The bestselling author looks to her pantry with a new cookbook and to the world with a line of sauces, a new shop, and so much more
It’s been a year for Alison Roman. Over the last 12 months the recipe developer and bestselling cookbook author added wife (to husband Max Cantor) and mother (to son Charlie; recently on to solids) to her list of honorifics. These include, in no particular order: shopkeep (her pantry store, First Bloom, can be found in Bloomville, NY); podcaster (Solicited Advice); newslettrist (350k fans subscribe to “a newsletter”); talk show guest (she and Stephen Colbert whisked up a fruit tart on “The Late Show”); hostess (her Ham Parties are legendary); and cat mom (mainstay Edith and recently rescued Leonard seem very happy, and well fed).
She also moved, though it’s not inaccurate to say she’s in constant movement. Or perhaps “unstoppable.” This fall, she’ll unveil her fourth cookbook: Something from Nothing. She’s also releasing a line of pasta sauces and opening her first New York City shop. And…actually, that’s it. But it’s a heck of a lot. And we wanted to know about it all.
In the dying days of summer, she tucked into a booth at The Brooklyn Inn with Edible Manhattan Group editor John Ortved. Over beer (her) and cider (him) they discussed how a freezer can be a pantry (really), the problem with pop-ups (it’s the name, really), and how she is the Paul Newman of her time (not really; come on!)
JO: Another cookbook. Why did you want to do this?
AR: Because it’s in my contract. No, I’m kidding. Because it’s what I do. For the rest of my life, I will always want to write cookbooks. I believe in collections of recipes
versus one-off recipes that live on the internet.
JO: Do you have some cookbooks that will always be on your shelf?
AR: They’re more emblematic. I think a lot of people probably use cookbooks that way: “This is the kind of cook I am” versus “This is the kind of cook I read.” People are like that with novels. I’m not reading Joan Didion every day, but I have a lot of Joan Didion on my shelf—in the same way that I have a lot of Alice Waters on my shelf.
JO: A truer word ne’er was spoken. I have Marcella Hazan, Larousse Gastronomique, Better Homes and Gardens from the 1950s. But they’re less cookbooks than reference books.
AR: I have River Cottage, I have Diana Henry, a lot of books from the ’70s—one-offs. Those books were not made for the gaze. They were written to document a recipe,
to teach people how to cook.
JO: Something from Nothing looks like a departure for you, but it still very much feels like you.
AR: Visually, it’s a departure. People will find a lot of familiar things in it: shallot pasta, crushed olive chicken, dilly bean stew, brown-butter potato salad. This was a way to corral a lot of those recipes that mean something to me, which also happened to symbolize what this book is: pantry cooking.
JO: Can you crystallize what pantry cooking is for you?
AR: It’s opening up your pantry, a cold dark place in your kitchen. It’s not your refrigerator; it’s not the farmers’ market. It’s things—in cans, tins, jars—that don’t spoil, and making a meal from those things. You have onions, garlic, olive oil, beans, what can you do with that? Turns out, a lot. This book has yogurt, parsley, lemon, but the idea is that with 90% pantry items and minimal technique you can make something that’s fucking awesome.
JO: Since your last book, you’ve moved, gotten married, you’ve had a kid; how has your cooking evolved with your life?
AR: When I was writing Nothing Fancy, I was 34 and I was throwing parties all the time, and I was storing Modelos in the bathtub.
JO: Thank you for that, by the way.
AR: You’re welcome. I was drunk all the time, and I was hungover all the time, and that was the kind of food I was making. All those recipes I still stand by. When I was writing this book it was seasonally different: It was cold. I was upstate more. I didn’t have the ability to just hop on the Q train to the farmers’ market for produce. I had to get a little bit more creative with a bag of lentils. So that really informed my cooking more than where I am in my life right now.
JO: The smell of my mother’s pantry—it was a cupboard in the kitchen—is at the back of my mind, but it is the smallest distance from the front of my mind. It’s right there.
AR: This is the most cozy, homey, personal, warm book I’ve ever made. If you’re going to own one of my books, it’s this one.
JO: What was the pantry dinner in the Roman household?
AR: Macaroni and cheese in a box, babe. I wanted that tonight, but I didn’t have it. I had radiatori, I had a block of parmesan, and I had black pepper, so I made basically cacio e pepe.
JO: If there is a cheese that’s a pantry item, it’s parm.
AR: One hundred percent. I take a lot of liberties in this book. I’m treating onions like a pantry item. I’m also telling you that you should treat your freezer as an extension of your pantry.
JO: I call bullshit on the people who say, “Freeze your stock, but only for 30 days.”
AR: No. Freeze it forever.
JO: What’s the most criminally overlooked pantry item?
AR: White distilled vinegar. It’s acidic without flavor. It is perfect for your aioli. It’s perfect for braises, and it’s perfect for soups and stews. Tang without flavor.
JO: Don’t sleep on white vinegar with french fries.
AR: Yes.
JO: You’re opening the pantry further, though; you’re getting into the sauce business.
AR: We have been making some things for First Bloom—granola, broth, tomato sauce—and it became a little overwhelming. It occurred to me that we should get a co-packer for some of that stuff. So there’s a tomato sauce coming, called A Very Good Sauce. There’s three flavors. And that’s all I’ll say right now.
JO: I feel like if Paul Newman did it, you can do it.
AR: That’s kind of how I feel. And I’m nothing if not the Paul Newman of my time, for so many reasons.
JO: And you’re opening up your first boutique in the city.
AR: Oh my God: “a boutique.” [scoffs] It’s a pop-up, a phrase I actually hate. But it is a pop-up because it’s not permanent.
JO: I think of the shops I go to in the city and there are so few: Raffetto’s, Dual, Sahadi’s, Florence for meat.
AR: We’re a dying breed of New Yorker: the person for whom specialty shopping is an activity that you look forward to. I use the delivery services for convenience,
but I go to the places that make me happy—Sahadi’s, Paesano’s, the farmers’ market—because I like picking out things in person; you get better things that way; you get to discover new ingredients; you form relationships.
JO: Give me the goods: What is your shop going to carry?
AR: It’s going to be my pantry: classic high low.
JO: Beans?
AR: Yes.
JO: Peanut butter?
AR: Yes.
JO: Candy?
AR: Yes.
JO: What kind of candy?
AR: Really good candy from Sweden.
JO: Oh my.
AR: Oh yeah. And Italy. And the German Haribo.
JO: I’m getting excited.
AR: I know.
JO: Will there be anchovies?
AR: Yes, at least three types, from the Bay of Biscay and parts of Italy near Cetara.
JO: Does Charlie have a favorite pantry dish?
AR: He definitely prefers sweet to savory, although he does like this lentil soup that I make.
JO: I’m really looking forward to your baby food cookbook.
AR: It’s not gonna happen.
JO: What do you hope people take from the new book?
AR: Food doesn’t have to look perfect, or look produced. Be messy. Let things be natural. Food is delicious. Food is meant to nourish. And not everything needs a hat on a hat. Not everything needs an additional sauce. Understand when something simple is the most delicious version of something.
JO: I could not agree more. At the same time, I’m still taking pictures of my food.
AR: That’s OK. Me too.
JO: Thank you for that. I posted a picture of a tuna sandwich I bought recently, because it had lemon rind, garnish, and flash, and I wanted to make the point that you don’t need all that. Let tuna be tuna.
AR: Yeah, take it off.
JO: Last question: What’s a perfect bar?
AR: This is a perfect bar for me. I love a dive bar. I love how dark this is. I love the smell. Also, this bar opens at like, 3. I have to give Charlie dinner soon.
FIRST BLOOM
52030 Hwy 10, Bloomville, NY; @firstbloomcornerstore
