5 of Brooklyn’s Food Influencers Talk About the State of Brooklyn Food
Kerry Diamond: Cherry Bombe
Pre-Cherry Bombe, you were best known as a restaurant owner, beauty editor and PR maven. How did the idea for (and the concept of) a women-in-food magazine come about?
My restaurant partner (and boyfriend) Rob Newton was getting a lot of calls to do cookbooks. We didn’t want to do anything traditional, so we thought it would be great to do something untraditional, like an annual magazine. I reached out to graphic designer Claudia Wu, a friend and former colleague from Bazaar, about the project. Over the course of a few months, that morphed into Cherry Bombe. Once we had the idea, it took on a life of its own.
If print publishing is, indeed, a dying industry, why go that route, instead of focusing your efforts online?
Everyone says print is dying, but I don’t agree. If you walk into any bookstore or magazine shop, there are more great reads than ever. It’s golden age of indie magazines. Cherry Bombe, Lucky Peach, Kinfolk, Gather, Adult, Darling, Afar, Gentlewoman. I could go on and on. Claudia and I have dozens of websites that we adore and like most people, we get our news online. But Cherry Bombe needed to be a print project.
Why do you think the food industry continues to be so dominated by males (or, at least, media coverage tends to be so male-focused)? And what will it take to change that?
It’s more that the media coverage is male focused. There are tons of women in the food industry; the media just happens to be very chef driven, and more chefs, especially among the A list, are men. What will it take to change that? I think it’s recognizing that there is a lot of institutional sexism out there. Not everyone wants to admit that, but it’s true.
You and your partner, Rob Newton, have opened a slew of Brooklyn restaurants. What do you find particularly unique and exciting about Brooklyn’s dining scene?
There’s no place like Brooklyn. Rob and I have been lucky to travel around the world and we’re always happy to come home. There are lots of vibrant dining scenes out there, from Nashville to Hanoi to San Francisco, but there’s only one Brooklyn.
Describe your perfect day (breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks), of eating out in Brooklyn!
It would be coffee at Smith Canteen, a burger and salad at Wilma Jean for lunch and some pho and a beer for dinner at Nightingale 9. To be honest, we eat at home more than you would think! When you own restaurants, sometimes the last thing you want to do is go to another restaurant.