This Female Chef Rocks
I believe that the year 2020 will go down in history as the “time we really thought about cooking for ourselves.” Shopping for groceries whether online or in person has suddenly taken much more effort than we’ve done in the past. I actually showed up at 8:20 am at Trader Joe’s to make sure I could get in and out fast. Of course it worked – but I’ve never shopped for milk, veggies and yogurt at that hour in my entire life. Yep, we were in a new era, no doubt about it!
Since I live on Park Avenue in the thirties there are lots of restaurants nearby – who were not allowed to open during the pandemic but jumped right in and said, “We’re here, just give us a call for takeout.” And many residents decided this was an excellent solution to “Hey, what’s for dinner?” There were so many takeouts in my building that a huge table was set up in the lobby just to hold all the dinner bags that came flooding in from around 6:30 pm until whenever – no delivery guys were allowed to go in past the front desk. Usually the resident was alerted via phone and dinner was taken up to their apartment.
Takeout isn’t for me: I like to cook and know exactly what I’m eating. That said I was intrigued by a write-up written by Yasmin Gagne titled “Recipe for Success” in the June 2020 issue of Fast Company magazine. The subject was about the star chef Alison Roman, 34. Since I had never heard of her I quickly read the piece and found she has a column in the New York Times every other week that is very popular.
Smart, creative chef and author, Alison Roman out shopping
Roman’s second cookbook, Nothing Fancy, was a bestseller after its release in October 2019. Apparently, it’s written with a conversational tone that’s directed towards millennials (ages 22 to 38) who are coping with tight budgets and, for the most part – lilliputian kitchens – that’s a knee-jerk description, but it’s pretty accurate. This author has an unfussy take on cooking and entertaining that many people love.
A SELF-TAUGHT LOS ANGELES NATIVE: Roman left college at age 19 for a job in that city’s Michelin-starred restaurant named Sona. “I just walked in and asked for a job,” she says. Later she moved to New York and worked at the bakery chain Milk Bar. “Any time we had to figure something out, we just figured it out,” she says. She still does this – by creating her own recipes and making them multiple times before deciding they’re right. “No matter where you live, or what kind of grocery store you have access to, or what size kitchen you have, you can still make really great food.” Hallelujah! I’ve never seen this in print before but I’ve always believed it.
Photos courtesy of Fast Company
SHE PUTS HERSELF IN THE NOVICE COOK’S SHOES: “I always ask myself, ‘Is somebody going to do this at home, or are we just telling them that’s what they should be doing?’” Roman says she won’t publish recipes if they end up being complicated. For Thanksgiving 2019 she gave readers an extremely useful rundown on how to prep for this meal (including going shopping) in only three days. Hallelujah again!
I’ve come across recipes that have so many ingredients (some I’ve never heard of) that it would take me a week of shopping before I could even think about making the recipe – that invariably – has 10 or 12 steps. This makes it totally daunting. I don’t have that kind of patience or time.
ROMAN DOESN’T FOLLOW OTHER CHEFS: “But I answer reader’s questions if they’re having trouble,” she says. “I really want to teach them how to cook.”
It’s time to end -- with a third Hallelujah!
Shaun Nelson-Henrick