Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Fr Food Writer and Cook, Allison Roman. For the past two decades, Roman has been a

culinary force. First, in Los Angeles, then in New York City.

Of course, you likely first encountered Roman's work

hosting cooking videos for Bonapetit,

many of which went viral.

She then collected some of the hit recipes and put them into her first cookbook, Dining

in, which came out back in 2017, the same year she started as a food columnist at the New York Times.

Through each endeavor, Roman's mission statement is to create concise, resourceful

recipes for people, kind of like myself, that may not always have the right ingredients, the high-tech equipment, or really the time

to invest in a laborious meal. I could also just say people that are new to cooking like me.

The approachability of her work and the humor she leads with is why many turn to her in

the throes of the pandemic.

We talk about that period later in this conversation, which naturally dovetails into a discussion

around the criticism she directed at Chrissy Tegan and Marie Condo in May of 2020.

And then of course the subsequent fallout from those remarks.

I know many have complicated feelings about Roman, her work, and especially these comments, we get into all of that in great detail in the middle of this talk.

And I think by the end you'll have a better sense of not only where those comments come from, but where she's coming from.

First, we begin with her newest collection of recipes entitled, Sweet Enough, A Desert Cookbook.

It's an ode to her early years as a restaurant pastry chef,

which we also discuss in this conversation,

along with the chaotic conditions of working in the service industry,

Allison's work at the milk bar under the tutelage of Chef Christina Tossi,

...