[1][2][3] Roman has held senior positions at Bon Appétit and Buzzfeed Food, and served as a columnist for New York Times Cooking.
[6] Roman was born September 1, 1985, and raised in Los Angeles, California, in the San Fernando Valley area.
[7][8] She withdrew from the University of California, Santa Cruz, at the age of 19, where she was studying creative writing, to pursue a career in the food industry,[1][7][9] eventually working as a chef at Sona in Los Angeles, Quince in San Francisco, Milk Bar in New York City and Pies ‘n’ Thighs in Brooklyn.
[1][8][9][10] Roman began as a freelance recipe-tester at Bon Appétit in 2011 soon after the magazine had come under the leadership of editor-in-chief Adam Rapoport.
[8] In early 2018, a cookie recipe Roman developed for Dining In (2017) went viral on Instagram, and became so well-known on the mobile app as to be known simply as #TheCookies.
[19][20][21] Her shallot pasta recipe (commonly known as #ThePasta), was particularly popular amidst the food shortages and constraints of the pandemic due to its use of everyday, pantry ingredients.