explained. “In lieu of the comments section or DMs, I encourage you to submit questions/comments/concerns to qcc@alisoneroman.com, the idea being to share some of them in the newsletter (I am learning “the comments section” is not the best place for public discourse).”
Roman concluded her post, which was shared alongside a snapshot of some compost, by stating that she hasn’t been working on any recipes lately. “I haven’t been cooking and won’t pretend I have, so here’s a bowl of compost, which- a metaphor in there somewhere, I think!” she quipped. “Link to subscribe to the untitled newsletter in the bio.”
The drama between Teigen and Roman began after Roman’s comments in that New Consumer article were published on May 7. “What Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me. She had a successful cookbook. And then it was, like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her,” she said at the time. “That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of f–king money.”
In the wake of the criticism, the Bring the Funny judge tweeted that it was a “huge bummer” to see Roman slam her. She then temporarily left Twitter earlier this month after users began criticizing her and her children because of her role in the melee.
Meanwhile, Roman released two public apologies for her remarks, which also bashed organizing expert Marie Kondo. She called her statements “stupid, careless and insensitive,” and revealed that her criticism was rooted in her “own insecurity.”
For her part, Teigen, who publicly accepted Roman’s apology via Twitter, made it abundantly clear on May 19 that she never agreed with the Times’ decision to suspend her column. “I hope we can laugh about it one day, but I’m not happy with the NYT leave. So she def can’t laugh about it yet,” the Chrissy’s Court host tweeted in response to a user who asked where she stands with Roman. “It just sucks in every way.”
The Cravings author later added: “I don’t like this one bit and I’m doing what I can (off Twitter) to make that known.”
