My new best lockdown pal is Alison the carefree cook Alexandra Shulman’s Notebook
MY NEW lockdown friend is an American chef and social- media star called Alison Roman. If our sultry, curvaceous Nigella is the Elizabeth Taylor of the culinary scene, Los Angelesborn Alison, 35, is the Taylor Swift.
With her jaunty ponytail, red lipstick, and ‘ who cares?’ selfdeprecating shrugs, she is despised by large numbers of foodies for being too ‘girl next door’ and too pedestrian in her cooking. I, though, can’t get enough of her.
I love the way she has a tiny kitchen (in Brooklyn, where she’s now based) which I know is really hers and not a studio set because I’ve seen a video tour of it, complete with freestanding cooker and spider plants. She sloshes olive oil over everything she cooks, which is fine by me, doesn’t bother to peel shallots and, by the way, her recipes are utterly delicious.
Since we’re currently deprived of pretty well any possibility of making new friends, figures like Alison have become substitutes.
Naturally it’s a bit of a one-way relationship but at least social media allows us to share our opinions with them, although not always that kindly, as Alison recently discovered when some comments she made about model Chrissy Teigen and tidying guru Marie Kondo were blown into the usual ghastly Twitter tempest. These days it’s safer to stick to the chicken with caramelised dates and lemon than have an opinion on anyone.
It’s not just social-media personalities who have become just as much a part of our lives as actual friends over the past year.
Who doesn’t feel they have a familiarity of sorts with Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam (JVT, as we feel able to call him) after seeing him so often on the daily Covid briefings? He’ll get his own show when this whole thing’s over. He’s not just some dry old stick giving us the bad news on virus numbers. He’s someone who tells us about his mum (who calls him Jonny) having the jab.
Roman is my current best lockdown friend – as everyone knows you can only have one bestie at a time – but there’s also author Marian Keyes, who’s been giving matey fiction classes on Instagram, and psychological counsellor and grief expert Julia Samuel, who offers an almost daily chat, overflowing with empathy and practicality, from her cosy sitting room.
The common thread is that while these are, of course, professional performances, they feel warm, human and fallible, just like a FaceTime chat – only without the bad video link and you can always switch them off. Something most of us have often wished we could do with a real friend.