Cookbook author Alison Roman has faced a firestorm of criticism following comments she made in a recent interview that disparaged Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. Now, the 34-year-old food columnist has lost her gig with The New York Times, at least temporarily, following the backlash.
"Alison’s column is on temporary leave," a representative from The New York Times told TODAY Food. "We’re not going to comment further.”
In an interview with The New Consumer which was published online May 7, Roman said she was "horrified" by Teigen's career trajectory.
"Like, what Chrissy Teigen has done is so crazy to me," Roman said in the interview. "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. 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 (expletive) money."
Roman also took down professional organizer Marie Kondo for "selling out" by lending her name to a product line after encouraging people to declutter.
On May 11, Roman posted an apology on Instagram and Twitter, sharing an entire letter detailing her regret over what she called "tone deaf remarks."
"Hi— ICYMI, over the weekend there was a bit of a twitter conversation where I was rightly called out for disparaging remarks I made regarding Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo," Roman posted alongside images of her apology. "Even if you didn’t hear about it (!), I feel like this was too important not to share here. I know this is a lengthy note (succinctness has never been my strong suit). I appreciate you taking the time to read."
Even after the apology, Roman's biweekly column, which recently featured a "Spring Tofu Soup" recipe and advice on how to cook with canned sardines, was put on temporary leave, though the Times did not specify why.
Many critics are upset that Roman took aim at two women of color, especially after facing criticism for culturally appropriating curry with her extremely popular "Spiced Chickpea Stew" recipe.
"Roman made herself a curry and refused to acknowledge that she had made a curry, and this is colonialism as cuisine," Roxana Hadadi wrote for Pajiba on May 9. "This is exactly what people have been grumbling about — the people who often aren’t included in the highest influencer echelons, as Roman now is.”
A few people also pointed out how Roman had capitalized off of Vietnamese cuisine by leading a paid tour through Vietnam, despite not being Vietnamese or ever having visited the country before.
Last week, Teigen accepted Roman's apology in a tweet, although she made it clear she was not looking for the "Nothing Fancy" author to say she was sorry.
"thank u for this, @alisoneroman," wrote the mom of two. "To be clear, it never once crossed my mind for u to apologize for what you genuinely thought! The comments stung, but they moreso stung because they came from u! It wasn’t my usual news break of some random person hating everything about me!"
On Tuesday, Teigen took to Twitter again after learning that Roman's column had been placed on a temporary hiatus.
"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 model-turned-cookbook author said after being asked about the status of her "beef" with Roman. "It just sucks in every way."