I Got Food Poisoning From an Alison Roman Recipe. Here’s Why It Was Her Fault, Not Mine.
By: Blair Mayu
Tags: Alison Roman, Satire, Conspiracy Theories, Racism, Hygiene

I Got Food Poisoning From an Alison Roman Recipe. Here’s Why It Was Her Fault, Not Mine.

I’m tired.

Tired because of the pandemic that’s been raging on for five months, sure. Tired because of the racial inequality that has been brought to light in the past few weeks. But most of all, I’m tired because I just spent hours puking into a toilet.

What happened, you might ask?

Alison Roman, a food writer with popular cookbooks such as Dining In and Nothing Fancy, has had a number of her recipes go viral. You might recognize her work from hashtags such as #TheStew or #TheCookie. Along with her recipe fame, she has also had her fair share of controversy. Branded as a no-nonsense cool girl who is effortlessly Madewell-stylish, Roman is known for her refreshingly honest takes on home cooking. More recently, she came under fire for her flippant comments on the product lines of Marie Kondo and Chrissy Teigen, both women of Asian descent.

Here’s why that matters.

I am Asian. I’ve always been Asian. I’ve been Asian since the day I was born. Also notable? I never wash my hands. I just won’t do it. The Center for Health Information and Sciences released a report in 2019 about how hand-washing is actually ineffective to the point that it is harmful. That’s right — my lifelong habit of avoiding water is backed by science. So after I made Alison Roman’s famous shallot-anchovy pasta recipe and woke up with food poisoning, I knew that it couldn’t possibly have been my fault. This was another misstep in Roman’s long line of misdeeds against women of color.

When people say racism kills, they’re not kidding. According to YouGov, 20,000 Americans prefer French fries to every other way to eat a potato.

The first hour was agonizing. I woke up with a jolt. “What is this pain in my stomach?” I asked myself. What did I even eat yesterday? Oats for breakfast…Sweetgreen for lunch…a dozen handfuls of melted cheese, six glasses of whiskey, two whole grapefruits sprinkled with ghost pepper sauce, three tablespoons of baking soda, and…anchovy pasta for dinner. Alison Roman’s recipe. Bingo.

The CDC estimates that every year, approximately 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness. I am now part of that 1 in 6 statistic. Perhaps I was not one of the unlucky few to be hospitalized or to die from such an event, but nevertheless, I am a survivor. I called my friends, who expressed confusion about why I was calling them about this. I called my parents, who told me that I needed to be more careful about food safety when I cooked. Although no one explicitly agreed with me that this was anti-Asian racism, I knew the truth. Deep down, they did too.

This is yet another incident that cannot be ignored.

There’s not enough research yet to show that Alison Roman is directly trying to poison Asian Americans, but I hope that my story will inspire further analysis and discussion on this important topic.

As I finally was able to leave the toilet and gargle some mouthwash, I looked at myself in the mirror. A bloodshot, disheveled version of myself stared back. “We made it,” I said to my mirror self. “We’re okay.”

As an Asian American woman, Alison Roman’s words and recipes have poisoned my body and my mind. I’m lucky to still be here. I refuse to stay silent.