This article is part of our Create & Cultivate 100 List created in collaboration with KEDS, you can view the full Food List Here.
Bombe squad up.
Check out this Cherry Bombe, the food publication from founders Claudia Wu and Kerry Diamond. Named the food magazine “for the coolest woman in your life,” the biannual has featured women like kitchen mom boss Chrissy Teigen and supermodel/cookie monster Karlie Kloss who appeared on the matte first cover.
The most recent Issue 8 features Padma Lakshmi on its cover. Culinary to its core, the magazine is predominantly female-led, an intentional decision from the founders who met while working together at Harper’s Bazaar.
Kerry has said that after opening a restaurant in Brooklyn, it became apparent to her that there were so many amazing women in food who weren’t getting equally amazing attention from the media. “It's the same in almost every field (with a few exceptions),” shares Claudia. “Men dominate—but perhaps food is a good place to start to demand equality.”
The mag began as a project for one of Kerry’s restaurants, where instead of releasing a cookbook she thought of doing an annual magazine.
Claudia, who serves as Cherry Bombe’s Creative Director, founded and self-published her own indie magazine, "Me" in 2004. She also started her own creative agency called Orphan (“RIP,” she says) in 2007. By the time the idea for Cherry Bombe was marinating, the women seemed a perfect pairing.
In the beginning the co-founders never discussed an online version; both remain enraptured by print. They do host Radio Cherry Bombe, a podcast with Heritage Radio Network, which fills the air time between publication dates.
“If you do something that gives you purpose, it's not really ‘work,' is it?”
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Kerry and Claudia are also focused on bringing conversations from the page to the stage. Last April they hosted their third annual Cherry Bombe Jubilee in New York. A gathering of hundreds professional women (plus a few great men) from all ends of the culinary and hospitality worlds, which culminated in a keynote conversation between Martha Stewart and Kerry. “It's a place to connect, to start conversations, and to inspire people to do what they love,” says Claudia.
For her, the kitchen remains a special place. “I definitely think in the culture I was brought up in, the kitchen was a magical place where good things came from, and my mother was the center of it in our house. I ate a homemade meal pretty much every night.” Her parents, both immigrants, sacrificed plenty to give their children a better life. “They work harder than anyone I know,” the creative director shares. “They built their business from nothing.” Her favorite advice also happens to come from her mother. “My mother once told me that I shouldn't work, that I should focus on learning and school, because I would have to work the rest of my life. She was right.”
But Claudia, who hopes to someday learn to sail, wants to travel more, and is no longer money motivated by projects says, “If you do something that gives you purpose, it's not really ‘work,' is it?”
Sounds like a very healthy recipe for success.