• Food writer Alison Roman wrote a formal apology to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo for her “flippant” remarks about how they built their brands.
• In a Q&A with The New Consumer last week, Roman described how she hoped to grow her band looking forward, and said she hoped not to do it similar to Kondo, who has a popular Netflix documentary about her home-organising methods, and Teigen, who authored her cookbook and brand “Cravings.”
• While Kondo did not respond to Roman’s comments, Teigen posted on Twitter that she was “bummed” to hear how Roman felt about her “Cravings” brand, especially given how big of a fan Teigen is of the New York Times food columnist.
• On Monday, Roman posted a lengthy apology on Twitter to Teigen and Kondo for her “flippant” remarks.
• She went on to say she thought a lot over the weekend about her comments, asking herself “Why couldn’t I express myself without tearing someone down? I definitely could have, and I’m embarrassed I didn’t.”
• Teigen responded to Roman’s apology, thanking her and saying that it “never once crossed” her mind for Roman to apologise for what she “genuinely thought.”
• Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Food columnist Alison Roman posted a length apology on Twitter for her “flippant” remarks about “Cravings” creator Chrissy Teigen and home-organising expert Marie Kondo.

In an interview with The New Consumer published last Thursday, Roman described how she hoped to grow her brand, saying she did not want to do it in a similar fashion of Teigen and Kondo.

Roman soon faced backlash for her comments, which seemingly criticised how Teigen and Kondo created their brands in the food and home industry, respectively.

“Like the idea that when Marie Kondo decided to capitalise on her fame and make stuff that you can buy, that is completely antithetical to everything she’s ever taught you… I’m like, damn, b—-, you f—ing just sold out immediately!” Roman said in the Q&A with the publication.

Roman also said what Teigen has done with her “Cravings” brand is “so crazy” to her.

“She had a successful cookbook. And then it was like: Boom, line at Target. Boom, now she has an Instagram page that has over a million followers where it’s just, like, people running a content farm for her,” Roman told The New Consumer. “That horrifies me and it’s not something that I ever want to do. I don’t aspire to that. But like, who’s laughing now? Because she’s making a ton of f—ing money.”

Kondo did not respond to Roman’s comments, but Teigen took to Twitter to express her disappointment upon reading Roman’s comments, of whom she was a big fan.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so bummed out by the words of a fellow food-lover,” Teigen tweeted. “I just had no idea I was perceived that way, by her especially.”

“It has been crappy to deal with this all day but I couldn’t not say something,” she wrote in a follow-up tweet. “I know the actual tears I put into the work I do and it’s really hard to see someone try to completely invalidate it. Someone I really liked.”

“It was stupid, careless and insensitive,” the food writer wrote. “I need to learn, and respect, the difference between being unfiltered and honest vs. being uneducated and flippant.”

Roman went on to say she thought a lot over the weekend about her comments, asking herself “Why couldn’t I express myself without tearing someone down? I definitely could have, and I’m embarrassed I didn’t.”

In the apology, the food columnist noted that she is not the victim, and that she is a “white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege,” adding that she recognised how “that makes what I said even more inexcusable and harmful.”

“The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred per cent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury). I know that our culture frequently goes after women, especially women of colour, and I’m ashamed to have contributed to that.”

Soon after Roman posted, Teigen responded to Roman’s apology, thanking her and saying that it “never once crossed” her mind for Roman to apologise for what she “genuinely thought.”

“I think we are alike in so many ways. I remember the exact time I realised I wasn’t allowed to say whatever popped in my head – that I couldn’t just say things in the way that so many of my friends were saying,” Teigen tweeted. “Before, I never really knew where I stood in the industry, in the world.

“Eventually, I realised that once the relatable ‘snarky girl who didn’t care’ became a pretty successful cookbook author and had more power in the industry, I couldn’t just say whatever the f— I wanted,” the “Cravings” author continued. “The more we grow, the more we get those wakeup calls.”

Follow Business Insider Australia on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.