Before the age of social media, no one went into the culinary industry to become rich and famous—at least, according to Alison Roman. “Nobody started working in a restaurant for the promise of notoriety,” the cookbook author told Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Jennifer H. Cunningham for our Newsmakers Impact interview series.

When she started at Bon Appétit over a decade ago, Roman said the publication didn't have an Instagram presence and the concept of using social media for "personal branding" wasn't nearly as prevalent. Today, Roman has amassed 800k followers on Instagram and almost 300k subscribers on YouTube, where she shares recipes and insights on her life as a chef, grocery store owner and mother.

At 19, Roman dropped out of college to take a restaurant job “making no money" and never looked back. After working in kitchens in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Brooklyn, Roman joined Bon Appétit as a recipe tester in 2012. She quickly gained a following online, where she shared her recipes across Instagram and YouTube.

Her first cookbook, Dining In, was published in 2017 and featured her viral salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies, known widely as #TheCookies. She became known for her simple, no-frills approach to cooking (other signatures include #TheStew and #ThePasta) and later became a regular columnist at New York Times Cooking.

Roman's goal has always been to build people’s confidence in the kitchen because “there is this boost that you get from doing something well.”

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Erscheinungs­datum: 7.5.2026, 12:00:00