My Internet: Alison Roman
The cookbook author is in a group text named Grigio Girls.
Embedded is your essential guide to what’s good on the internet, written by Kate Lindsay and edited by Nick Catucci.
Every other week we quiz a “very online” person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.
Today we welcome Alison Roman. The author of three New York Times bestselling cookbooks, she will publish her latest, Something From Nothing, on November 11. Also in November, First Bloom, her grocery store in the Catskills, will host a pop-up in the New York City. This month, she launches a tomato sauce. You can sign up for her newsletter, A Newsletter, and get recipes, recommendations and more at alisoneroman.com.
Alison thinks most controversies are boring and made up, recently bought a hand-crocheted chicken costume from Etsy for her infant, and says she needs the equivalent of Soylent for reading. —Nick
EMBEDDED: Do you tweet? Why?
ALISON ROMAN: I used to, but not so much these days. It’s not fun anymore! I’m more a voyeur. But even that’s not really even that fun.
EMBEDDED: Do you post on Bluesky, Threads, or Substack’s Notes? Why?
ALISON ROMAN: No. They aren’t (old) Twitter, and they never will be, will never replace what was good about (old) Twitter. If I’m being honest, I don’t have the brain space. At this moment in my life, I don’t need more things to look at from people I don’t know.
EMBEDDED: What do you use Instagram for?
ALISON ROMAN: Primarily work—to get my work out there, to sell books, promote the newsletter, any videos I’m making, etc. It’s basically a visual LinkedIn now. I also use it to waste a LOT of time and sometimes as a tool to feel bad about myself. It’s also good as inspiration for interior design and future home buying.
EMBEDDED: What types of videos do you watch on YouTube?
ALISON ROMAN: Primarily movie trailers (old and new).
EMBEDDED: Will you miss TikTok if it is eventually banned, and if so, what will you miss most about it?
ALISON ROMAN: I don’t watch TikTok, so … no. If friends want to send me them they have to send them to me in a link I can watch without the app. Sorry!
EMBEDDED: Is TikTok a national security threat if it remains under Chinese ownership?
ALISON ROMAN: … No? (Is that the right answer?)
EMBEDDED: Where do you tend to get your news?
ALISON ROMAN: NPR, NYT, BBC for news news, then newsletters like Line Sheet and Feed Me by Emily Sundberg for culture news. Group chats.
EMBEDDED: How do you keep up with the online discourse? How important is it to you to do this?
ALISON ROMAN: Oh boy. Despite it not being “important” to me, it seems to find me. I end up keeping up but I still try to stay out, if that makes sense. I no longer feel moved to weigh in. That’s what group chats and “close friends” are for.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last strong opinion you had about a story, topic, or controversy online?
ALISON ROMAN: I have strong opinions on just about everything, though I think most controversies are boring and made up so I don’t have a good opinion on most.
EMBEDDED: What are your favorite newsletters?
ALISON ROMAN: Line Sheet, Feed Me. If I’m honest I don’t have time to read that much right now. It’s embarrassing but true. I need the equivalent of Soylent for reading. I need concentrated, straight to the veins information, distilled and concentrated. Little time for pleasure.
EMBEDDED: How do you think Substack has changed media, if at all?
ALISON ROMAN: It changed media, undeniably. In the same way Instagram changed the way people could skip assisting or working in restaurants to become photographers or food creators, people can now become “writers” without credentials or ever having worked in an editorial workplace. It democratized the opportunity to make a living writing—or at least the opportunity to make a living based off your good taste and recommendations.
EMBEDDED: Do you have a take on the “manosphere”? Do you think personalities like Joe Rogan, Lex Fridman, and Theo Von have shaped young men’s political leanings?
ALISON ROMAN: My take is I’d love to never read or write the word “manosphere” ever again in my sweet precious life.
EMBEDDED: Are smartphones bad for us? Where do you fall on the Jonathan Haidt-Taylor Lorenz divide?
ALISON ROMAN: Smartphones are bad for ME. It’s ruined a part of my brain, for sure. I would be a healthier, happier person if I had a more boundaried relationship with my smartphone, and I’m probably a lot less dependent on it than a lot of people.
Re: children, my mother-in-law was a professor of early childhood education and actually just published a book for educators on screen time and children (Screen-Aware Early Childhood: A Realistic Approach to Helping Young Children Thrive in a Digitally Complex World) and now, with a 9-month-old, it’s something my husband and I think about a lot. He’s starting to clock our screens and we really try not to have them around when we’re spending time together. I suspect I’ll have a lot more feelings on the subject as he grows up. They’re a part of our lives from now till forever (I can’t expect him to not have something in his life that I can’t live without), so I am not looking forward to figuring out how to navigate that.
EMBEDDED: Have you had posts go viral? What is that experience like?
ALISON ROMAN: Hard to define the word viral these days, but I’ve had a few recipes “go viral,” and few newsletter posts go as close to viral as you can get (for being a newsletter?). It’s great, for the most part. I put a lot of myself into my work and to have it reach as many people as possible feels great.
If it’s a recipe, it means a lot of people are cooking, and that the recipe not only works, but it tastes good and people are proud of the food they’re cooking. That brings me a lot of satisfaction and joy. If it’s a newsletter post, it means a lot of people are reading, and that they’re enjoying or resonating with what I’m saying on some level (I hope). Both cooking and writing are the things I care most deeply about, so when they are successful, nothing makes me happier (personal life notwithstanding).
EMBEDDED: When was the last time you browsed Pinterest? What for?
ALISON ROMAN: I love Pinterest for house stuff and furniture. It’s especially good for jogging my memory when I can’t remember the name of something or a type of chair and I can type in something like “wrought iron swirly chair” and see what comes up (better than Google).
EMBEDDED: Are you in any groups on Reddit, Discord, Slack, or Facebook? What’s the most useful or entertaining one?
ALISON ROMAN: I’m not. When I recently relaunched my website I made sure it had a well-functioning comment section for each recipe and newsletter post—it’s the easiest and best way to engage in conversation for me because it’s topical vs. an open-ended thread.
EMBEDDED: Do any of your group chats have a name that you’re willing to share? What’s something that recently inspired debate in the chat?
ALISON ROMAN: Les Rockettes, Grigio Girls, bb international positivity co-op, SKIMBLESHANKS, to name a few
EMBEDDED: What’s your go-to emoji, and what does it mean to you?
ALISON ROMAN: Doing a lot of 😵💫😵💫😵💫 these days. It sort of means… I’m busy, this is crazy, I don’t want to do this, I know this is crazy but I’m doing it anyway, I know I don’t have time for this but I have to do it, sorry I’m/this is late, and, perhaps my personal favorite: “can you help me with this even though it’s a last minute ask? I know I’m so disorganized!” 😵💫😵💫😵💫
EMBEDDED: Do you text people voice notes? If not, how do you feel about getting them?
ALISON ROMAN: I love to give and receive.
EMBEDDED: What’s your favorite non-social media app?
ALISON ROMAN: Zillow or Live Auctioneers
EMBEDDED: What’s the most basic internet thing that you love?
ALISON ROMAN: Memes 😇 and using emoticons instead of emojis :)
EMBEDDED: Do you regularly use eBay, Depop, or other shopping platforms? What’s a recent thing you’ve bought or sold?
ALISON ROMAN: I’m an Etsy girl. I recently bought a hand-crocheted chicken costume for my son for Halloween. Watch this space.
EMBEDDED: Is there a site you like for product recommendations? How do you decide, for example, which air filter to buy?
ALISON ROMAN: I like and generally trust The Wirecutter.
EMBEDDED: What’s the last thing that brought you joy online?
ALISON ROMAN: See: chicken costume.
Thanks Alison! Pre-order her new cookbook, sign up for her newsletter, and visit her grocery store. 😵💫
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Watches new and old movie trailers, loves Zillow? I’ve never connected with Alison Roman more.