Radio Cherry Bombe

Arianna Huffington is the co-founder, president, and editor-­in­-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and the author of 15 books. In May 2005, she launched The Huffington Post, a news and blog site that quickly became one of the most widely­-read, linked to, and frequently­ cited media brands on the Internet. In 2012, the site won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting. She has been named to Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people and the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an M.A. in economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, the Cambridge Union. She serves on numerous boards, including The Center for Public Integrity and The Committee to Protect Journalists. Her book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well­-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, debuted at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Sierra Tishgart is the Senior Editor of Grub Street, New York Magazine’s James Beard Award­ winning food blog, where she covers restaurant news, tracks food trends, and writes and edits features about chefs, restaurant designers, and other key industry players. She also interviews chefs for CBS This Morning’s "The Dish," and chimes in as a food expert on television shows like Good Morning America, TODAY, CNN’s New Day, NBC New York, PIX11, NY1, and Fox 5. Previously, Sierra worked at Teen Vogue, where she focused on politics, fashion, and entertainment. She remains a frequent contributor to other magazines, like Cherry Bombe, Bloomberg Businessweek, and ELLE, and most recently has worked as a correspondent on the Prince Street Podcast by Dean and Deluca. Sierra is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

Soa Davies leads menu development and drives the culinary vision for Maple, the delivery-­only food service with rotating daily menus prepared by New York’s best chefs. Soa, as executive chef, brings almost two decades of culinary experience to the company. Previously, she spent over six years working alongside Eric Ripert as the head of menu research and development for his three­-Michelin­-starred Le Bernardin restaurant. Davies was the founder of Salt Hospitality, which focused on helping emerging fine dining concepts with menu development. She authored the Short Stack edition titled Vol. 2: Tomatoes. Nina Clemente, who was born in Italy and raised in New York City, realized the possibilities of transforming pure ingredients into Southern Italian feasts by watching her mother make vibrant local and seasonal cuisine. It was these experiences that led her to understand a desire to make food her career. After a successful stint as a private chef, she began working at the Curious Palate and then Osteria Mozza, learning from the incomparable Chef Nancy Silverton. She then worked at Maya’s Restaurant in St. Barths followed by a stint with Chef Enrico Crippa at his three Michelin star restaurant Piazza Duomo in Alba, Italy. Today, Chef Nina strives to bridge both cultures from her childhood by taking a democratic approach to food. She cooks cuisine that is clean, beautiful, nourishing, and accessible.

Emily Murphy of Baldor Specialty Food grew up infatuated with the cooking world, watching episodes of Two Fat Ladies and Julia Child’s The French Chef religiously at a young age. After studying baking at the Institute of Culinary Education in 2006, Emily made the move away from the kitchen into buying and selling specialty foods for her family business, Baldor Specialty Foods. She worked with Baldor founder Kevin Murphy, who evolved the company from a warehouse full of fruits and vegetables into a produce powerhouse. She may have traded in her apron for a desk, but there is still plenty of excitement in her day, from scouring Europe for the best cheese or running around Manhattan with truffles for the world’s top chefs. Her love for food came full circle after marrying chef David Malbequi and opening David’s Café, a new spot St. Mark’s Place. Emily lives in the East Village. Emma Straub is The New York Times­-bestselling author of The Vacationers, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her fiction and nonfiction have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Elle, and Conde Nast Traveler, and she is a contributing writer for Rookie. Emma’s work has been published in 15 countries. Her newest book, Modern Lovers, is a Brooklyn­based love story that Vogue named one of the best books of the summer. Emma lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons—all of whom she’ll be taking along on her next book tour.

Meaghan Dorman is bar director and partner at The Bennett, an elegant new cocktail bar in Manhattan’s Tribeca. Together with partners Alberto Benenati and Yves Jadot, the trio is creating a relaxed, glamorous experience for their guests. Meaghan is responsible for creating the bar’s menu and its cocktails; hiring, training and managing the bar staff; bartending; and organizing special events. At the same time, Meaghan is bar director at Dear Irving in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood. She is also bar director and partner at Raines Law Room, where she has worked since its launch in 2009. Meaghan is proud to be a founding member of the New York City chapter of LUPEC, which enhances the community of local women in the bar/spirits industry through charity work, education, and events. In April 2011, Meaghan opened Lantern’s Keep at the Iroquois Hotel. Dianna Daoheung was raised in a typical, first­-generation Laotian­-Thai­-American household, meaning she was often “forced” to prep and help cook as her mother prepared authentic Southeast Asian foods. Not surprisingly, this is where Dianna gained her initial skills, knowledge, and love of cooking. After graduating from the University of Central Florida in social behaviors and business management, Dianna moved to New York to pursue a career in advertising. After four years, she decided to follow her instincts back to the kitchen. She studied at the French Culinary Institute in Pastry Arts, eventually finding her way to Mile End in Brooklyn to learn as a lead line cook. Next, Dianna headed to San Francisco to work in pastry at Boulevard. She eventually moved back to assist Mile End in developing their bread program. Waylaid by Hurricane Sandy, the bread program got put on hold, with Dianna biding her time as a sous chef at Brooklyn’s Isa. When an idea born in the aftermath of Sandy became Black Seed Bagels, Dianna—enamored with the science of bread—was tapped to perfect the process behind the now wildly successful Montreal bagel in New York.

Yvette Leeper­-Bueno owns Vinatería, the charming Harlem neighborhood restaurant and wine bar. A lifelong New Yorker, Yvette maintains longstanding roots in Harlem­­from her parents first meeting on 122nd Street in the 50s, to the renovated townhouse on 112th Street she has shared with her husband and sons for 12 years. Before opening Vinatería in early 2013, Yvette owned a clothing design/manufacturing business and children’s clothing boutique, Leeper Kids. Eventually her entrepreneurial spirit, love for good food and fashion, and devotion to the Harlem community led her to open Vinatería on its up­-and­-coming strip of Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Vinatería fosters a spirit of inclusivity through an accessible but extensive wine program, a thoughtful menu of Spanish­ and Italian-­influenced seasonal dishes, a convivial atmosphere, and contemporary design. Almost three years later, the neighborhood has seen a resurgence that some have compared to a second Harlem Renaissance, and Vinatería remains a pioneer in this transformation. From subtle details like the herbs lining the windowsills, to the art selected for the walls, Yvette aesthetic and attention to detail are clearly manifested throughout the space.

Missy Robbins is the celebrated chef behind Lilia, the hot new Italian restaurant in North Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is known for creating classic Italian specialties with a contemporary twist. After training at Peter Kump’s New York School of Cooking (now The Institute of Culinary Education), she worked in the kitchens of various notable restaurants at home and abroad, learning from the likes of Chef Anne Rosenzweig. Missy served as executive chef at the A Voce restaurants in Manhattan from the fall of 2008 to spring of 2013. Under her direction, A Voce Madison earned a Michelin star in 2009, while A Voce Columbus earned its Michelin star in 2010. Missy has received numerous awards and accolades throughout her career, including being named one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs in 2010. Katie Stagliano This South Carolina teen is on a mission to end hunger one garden at a time. Her nonprofit, Katie’s Krops, provides grants to help those ages 9 to 18 start vegetable gardens and grow fresh food for those in need. Katie’s Krops now operate 100 youth­-run gardens in 37 states, donating thousands of pounds of fresh produce annually through food pantries, soup kitchens, and direct gifts. Katie started producing food to help others at the age 9, when she grew a 40­ pound cabbage for a third ­grade homework assignment and donated it to a soup kitchen in her town. Now through July, each time you use the hashtag #FreshFoodMatters, Sub­Zero will donate $5 to Katie’s Krops, up to $25,000, to help fund 25 new gardens.

Ana Ros is widely considered the best chef in Slovenia, and will soon be featured on Season 2 of the Netflix hit show Chef’s Table. She runs Hi a Franko, a countryside estate and restaurant that has been in her husband’s family for decades and happens to be the location where Ernest Hemingway wrote A Farewell To Arms. Ana never intended to be a chef — she was an international studies and diplomacy student when she met her husband, Valter, and they took over running Hi a Franko together. Ana taught herself how to cook with the help of Valter’s mother, and soon she was running a top notch kitchen and creating an entirely new kind of food: high‐end Slovenian cuisine. Outside the kitchen, Ana works with recovering drug addicts by teaching them how to cook, and she also works with young cooks to help them develop their careers. Katie Parla moved to Rome in 2003 after graduating from Yale, and recently co‐authored the cookbook Tasting Rome, pulling from her experiences abroad. She holds a sommelier certificate and a master’s degree in Italian gastronomic culture. Katie has written about restaurants, drinks, and food culture for more than a decade, and her writing and recipes have appeared in the New York Times, Saveur, Food & Wine, and Australian Gourmet Traveller. She is the author of National Geographic’s Walking Rome, two mobile dining apps, and her Saveur‐nominated food and travel blog. She often appears as a Rome expert on the History Channel, Travel Channel, and the university lecture circuit. Kristina Gill is the food and drinks editor at DesignSponge.com, a home and lifestyle site with over 1.2 million readers per month. Her original recipes, and those she hand‐selects from celebrated authors, chefs, and readers, have appeared weekly as the “In the Kitchen with” column since 2007. She is also a food and travel photographer, and the co‐author of Tasting Rome. Kristina transferred to Rome in 1999 after earning her BA from Stanford and her MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS.

Born in Brooklyn, Allison Robicelli of Robicelli’s Bakery started out in the food business more focused on the savory side of things, working as a catering chef for several years. But she was no stranger to sweets. While learning how to be a chef, Robicelli ran a cake business out of her parents' house. In 2005 she met Matt, a fellow food industry veteran. The pair started dating and soon got engaged. Allison and Matt married in October 2006 and have since welcomed two sons, Atticus and Toby. In 2008, she and Matt launched a gourmet foods and sandwich shop in 2008. While economic difficulties led them to close that shop, the pair spun off their popular cupcakes into a stand­-alone business: Robicelli’s Bakery in Brooklyn. In 2013, they published their first cookbook, Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes.

Sara Moulton kicked off her fifth season as host of public television's Sara's Weeknight Meals in October of 2015. It was the latest milestone in a storied career that stretches back more than 30 years. A protégée of Julia Child, Sara was the founder of the New York Women's Culinary Alliance, executive chef of Gourmet magazine, Food Editor of ABC‐TV's "Good Morning America," and the host of several well-loved shows on the Food Network during that channel's first decade. A teacher at heart, Sara's mission has remained the same for decades – to help the home cook land dinner on the table. Following her graduation from the Culinary Institute of American in 1977, Sara spent seven years as a restaurant chef in Boston and New York, before joining the staff at Gourmet magazine. By 1997, Sara had begun hosting "Cooking Live," a live call-in show, for the Food Network. During the next ten years, she'd host several other shows for them, totaling over 1,500 episodes. Sara is the author of several cookbooks including her latest book, Sara Moulton’s Home Cooking 101. Bertha González Nieves An entrepreneur with a career rooted in the consumer luxury goods industry, Bertha González Nieves has been identified by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in Mexico. For the last 15 years, her career has centered on the spirits industry, and specifically tequila. During that time, she has been certified as the first female Maestra Tequilera by the Academia Mexicana de Catadores de Tequila. This distinction is usually held only by men in the industry. Los Angeles Times calls González Nieves “The First Lady of Tequila,” Food & Wine and Fortune magazines named her one of “The Most Innovative Women in Food & Drink for 2015.” Prior to co‐founding Casa Dragones, González Nieves spent the last 10 years as a top executive for Jose Cuervo International, the largest tequila company in the world and one of the top ten global spirits. González Nieves was responsible for Cuervo’s portfolio of brands in North America, managing over 65 percent of the company’s worldwide revenue. González Nieves was also instrumental in establishing the company’s global team in New York, and played a key role in the recent upsurge and popularity of the Tequila category in the U.S. and worldwide.

Anna Newell Jones is the creator of AndThenWeSaved.com, a blog that offers scrappy, down-­to­-earth advice on getting out of debt. She is relentlessly committed to showing how getting out of debt and living a debt­-free life doesn’t have to suck, and has been featured in Forbes, Self, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, and the Chicago Tribune. She and her husband own Newell Jones + Jones Photography and live in Denver, Colorado, with their young son. Her new book, The Spender’s Guide to Debt-­Free Living, is out now. Kimberly Chou and Amanda Dell are the directors of the Food Book Fair — a festival dubbed "the Coachella of writing about food" (LA Weekly) and "Food Geek Heaven" (KCRW) — returning May 1st and 2nd for the fifth annual year at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. A reformed journalist, Kim worked at The Wall Street Journal and MSN.com before turning to a professional life in and around food. Along the way, she has also fact­-checked, art modeled, styled fashion shoots, catered gallery lunch, trained as a barista, and once performed in a corps of untrained dancers in the Whitney Biennial. Amanda is a native New Yorker with over a decade of high-­end hospitality, public relations/marketing, and event experience. Her past life in restaurants has seen her guarding the guest book at such establishments as Gramercy Tavern (where she was interviewed for Grub Street's front­-of­-house feature on just that) and Maialino.