Alison Roman Talking Shit About Chrissy Teigen Is a Recipe for Disaster

Alison Roman and Chrissy Teigen Image: (Getty)

There have been more twists and turns in the Alison Roman and Chrissy Teigen drama in the last 24 hours than there are steps in an Alison Roman recipe, which maybe sounds like a read but is honestly one of the things I appreciated most about the Nothing Fancy cookbook author’s offerings. Should you not inhabit the particular corner of the internet that has spent the last couple months cooking things like shallot pasta and The Stew, and as of last night frantically refreshing Twitter to see what turn this culinary cacophony would take next, allow me to quickly catch you up to speed.

Roman, a former Bon Appétit staffer, current New York Times Cooking contributor, cookbook author, and noted anti-content farmer, whose recipes (along with herself as a cooking personality) have rocketed to near-ubiquity on Instagram over the past several months, gave an interview to The New Consumer about how she develops recipes, her brand, and what’s next for her career. Things might have been all fine and dandy were it to have stopped there, but Roman continued on to elucidate what she didn’t want for herself, which is apparently to be anything like Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen, both of whom Roman had some choice words for.

Roman called Kondo a sellout for creating a line of products for the home, saying it’s “antithetical to everything she’s ever taught,” while insinuating Kondo had nothing to do with the development of the products themselves beyond slapping her name on them, while also equating Teigen’s burgeoning food empire (which includes cookbooks, an Instagram page, and cookware, thus far) to a money-grabbing content farm. “That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do,” Roman said.

Naturally, the comments didn’t sit too well with Teigen who posted a series of tweets breaking down exactly how she felt about the whole situation. “This is a huge bummer and hit me hard,” she wrote, “I have made her recipes for years now, bought the cookbooks, supported her on social and praised her in interviews. I even signed on to executive produce the very show she talks about doing in this article.”

Roman, obviously, apologized for the whole thing and attempted to backpedal her comments about both Teigen and Kondo (with whom she shares a publisher), while seemingly simultaneously admonishing Teigen for the backlash she’d received, “Being a woman who takes down other women is absolutely not my thing and don’t think it’s yours, either (I obviously failed to effectively communicate that). I hope we can meet one day, I think we’d probably get along.”

Given that it was pointed out that Roman has apparently been talking shit about Teigen for quite some time, I don’t know if that meeting is very likely to happen at this point.

The fact that Roman chose to taker her ire for the factory-to-table influencer model out on two Asian women, when she has a bevy of white contemporaries (and predecessors) who are far more prolific to select from, certainly adds another layer to the situation, as do Roman’s since redacted comments in the interview where it seemed she was mocking Kondo’s accent.

For now, it seems that the internet has risen up in support of Teigen, with folks like Roxane Gay and Nigella Lawson tweeting their support, while chef Sunny Anderson commented on Teigen’s Instagram in solidarity. If the internet has taught me anything, it’s that this story is far from over, and until the next development I will be quietly needlepointing this Chrissy Teigen tweet on every single article of clothing I own. I am the farm, goddammit! [Page Six]

Tyra Banks has exactly one moment of pause to reflect on the many missteps America’s Next Top Model made during its extremely, very long run.

If I’m counting correctly, there have been about a million cycles (not seasons, cycles!) of ANTM, and at least once per cycle something absolutely unhinged was sure to happen.

There was the time she told a model the gap in her teeth would prevent her from being successful and had her get dental surgery to correct it, the time she had a model whose friend recently died do a photoshoot in a graveyard, any of the thousand times she sat and watched a sobbing contestant get all their hair chopped off because she was obsessed with referencing Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby, or the number of times models on the show were shamed for their weight.

“Been seeing the posts about the insensitivity of some past ANTM moments and I agree with you,” Banks tweeted, “Looking back, those were some really off choices. Appreciate your honest feedback and am sending so much love and virtual hugs.”

There you have it folks, some of the choices were off! Now, if only we could get Tyra to dive into exactly what was going on on that talk show of hers we might be able to get a real conversation going. [People]