New York Times Chef Alison Roman Shows Us Her Home Kitchen

Hi, I'm Alison Roman and welcome to my crazy cooking and live work space. I'm very excited to show you everything. I haven't done any preparation for this, so what you're going to get is the real welcome, so my favorite part of the

kitchen

is this place right here, which is where I do most of my work. The

kitchen

, as I always say, is a little small. It's actually a pretty big room, but the space I have to work with is pretty small, so I'm almost always right. here or here and never anywhere else. I would like to be here because I'm close to the sink so when I'm cooking things I can easily wash them or if I'm here if I'm.

Cooking that way I like to go from the cutting board to the stove, in fact having a smaller space makes me a much more efficient cook, so I would say it should be stated here how long you have lived in this kitchen. I have been in this apartment for about a year and a half. I moved in in the middle of winter and now we are going back to winter so I have seen it through all seasons which is really nice. I have an overabundance of stuff in this kitchen, both in my refrigerator and I'll show you what is hysterical and also in my pantry because of what I do for a living, like I'm constantly cooking something new.

I'm buying for photo shoots. I'm buying for recipe development so I have a stock of Pretty much everything you can imagine it's basically like I live inside a street market. What are the three things that will always be Brij? The three things you will always find in my pantry are probably chickpeas. A big fan of chickpeas. I feel like a lot of people are. snob and will say, oh you can, you should really dry cook them and they're good for dry cooking, but it's not the same as being able to open a can of chickpeas and have dinner in about 20 minutes.

I also always have like an insane amount of tin fish my favorite kind of tin fish or jarred fish or salted fish or anchovies I'm a one trick pony I love anchovies I would put them on everything if I could I love the Ortiz brand There is also another brand and I don't remember the name, I don't have it on oh yes, I love this brand, I think it's code esse. I don't know, they're so delicious and fatty and salty and meaty and they're pretty perfect, but Ortiz. It's also a great great brand and as you can see it's kind of like I always have a lot of editors on hand, spices, baking stuff, it's organized for me, it may not seem organized to you but this is what I'm into working. but it needs some love, I'm not going to lie, I'm actually very terrified, show them what's going on here.

I can explain: it's been a crazy two weeks. I've been doing a lot of things, there have been photo shoots for Thanksgiving and the holidays. My mom was in town, it's been a few weeks, okay, so forgive me, this is hysterical. What do I always have? What don't I have here? I've always kept lemons, just a bag of ham, don't worry about that, okay? I always have wine in my refrigerator, take this out for a second, that's not what I always have, but I also always have a batch of preserved lemons that I make that I always have gummy if I don't have a jar full here in I always start to go in in panic I use these preserved lemons and many things use them in stews I use them in salads I use them to chop finely and then sprinkle over roasted vegetables or you know, seared chicken breast or whatever I started with yogurt and use it as a sauce they are salty they are mild I am a big fan of using whole lemon even when they are not preserved but when they are preserved they become a little softer their bitterness mellows out they become a little more flavorful so it is something I will always have on hand and If you're dining at my house, you're probably eating a lot of Nirvana's and anchovies to be honest, and honestly, you'll always find all the dishes that I definitely don't need and can't throw away hot sauce like from 2014.

There's a piece of parmesan that has at least two years. Two jars of maraschino cherries that I never use. I certainly won't get rid of them now, honestly, who's to say what? We will find it here. It's a real adventure. We should have a program where it's chopped, but you used stuff from my refrigerator. You could do it. I'm sure three things you'll never find in my kitchen is a really short list. because I have so many things in this kitchen but you will probably never find an avocado. I don't eat avocados. I don't cook with avocados.

They're not my thing. I don't have them close. You will never have them. look for organization you will never find that in this kitchen it simply does not exist I do not know it it is not close and you will never find dehydration either because I am extremely hydrated at all

times

I always have at least three drinks and granted this one's coffee and yes, that is dehydrating, but I I like to counteract that with my water and also my kombucha, no dehydration here. I think you know softness was born in this kitchen, which I think is really cool, it's almost a year old. old man, happy birthday, every time a recipe has made me successful or popular, I have no way of knowing in advance that it will happen and every time I think it will happen, it doesn't actually happen, but a reason why they think they are successful or They work because look at this base, look at what I'm working with, it's a pretty basic setup.

I have a lot of pots, pans and frying pans, but it's like a hobby that I just happen to collect them. It's not like anyone would need any of this if someone came into my kitchen tomorrow and said, "Okay, let's take everything you don't absolutely need." 95 percent of this stuff would disappear, it's just that I'm a hoarder and I don't have any. throw away things I probably never really used but aren't they beautiful? I really love them so I will never give them away. They are essential at all, but I think the reason my recipes resonate with people is because I'm just working with basic things in a fairly small space without much storage and I'm taking that into consideration.

I feel like a lot of people live that way too once I was filming my new cookbook, nothing special, I was filming it in this kitchen and I had put a cake like a turmeric lemon tumor tea cake which is very good for bake in the oven and meanwhile I was like well, then we'll shoot the salmon dish, which is salmon and you know, soy charred scallions and like spring onion, it's also very good and I was like, "Okay, in the oven". I'll put the salmon in the oven at the bottom under the pie, so I make the salmon and then open the oven door and completely forget about it. that nice tea cake is in there like my brain is so full that I just stuck my hand in and I couldn't see it because it was in the back and I just threw the baking tray in there and the tea cake. it's still very undercooked, it's flipped over the salmon and then into the bottom of this oven and there's cake batter everywhere on the salmon, so I ruined the cake, I ruined the salmon, I ruined the oven we were in at the end. on the day of filming and we were all like, are you kidding me?

We laughed, we laughed a lot and since that was really all we could do, I didn't want to scream and burst into tears, but we laughed, so yeah, that was a disaster. but we had a good time so if I could change one thing about my kitchen I would have a dishwasher, it would be big and fast and it would wash all the dishes for me because this is what happens almost every day, it's how I accumulate and I try to stay organized or my definition of organization by putting all my dishes in the sink, like not doing them, God forbid, at the right time, but rather stacking them in a sink to give the illusion of organization and, finally, for the complete experience of the tour.

Again, in full transparency, I have nothing to lose by being honest with you, so this region is the one thing I haven't unpacked or plan on leaving the apartment one day, so I have gifts for friends that I received in March. October I plan to give away very soon pants that belong to a friend of mine shoes that I haven't saved things like this are like a pile of things they are small things things that I carry with me I have a disposable camera, two of them actually earrings that my friend Susan He just gave me, which are beautiful and I am obsessed with Japanese gummies, as a little welcome or goodbye snack when leaving or entering my apartment, books that I am reading. a New Yorker and then the new Tartine book that I just received in the mail and then my notebooks that I write in and who knows what's in here, let's take a look, here are his recipes, I'm sure there are thoughts and things to do too. lists and these are some notes from Thanksgiving here is a turkey recipe that is incomplete there is a recipe from the New York Times that is for a cornmeal and cranberry shortcuts heart here is where the recipe began 7 1719 wow what a trip yeah , so having about 40 notebooks at any given time is very identifiable.

I'm sure why you don't just take one notebook, finish it and move on to a new notebook, you might be wondering. I couldn't tell you. I couldn't say that this is more like a notebook of thoughts, you know, dear diary, and this is a new notebook that I bought when I was out of town and I didn't have a notebook and I didn't have a good story from Thailand either. Then I keep my pantry staples in here, like good dried citrus, apples, onions, shallots. garlic whatever and then this is my little coffee station this is where I grind my coffee in the morning so I keep my cutting boards these are my new favorite cutting boards your mate material and I love them because they're made from recycled plastic and sugar cane but also because of the texture you can't tell when it has been cut, I think what bothers me the most with plastic cutting boards is that they are white or transparent so they get stained, they are not, They don't and they will be whenever you make them. knife cuts, you can see the press of the knife and this because the textured material cannot be.

This is my plant. She doesn't have a name, but I like her. I haven't killed her yet. I am a big fan of plants. actually one should be here she's new she's not doing very well but I haven't been taking care of her very well either that's another show this is a succulent I've had for many years and I can't believe it's not dead even though it doesn't look like it very hot, right? I should replant it there and then this is like assorted pantry stuff that I use all the time soy sauce sesame seeds flake salt nutritional yeast for my popcorn turmeric honey just things that I'm looking for more things from the pantry, these are things that I'm using specifically and rarely are things from the pantry that I use all the time, again not very well organized.

I probably could do a better job. I need a lot of help. maybe someone will come help me and get me in shape because I have an empty bottle that I really like and God forbid I throw it away. I'm never going to throw this away. I will keep this bottle for the rest of time. my life, I will die with this bottle and then this is like the crème de la crème, the top-notch pantry stuff that I reach for literally all the time, so we have olive oil, grapeseed oil, my pepper grinder, flake salt, regular kosher salt, three units.

There are three types of chili flakes or chili and we have whole tree chili, we have crushed curry and bell pepper from my favorite little farm, Lani's, which I love and buy at the farmers market. I love them so much and then just classic. red chili flakes I also have a container of Korean chili flakes, it smells really good so I guess to keep this in mind it doesn't fit the thing when I moved. Never before have I been blessed with so much space like pantry, etc. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it and I haven't even considered removing these doors because I find them a bit annoying, but whatever my daily use of the bowls is, which is really fun because looking at it is like everything is pink, purple , blue and white, which is not my color palette, but that's what I have.

Not really. I'm not the type of person who worries about a set of things that go together, but I do care about having enough dishes. for people to eat, so I don't care if your plates match, just make sure you have like twelve plates on hand. Your own people come and then these are my bowls, jars. I don't know what these dishes are. They are like smaller plates that maybe are decorative I don't know again I have a real problem glasses coffee cups water any wine that I like a lot or I really like the label this one I really like the wine and the label I keep it and so when I have people there.

I can fill them with water and then my little stove. Can I put a whole turkey in there? I can fit two baking sheets in there. I can fit an entire dutch oven in there. She can do many things. It doesn't seem like much, but she treats me well. Thank you very much for coming. I'm going to have to ask you nicely to leave now so I can get back to work, which means opening Twitter a thousand

times

and then typing three words, but I'm going to do my best to focus today, so thanks for coming.