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Alison Roman

Alison Roman is a New York cook and writer sharing recipes through cookbooks, A Newsletter and her YouTube series Home Movies, alongside her grocery shop First Bloom and Roman’s tomato sauces.

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Alison’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus her backstory and Starbook, where fans write.

Known for

Overview

Based in: New York
Work: Cook, writer, cookbook author and video creator
Early career: Pastry kitchens, then recipe testing at Bon Appétit
Breakout: Dining In and its salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread cookies
Also behind: First Bloom grocery store and Roman’s tomato sauces

Mini bio

How it started.

Alison studied creative writing in college before restaurant work drew her in. In her Into The Gloss interview, she recalled asking a chef about culinary school and being offered a job instead. Pastry was the opening available. She later worked at Milk Bar in New York, then became a freelance and full-time recipe tester at Bon Appétit, translating cooking knowledge into recipes people could use at home.

The recipes people passed around.

Her first cookbook, Dining In, appeared in 2017. Its salted butter chocolate chunk shortbread cookies became an online favorite, followed by the chickpea stew fans called #TheStew. Nothing Fancy followed in 2019, focusing on relaxed meals for having people over. Her restaurant experience helped her make recipes that felt useful in a home kitchen.

Building her own place to cook.

In 2020, criticism of her remarks about Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo led to an apology and the suspension of her New York Times column. She did not return to the paper. She launched A Newsletter that year and went on to make Home Movies on YouTube, building a direct connection with readers and viewers.

Beyond the page.

Sweet Enough brought her approach to desserts in 2023, the same year she opened First Bloom in the Western Catskills. Her work also includes the advice podcast Solicited Advice. Something from Nothing followed in 2025, along with a jarred tomato sauce business that became Roman’s in October 2026.

Creditschronological, newest first

Quotes

I was still cooking every day, but I was cooking to help other people cook, which was more interesting to me.Alison Roman, Into The Gloss

On moving from restaurant work to recipe testing: https://intothegloss.com/2018/11/alison-roman-beauty-interview

Trivia

She studied creative writing before working in restaurant kitchens.
Pastry became her first kitchen job because it was the position available, rather than a planned specialty.
She named Xi’an Famous Foods’ spicy cumin lamb noodles as a favorite in her Into The Gloss interview.
Her own books page points out that Something from Nothing includes a whole chapter on soup and an extended case for keeping distilled white vinegar in the pantry.