Lifestyle

How Alison Roman became the coolest person in cooking



When Alison Roman found out her second cook book, Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over, had made the New York Times Bestsellers list, she “literally had to pull over to cry”.

“It was highly emotional, because it was the only goal I’d ever really set for myself and I thought it was super unattainable and so the fact that it happened was a really crazy thing,” Roman tells the Standard.

Now in its fifth consecutive week on the NYT list, Nothing Fancy is the ultimate guide for ‘having people over’. The follow-up to Roman’s debut cookbook, Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes, she says her new book has ‘more of a focus’ and ‘more of an editorial spin’. (A recipe from the book can be found at the bottom of this page.)

“It’s basically the way I cook anyway. When I was developing the book I was throwing dinner parties at least once a week or three times a month, just because that was how I tested the book.”

So what makes a killer dinner party? “Probably wine,” Roman laughs. “And definitely the energy of the people you invite. Especially when people aren’t all friends.”

Roman, 34, started cooking when she was 19, “It’s the only real profession I’ve ever had”. After realising she didn’t want to work in, or own, a restaurant, food development was the natural solution, something Roman easily fell into.

After a short stint at Milk Bar, owned by the Manhattan-based Momofuku restaurant group and a place that taught Roman how to open a business and run a kitchen, she spent four years at Bon Appétit​ where she learnt and honed her food development skills.

Alison Roman honed her recipe development skills at Bon Appétit (Alison Roman)

Now a food columnist for the New York Times, Roman has seen two of her recipes reach viral status. The first, her Salted Butter and Chocolate Chunk Shortbread which featured in Dining In, took off in late 2017 and became known simply as ‘The Cookies’. Type ‘the cookies’ into Google and Roman’s recipe will be the top result.

“That was an interesting point for me because I had come out with that cookbook and it was the first time I had seen a recipe from a book become successful in a way that was usually reserved for just the internet,” Roman recalls.

“I think people started to know that about me but not know anything else about me, they just thought that I wrote the recipe for the cookies and that was it. I definitely brought a lot more people to the space than was there before because even if you weren’t a regular home cook you could still take part in this thing.”

The same thing happened a year later with one of Roman’s New York Times columns. Her recipe, Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric, became known as ‘The Stew’ – and a quick Instagram search for #thestew brings back close to 6,000 results of people making and sharing the recipe.

“It was not my intention at all [for it to be viral], it was just part of my regular column and I had hoped that it would be something that people would want to make for dinner,” Roman says.

In the age of Instagram, the virality of these recipes has made Roman somewhat of a celebrity cook. Her aesthetically pleasing and surprisingly achievable recipes, coupled with her laid back demeanour and her signature beauty looks (orange-red manicure and red lips, something Roman feels ‘naked’ without) has earned her over 300,000 Instagram followers.

“[Social media] is a really great way to create content that could showcase the way I cook and create an online community. The easiest way to consume something is to follow someone on Instagram, rather than going to 25 different blogs,” Roman says.

“The internet has changed everything so much, I feel like it’s one thing to follow somebody on Instagram – which is pretty low-risk and doesn’t require much of you – but it’s another thing to actually buy their cookbook and buy ingredients and show people what you’ve cooked. I feel like that’s the difference and that’s what the big impact is.”

Roman has just ended a week-long stint in London promoting Nothing Fancy as part of her wider 29-date book tour across the US, London and Canada.

“I had started to notice that people [in London] were caring and I figured if I was ever going to have a presence here I think doing events is a really good way to do that and to meet people. It was an excuse to come to London really,” says Roman

Wine and the energy of the people is what makes a great dinner party, says Roman (Alison Roman)

Last week Roman hosted a dinner evening at Fare in the City, spent an evening with the team at Honey & Co in Fitzrovia, appeared on BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and was a guest on a live recording of Violet Sessions, a podcast hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding cake designer, Claire Ptak .

“[Claire and I] had a couple of mutual friends so last time I was here we hung out socially and she invited me onto her podcast, so we decided to make it into more of an event where we sold tickets and served snacks and drinks and things like that,” says Roman.

So where does she love to eat when she’s in town? “I love BRAT and also Brawn, they’re a couple of places we went to while here and I love them. Also P. Franco for wine, those are a few of my favourite spots for sure. They all change their menus so frequently, at BRAT they have langoustines – that and the velvet crab are some of my favourites, it’s so rare to get really nice shellfish like that, especially grilled. I am obsessed with it.”

With a third cookbook on the way and her book tour nearing its end, Roman will be taking some much-needed time off over Christmas – with popcorn being her dinner of choice for the foreseeable future.

Below, see a recipe excerpt from Nothing Fancy.

Alison Roman’s One-Pot Chicken with Dates and Caramelised Lemon

Alison Roman’s One-Pot Chicken with Dates and Caramalised Lemon (Alison Roman)

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients

  • 3½- to 4-pound chicken, or 3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or legs
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
  • 1 lemon, cut into thick slices crosswise, seeds removed
  • 2 shallots, halved lengthwise
  • 4–6 medjool dates (3 ounces), pitted
  • 4 sprigs fresh thyme or oregano, plus more for serving
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 teaspoons ground Urfa chile, or 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • Flaky sea salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 218°C.

2. Season the chicken all over with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large (at least 8-quart) Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Place the chicken in the pot breast side up, and using tongs or your hands (be careful!), press lightly to make sure the skin comes into even contact with the pot bottom. This is your chance to brown the legs and render that excess fat! It’s rarely offered in whole-chicken recipes, so take advantage. (If using parts, just sear the chicken skin side down.)

3. Cook, without moving, until the chicken is nice and browned, 5 to 8 minutes. Seriously, no peeking! Nothing exciting will happen before 5 minutes, I promise you.

4. Add the lemon slices and shallot, manoeuvring the chicken however you need so that the slices come into contact with the bottom of the pot. Let everything sizzle in the chicken fat until lightly caramelised, about 2 minutes.

5. Add the dates, thyme, and water. Sprinkle the top of the chicken with the Urfa chile and place the lid on. Put the Dutch oven in the oven and roast until the dates are plump, the lemon is jammy, and the chicken is almost but not totally cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes (it will look mostly cooked through and a little anaemic from getting covered with the lid).

6. Remove the lid and drizzle the chicken with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and continue to cook until the liquid has reduced by half and the top of the chicken is an illustrious, glistening golden-brown, another 20 to 30 minutes (depending on if you’re using parts or whole bird).

7. Let the chicken rest in the Dutch oven for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cutting board and carve. Serve along with the shallot, lemons, and dates, with some more thyme and flaky sea salt sprinkled over.

DO AHEAD: This chicken can be made a few hours ahead, then kept in the Dutch oven at room temperature. If you wish to reheat it before serving, pop it back into the oven without a lid for 10 to 15 minutes or so

Nothing Fancy: Unfussy Food for Having People Over by Alison Roman, (£22, Hardie Grant Books). Buy it here.



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