“It’s Our 200th Episode!” Transcript
Kerry Diamond: Hi, Bombesquad. You're listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. Each week, we talk to the most inspiring women in and around the world of food. Today, we are celebrating a big milestone for Cherry Bombe. The 200th episode of our podcast.
Kerry Diamond: First, let's thank our sponsor. Handsome Brook Farm pastured raised organic eggs. Handsome Brook Farms' secret to making rich, flavorful eggs is simple. The most possible space, the best possible feed, and lots of love. It's a healthy and humane recipe that makes your omelets, cakes, custards and everything in between taste better. To learn more and to find their eggs, visit Handsome Brookfarm.com.
Kerry Diamond: I can't believe we've hit the 200th mark. When the podcast launched almost five years ago, podcasts were still a relatively new thing but we loved the idea of bringing Cherry Bombe magazine to life through audio.
Kerry Diamond: Why did we name it Radio Cherry Bombe? Fun fact. I was a big REM fan and always loved their song "Radio Free Europe". Since the debut of Radio Cherry Bombe, we've interviewed literally hundreds of women, each of them with a unique and special story to tell.
Kerry Diamond: I've met so many great people through the show and we've run the full gamut of emotions on air. We've cried with Kim Malek, the founder of Salt & Straw and Michelle Mannix of Cookspace. We've laughed with Lisa Q. Fetterman and Jamie Guittard and Melissa Hemsley. We've dreamt of running away to Venice with Sky Mackelpine and Cha McCoy.
Kerry Diamond: Only one guest made me nervous and that was Nigella Lawson. Nigella is brilliant, so you really need to be on your toes when you're talking to her. To celebrate our bicentennial episode, we thought we'd revisit some of our favorite interviews, hear a few shout outs, and even do a special edition of our speed round.
Kerry Diamond: Before we get on with our celebration, let's hear a word from our sponsor, Handsome Brook Farm pasture raised organic eggs. Handsome Brook Farms believes that organic and pastured is the way to go when it comes to eggs. Pasture raised means better lives for hens, better lives for small farmers, and better eggs for you.
Kerry Diamond: It's also better for chefs who depend on rich, flavorful eggs. Handsome Brook Farms' own flock of amazing chefs, their mother hens count on it. Suzanne Vizethann is a mother hen. She's the chef and owner of Buttermilk Kitchen in Atlanta. Curious how Chef Suzanne makes her french toast with caramelized bananas?
Kerry Diamond: The ingredients include whole milk, ciabatta bread, and some Handsome Brook Farm eggs to make each slice as fluffy as can be. Or, if you're like me and have a serious love affair with pimento cheese, you can make her pimento cheese omelets. Suzanne whips up three Handsome Brook Farm eggs, lets the omelet set, then adds red pepper jelly, thick cut bacon, and my beloved pimento cheese to put a delicious, Southern spin on a breakfast favorite.
Kerry Diamond: You can find Chef Suzanne's delicious egg centric recipes and videos on Handsome Brookfarm.com. If you're looking for Handsome Brook Farm organic pasture raised eggs, you can find them at Publix, Kroger, Sprouts Farmer's Market, Fresh Direct, and many natural food stores across the country.
Gabi Vigoreaux: Hi, this is Gabi and Diana from Smith Canteen and we wanted to say-
Diana Fertitta: Happy 200th episode!
Gabi Vigoreaux: Happy 200th episode!
Lauren Goldstein: Hi, I'm Lauren Goldstein and I'm so excited that there have been 200 episodes of Radio Cherry Bombe so far!
Kerry Diamond: The first episode of Radio Cherry Bombe aired on May 7th, 2014. Our original host was Julia Turshen who many of you know and love. Julia went on to host her own podcast and write such beloved cookbooks as "Now and Again" and "Small Victories".
Julia Turshen: Hi, and welcome to the first ever Radio Cherry Bombe show. We're coming to you live from Roberta's in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I'm your host Julia Turshen.
Kerry Diamond: One of my favorite interviews of Julia's was when she talked to the Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Here, Ina considers the lobster.
Ina Garten: I'll tell you another memorable meal that I had which was memorable for the wrong reason.
Julia Turshen: Those are always good. Better memory.
Ina Garten: The founder of Williams Sonoma was coming for dinner and in the same way, I wanted to do something surprising. I'm sure everybody serves this incredibly elegant meal to Chuck and I wanted to do just the opposite.
Ina Garten: What I decided I would do is my kitchen clambake which is in my first book where you have this huge pot and you layer potatoes and sausages and shrimp and clams and mussels and then you put corn and lobster on the top. You pour a whole bottle of white wine in and you steam it for 30 minutes and it's like one of those crazy good meals.
Ina Garten: You put a big bowl, you dump it into a huge bowl in the middle of the table and I gave everybody white chef aprons at their seats and it's just hands on. You just dive into this bowl. In order to fill the bowl, I decided I would take the lobsters out and keep them warm in the oven and then serve them a little later.
Ina Garten: We just had a wonderful time, we had a great dinner. The next morning, Jeffrey woke up and said, "Oh, that was so good. That was just delicious. But I don't remember having a lobster." I was like, "Oh my god, they're still in the oven!"
Julia Turshen: Slow roasted lobster.
Ina Garten: We've all served a meal where you forgot to serve the bread, but I can't remember ever forgetting to serve the main course.
Julia Turshen: Wow.
Ina Garten: I saw Chuck Williams the next day and I said to him, "Next time, I think I'll serve the lobster."
Julia Turshen: That's unbelievable.
Ina Garten: We still had a really good time and that's the memorable part.
Julia Turshen: I'll say. Yeah, that sounds very memorable.
Caroline Schiff: Hi, I'm Caroline Schiff, known as Pastry Schiff, and I wanted to wish Cherry Bombe a happy 200th episode and you're the bomb!
Kerry Diamond: In addition to our regular radio show, we've done a few special episodes and miniseries. We did the Super Women, Super Food miniseries in 2018 about wellness with our friends Athena Calderone, Hannah Bronfman, and others. For our most recent miniseries, The Future of Food, we traveled to 12 different cities to hear from a wide range of Bombe Squad members, chefs, farmers, restaurateurs, bakers, a poet, and more.
Kerry Diamond: One of my favorite moments from the tour was when Sarah Kieffer of the Vanilla Bean Blog talked about her chocolate chip cookie recipe going viral. Her cookies didn't crumble but other things did.
Sarah Kieffer: Hi, I'm Sarah, I'm just going to admit that I'm terribly nervous right now. I tend to write in stories so when I started to write what I was gonna write tonight, it just kinda came out in story form. I'm gonna do what you're not supposed to do which is read your notes, but I need to tonight so that's what I'm gonna do.
Sarah Kieffer: Last September, I was pleasantly surprised to find a recipe for my cookbook make its way into the New York Times. The highlighted recipe was for a chocolate chip cookie that uses a technique now known as pan banging, you may have heard of this, where the baking sheet is tapped or banged in the oven while the cookies are baking, creating ridges and crinkles around the edges of the cookies. Although, this has evolved and some people are actually taking them out of the oven and dropping them on the floor to get these ridges.
Sarah Kieffer: Being in the New York Times' food section was a bucket list item I never thought would happen and I was ecstatic. A few days later, Fox News picked up the story, highlighting my cookie on all its local news outlets and online nationally. My pan banging cookie had officially gone viral and I like to point out that if both the New York Times and Fox are reporting on the same story, that it can't be fake news. That's my cheesy dad joke.
Sarah Kieffer: I started getting emails and messages from people all over, my Instagram was full of people pan banging their cookies and tagging me in photos. Local TV stations came to my house and filmed me making cookies. Newspapers called asking me questions and I was flown out to New York to make cookies at an event.
Sarah Kieffer: It was a whirlwind of a month and I found myself, as one does on social media, addicted to the mentions, hearts, hashtags, and positive feedback. The question of how do I get my recipe to go viral started being posed to me and I didn't have a good answer for anyone.
Sarah Kieffer: There wasn't any formula or secret that I somehow cracked and I liked to think and hoped that it was because I had worked hard on making a cookie worth baking. But there was one element that kept it trending and that was for as many people who loved this cookie and raved about it, there were also plenty of people who absolutely hated this cookie and thought it was ridiculous that it had been invented.
Sarah Kieffer: The comments section to the New York Times under this recipe is filled with comments of people angry that these cookies exist. They are too greasy, too buttery, too big, too sweet and the people are furious about the pan banging. It's too time consuming, it's not worth it and my favorite complaint is that it was too loud. I had someone rant to me in an email about that.
Sarah Kieffer: While I had some good press and saw my Instagram follower count increase rapidly over the month my cookies went viral, I also had to process and accept that there were piles of people out there who hated what I was doing and maybe hated me for doing it. As someone who avoids conflict, has wrestled with being a people pleaser all my life and has been diagnosed with anxiety and OCD, this set off a string of emotions.
Sarah Kieffer: I could accept that my recipe wasn't for everyone and I wasn't offended that someone wanted something different in a cookie. I always say, just as Kerry said, that there's always room in the world for more chocolate chip cookie recipes. But it was hard to accept that people would write off my whole career and hard work over a cookie or that they assumed something of me because they didn't even like the picture of my cookie.
Sarah Kieffer: I also had to deal with the press presenting me wrong. While I was flattered and so thankful to be included in the New York Times, my book wasn't mentioned and I didn't see any sales due to the article. Both for not being mentioned and the recipe being available for free. They also highlighted my Instagram career over my book career.
Sarah Kieffer: The local news had a headline that read, "Local Mom Gets In the New York Times". Also skipping over my career and presenting the idea that if this mom can get into the New York Times, anybody can do it. I was conflicted and frustrated that I couldn't control the narrative of my own recipe and story.
Sarah Kieffer: I wanted to bake the cookies for everyone and try to prove they were good enough that I could bake and wasn't just some hack influencer who lucked out and that I knew what I was doing. I found myself obsessed about a cookie. I stopped reading comments on the news articles and on my blog and I stopped answering questions about them in my messages and emails.
Sarah Kieffer: I started actually regretting the cookies and their technique as I anxiously analyzed how many people viewed me through these cookies. Bloggers started posting their own versions of them, changing just a few ingredient measurements or sprinkling them with salt and calling them their own. Others tried to make the same cookie without all the fuss of pan banging.
Sarah Kieffer: These new recipes were born from my original but they weren't mine anymore and I had no control over where things went. I started believing all the misconceptions I was worried about. I wasn't really a baker, those cookies are click bait, and I'm just a local mom who lucked out.
Sarah Kieffer: It was actually in the act of parenting that I finally got over the weird spiral. My daughter was doing a report at school and she needed to pretend to interview someone famous. As she was looking through a list of possible options, I slyly mentioned to her that, well, you know your mom was in the New York Times. Maybe you could interview her.
Sarah Kieffer: She didn't even look up from the paper she was reading and said, "Well, you weren't really in the New York Times. Your cookies were. Maybe I could interview them?" She's right over there, too. I found myself laughing as I heard my ego crack in half. Oh my god, I am worrying about cookies.
Sarah Kieffer: Yes, they are buttery and sugary and delicious as hell, but they can't bring clean water to Flint or stop the next school shooting. They won't give women equal pay or take the stigmatism away from mental health issues or remove the injustice of racism. They won't bring peace and only temporarily bring happiness. They can't even do the simple task of keeping people civil in the comments section of a newspaper article.
Sarah Kieffer: I thanked my daughter for her honesty. I apparently needed a good dose of it. After that, I found myself pleasantly at peace with my cookies. They aren't really mine anymore. They belong to the pan bangers of the world and I am thankful for each and every one of them. I still make them often.
Sarah Kieffer: They are our house cookie and each time I pick up the edge of my baking sheet and drop it four inches in my oven, I watch a ripple form around the edge of my cookies and know that those crispy edges and gooey chocolatey centers will give me a moment of joy but they do not define me, for it is only a cookie.
Rochelle O: Cherry Bombe, this is Rochelle Oliver with Island & Spice Magazine. Just wanna say you light my fire every episode! So, happy 200th.
Kerry Diamond: Radio Cherry Bombe is only possible because of its incredible community and that includes the guest hosts who've kindly stepped in for me over the past few years. I want to say thank you to Jane Larkworthy, Klancy Miller, Jessie Sheehan, Gilloe Houston, Donna Yen. Let's give a listen.
Jane Larkworthy: Hi, everybody. Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe. I am Jane Larkworthy.
Klancy Miller: I'm Klancy Miller.
Gillie Houston: Welcome to Radio Cherry Bombe. I'm Gillie Houston.
Donna Yen: And I'm Donna Yen.
Jessie Sheehan: Hello, Bombesquad. This is Jessie Sheehan.
Kerry Diamond: Another reason we love making Radio Cherry Bombe is that it allows us to share highlights from Cherry Bombe events with listeners all over the world. One of those events is our annual jubilee conference. We've held Jubilees in New York City and San Francisco and this April, we are bringing it to Brooklyn.
Kerry Diamond: Last year, Sharon Richardson of Just Soul Catering gave one of the solo talks and I think it was one of the most powerful moments in Cherry Bombe history. As Sharon is about to tell you, journeys must be told. Here is Sharon Richardson from Jubilee 2018 sharing her journey. This is the first time we've aired this clip.
Sharon Richardson: Hi, guys. My name is Sharon Richardson and I am honored to be here this morning with you lovely, beautiful women. I have already met some wonderful people here and I'm just really glad that Claudia and Kerry invited me to be a part of this. So, thank you.
Sharon Richardson: When Kerry asked me, "What are you gonna talk about?", I said, "Give me a few days. Let me think this over." Something came up in my spirit, so my piece is called Redemption. The foundation. What do you know about being saved from error or your own choices or being saved from what older people call sin when you're just five years old?
Sharon Richardson: Daddy came to get me to show me what no little girl should have to witness. My mom passed out on the floor from the night before. She had come home from work drunk again. Daddy said, "I need for you to see this because you never believe me." I was an only child going through this all alone, seeing my mom, the mother that I loved who fed me, who nourished me, and told me that she loved me unconditional, and seeing her in this condition. I was very sad.
Sharon Richardson: My thoughts to myself seeing my mom like this, is she dead? Becoming a caretaker became my life moving forward. Caring for those who I felt needed me. This was my job growing up. As a wounded healer and a caretaker to my friends, partners, lovers, and friends and members of my church and Girl Scouts, everything, I became the caretaker of these people.
Sharon Richardson: At the age of 16, who would know or who would believe that I would collapse into the abyss of no return, needing saving grace one day? Age 30, the worst happened. 27 years ago on May 5th, 1990, my abusive boyfriend was murdered after walking into my apartment carrying my two year old son.
Sharon Richardson: My daughter who was eight years old at that time did not know or have a clue that she would become the next caretaker in the family. For my job as I knew it, as caretaker, had ended that evening.
Sharon Richardson: The courtroom. Guilty. Sentenced to 20 years. The feeling of darkness came over me hearing the jurors, hearing my family and my mom yelling as she hit the floor. Then the metal gates closed, shutting behind me with a baby in my womb, the memory of blood in my mouth, the scars on my face, the black eyes. It was then that my path towards redemption had begun.
Sharon Richardson: Hours turned into days, days turned into nights. Still moments returned in my thoughts. The years started to move forward after May 1990. The prison doors opened and then they closed. I could only imagine what was next. There was no looking back. The very keys that I turned as a correction officer was now being turned on me.
Sharon Richardson: I was the one behind the prison doors now. I laid in a cold cell on a metal slab with a mattress not made for humans. Deep in my thoughts, I had to find solitude. Understanding and freedom. I had to find peace. I had to find remorse inside of me, a non-forgiving place at that time.
Sharon Richardson: I told myself this and I believed it. After all, someone died. It was my fault, right? Twisted in my thoughts, my heart bleeds as the tears continue to fall. I reminded myself in an instance, he did molest my daughter. He did beat my son. He told me that he loved me yet he bruised and busted my skin.
Sharon Richardson: I needed saving. I needed understanding. I needed resolution. I needed to find me and fast. Time not waiting, moving slowly, for the lessons in my life didn't come and don't come when you want them to. Yet over and over again, in my mind, I knew that I had to find peace.
Sharon Richardson: Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. NYC ID 91G1854. In my cell, in shock. There had to be a way back. "Was there love in this dark place called prison?", I asked myself. My upbringing as I remember it had seeds that were planted in my soul. My West Indian spiritual family, despite the many family flaws, needed watering I thought.
Sharon Richardson: Time passed and I felt the seeds growing during the 20 years of my incarceration. I began to meet people with stories and melodies, many with tapestries painted with all sorts of colored paths. Roads, hills, and valleys. I found my spiritual healing in a higher education at many levels that awakened my cognitive thinking, allowing me to embrace a different phenomenal walk towards my freedom.
Sharon Richardson: What was dark started to have some light. I arrived. My journey took me to my mother's bed side visit 18 years later and this time, my memory served its purpose for I would see my other again laying down on a different bed. A bed that I thought that I would never see.
Sharon Richardson: Mom was on her deathbed. She could not speak. Only hear me. She had suffered a stroke. She was helpless, all of mommy's choices and decisions had caught up with her now and I was thinking, I'm losing my friend. I'm losing my buddy. I was so sad. But I had come to say goodbye.
Sharon Richardson: "You can go now," I said, "I will be okay, mommy. I promise you this." The ride back to the prison in handcuffs and shackles were gurgling as my childhood belt bellied up. The correction officers asked me, "Are you okay, Sharon?" I can remember weeping and weeping on that ride back.
Sharon Richardson: Why food? People ask me. Why food? I returned back to the prison where my friends cooked food, lots of it. They were allowed to stay up and wait for me to come back. I couldn't believe it. We ate and we cried. I told them about my trip. I told them about my mother's condition. We ate and we cried some more.
Sharon Richardson: That night, I told my story that led to that day. We all shared some sort of story that night and then we had dessert and then we went to bed. My day of redemption. In that hour, I had begin to feel it all in one moment. I had arrived and I didn't even know it.
Sharon Richardson: My day of redemption. In that hour, I was given back all that was taken from me and then I was released May 6th, 2010. Who knew what the journey in front of me would hold? Today, I am the proud but humble CEO and founder of Just Soul Catering, a justice involved catering business, a social enterprise. A catering business that hires formerly incarcerated women.
Sharon Richardson: We cook soul food and we share stories to the wonderful people of New York City, people who love to eat and never sleep. Soul food comes from a soulful place inside those that cook this food. It comes from a journey. Journeys must be told. It's where soul food is derived from. It's richness and taste. It's ability to reach people.
Sharon Richardson: This is a story of redemption, a story, a gift. A story, a gift to you, all who sit here. One of many stories told, one of many given, one of many to inspire all.
Kerry Diamond: You won't be surprised to learn this, but Sharon got a standing ovation for her talk. Another favorite moment of mine was our 100th episode which we recorded in early 2017 in Los Angeles at Hedley & Bennett headquarters. I interviewed author Ruth Reichel and Chef Nancy Silverton which was so much fun.
Kerry Diamond: The two women have been friends for decades and had a lot of history to share. Ellen Bennett, the founder of Hedley & Bennett and one of my favorite people in the food world, kicked things off with a talk called "The Art of the Hustle".
Kerry Diamond: Ellen entered the room via a zip line, true story, and offered this advice for the bombe squad.
Ellen Bennett: I always wanted to do that. Check it off the bucket list. Okay. Hi guys. Every week, we have a staff meeting at our office and we always end up ... The entire meeting is finished with me giving the team a pep talk. I thought it fitting for tonight to give you guys a little pep talk about life.
Ellen Bennett: The words that I really, really live by and I wake up to everyday is wake up and fight. I feel like it basically means it's in you to get up, to do it, to get out there and make some stuff happen. It consists of literally just deciding that you can do it and everyday, I decide that today I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna make some stuff happen.
Ellen Bennett: I always get up and these days, I've been going to boxing and yoga and spinning and I don't have a lot of time because I have all kinds of stuff and obligations I have to do but I cram in the time and I make it happen and I feel so much better. We're just so lucky to be alive and to have arms and legs and a nose and a head that work and why miss a day of this awesome life? You just have to really get out there and fight.
Ellen Bennett: That's my first part of my pep talk. The second part that I love is if the front door isn't open, climb in through the window. What does that mean? It means don't just stop because you ran into a wall or you don't see an entrance or you don't know how to get there or you don't know somebody that knows somebody.
Ellen Bennett: Everything that we've done with Hedley & Bennett was very much we were just like, we're gonna find a way and if there isn't a front door, you climb in through the window and if there isn't a window, you make a window and if there isn't a window or a wall, you go through the back garden. You just find a way and you get scrappy and you have to just be okay with being scrappy.
Ellen Bennett: Once you're okay with being scrappy, it's kinda like all rules go to hell and you can just do it. Just do it. Okay? My other one is I really feel that sheer determination will get you very, very far. There's been a lot of times, I mean I was a line cook, I'm a CEO now. I can't even tell you the meltdowns behind the scenes that happened to make stuff happen.
Ellen Bennett: It takes a lot of determination and just sheer willpower to push through all those times and you kinda have to be your own cheerleader. You have to just say, "Hey, you can do it. Get up. Okay, cry a little bit, maybe whine. Maybe punch a wall or something but then get back up and keep going because it's in you."
Ellen Bennett: I've run marathons before and the reason I wanted to do marathons was because I was like, okay, if you can run 26 miles and not die, you can pretty much do most things in life. If you've ever run, when you get to about mile 20, you really feel like you're going to die or maybe you already did and your legs are still moving and then you still keep going another six miles and you're like, how am I physically still on this Earth right now?
Ellen Bennett: Then you get to the end of it and you're like, oh. You proved yourself wrong and you kinda proved yourself right. You could do it and you always could. Then you were like, okay, I am stronger than I think I am. You really are stronger than you think you are. You just have to push through the uncomfortable, painful, awful, nasty parts.
Ellen Bennett: Basically, stretch your mental muscles. Don't give up. Wake up and fight. Hustle your heart out and you can make something awesome happen. Right now, we are in the time of the woman. I mean, it's like we're here, we're doing it. It's so exciting. I feel like it's our frickin' duty to get out there and prove to the world that we are awesome and we are here in numbers and we bring so much heart and soul to everything that we do.
Ellen Bennett: Let's prove it to the world. Let's fuckin' kill it ladies, okay? Thank you. Oh, and my last one. This is a good one. I can't forget this one. They aren't bumps in the road. They are the road. I mean, how true is that? There is no easy way. There is no little side access road to success. It really does look like a work suit and then you just have to get out there and do it.
Ellen Bennett: Truly, truly, truly. Hustle. Work your heart out. You're gonna make it. It'll be awesome and then we will all cheer you on too.
Kerry Diamond: Such good stuff from Ellen. You've heard me do speed rounds with so many people over the years, but now the tables are turning and I'm going to be put on the spot with our associate producer, Jess Zeidman. Jess did not let me see the questions in advance. Here we go.
Jess Zeidman: Hi, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond: Hi, Jess.
Jess Zeidman: Are you excited?
Kerry Diamond: I'm nervous.
Jess Zeidman: No, don't be nervous. Okay. Question number one. Paper, plastic, or reusable cup?
Kerry Diamond: Reusable cup, always.
Jess Zeidman: Always. Favorite food from your childhood?
Kerry Diamond: Oh gosh, favorite food from my childhood. I had a lot of them. I loved my mom's tuna noodle casserole. I loved Kraft macaroni and cheese. I'll say those.
Jess Zeidman: Those are delicious. Favorite magazine and you can't say Cherry Bombe.
Kerry Diamond: Favorite magazine, that's a tough one. I have so many. You know what? I love Gentlewoman. I think that's a fantastic magazine.
Jess Zeidman: Okay. Recipe you know the best.
Kerry Diamond: I make a really good pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage and it's really simple and delicious and so easy to make.
Jess Zeidman: Can you spatchcock a chicken?
Kerry Diamond: I can spatchcock a chicken. I did that last night. Did I tell you I was gonna do that?
Jess Zeidman: Yeah and I thought it would be fun to share.
Kerry Diamond: Yep.
Jess Zeidman: Okay.
Kerry Diamond: It's easier than you think.
Jess Zeidman: Song that comes on at a party and you're like, yes, this song!
Kerry Diamond: Oh gosh, anything by New Order. Our Love Triangle maybe.
Jess Zeidman: Amazing, amazing. Favorite holiday for its food.
Kerry Diamond: Favorite holiday for its food. I would have to say Christmas Eve because that's the big holiday with my family. My siblings and nieces and nephews and everybody gets together and my mom always makes a really fun appetizer spread and she makes the little hot dogs. The mini weiners wrapped in Pillsbury crescent rolls.
Jess Zeidman: Oh, yum.
Kerry Diamond: Can't get enough of those.
Jess Zeidman: One food that you could eat for the rest of your life.
Kerry Diamond: Ice-cream.
Jess Zeidman: Favorite movie.
Kerry Diamond: Oh my god, my favorite movie. It used to be The Breakfast Club but as Molly Ringwald pointed out, there are some things with that movie that maybe weren't great. But I have some others. I can't just pick one. Loves Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. The Royal Tenenbaums. Love. And Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Jess Zeidman: That's the best movie. I think that's my favorite movie. Okay. Worst job you ever had.
Kerry Diamond: This one. No. I'm kidding. I had two hideous jobs. I sold hot dogs from a hot dog truck on Staten Island when I was a teenager. That was just hell and then I worked in the Staten Island Mall at a cart that sold really shitty cat stuff like this cat clock and all this stuff. They were just ... Yeah.
Jess Zeidman: Favorite coffee shop in Brooklyn.
Kerry Diamond: Smith Canteen.
Jess Zeidman: Right answer. Okay, this brings us to if you had to cook dinner-
Kerry Diamond: Oh boy.
Jess Zeidman: For any food celebrity, who would it be and what would you make?
Kerry Diamond: Oh my god, that's a really hard question. God, I love so many people. Who would it be? If I had to pick one food celeb ... You know what, you didn't say if they're living or dead. This is kind of a morbid way to end the speed round but we always do the who would you be trapped on a desert island with and my answer was always Anthony Bourdain.
Jess Zeidman: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Kerry Diamond: I would always be really surprised when other people's answer wasn't Anthony Bourdain.
Jess Zeidman: True.
Kerry Diamond: I still think it's such a big loss to the food world and the world at large, his passing, and I would have loved to have made dinner for him and just gotten to know him a little better and understand what makes him tick and what ... I don't know. Just have a conversation with him.
Kerry Diamond: I always thought I would interview him and we came really close to having him on Radio Cherry Bombe once and he didn't wanna do the interview for various reasons related to #MeToo, but I regret not having had the chance to interview him.
Jess Zeidman: Totally. Last question. What is a question you wish more people asked you?
Kerry Diamond: I never think about that. I like interviewing people. I don't mind being interviewed but I like interviewing other people and I think that's been the common denominator through my life back to when I was editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper to today. I just liked telling other people's stories.
Kerry Diamond: The thing that I'll think is why didn't I ask the person that question instead of why didn't someone ask me that question. Does that make sense?
Jess Zeidman: Yeah, it totally makes sense.
Kerry Diamond: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jess Zeidman: All right. Do you have any other speed round things?
Kerry Diamond: Just apologies for always turning a speed round into a non speed round.
Jess Zeidman: I will admit something. On a future episode of Radio Cherry Bombe, I did the speed round and I was asked, I asked someone and I turned it into a very long format conversation.
Kerry Diamond: We need to come up with a name for the Cherry Bombe speed round. The not quite speed round.
Jess Zeidman: It's like the walking round.
Kerry Diamond: Okay, thanks Jess.
Jess Zeidman: Thanks, Kerry.
Kerry Diamond: That was fun.
Jess Zeidman: Yeah.
Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez: I'm Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez and I am the founder at Hot Bread Kitchen and managing director at Daily Provisions.
Jessica Edwards: I'm Jessica Edwards and an avid listener, first time caller, long time listener. Two hundred episodes! Woohoo! Of Cherry Bombe brilliance. Congratulations, Kerry and the whole team-
Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez: Congratulations!
Jessica Edwards: For all that you do.
Christina Ha: Hi, my name's Christina Ha. I am the co-founder of Macaron Parlor.
Simon Tung: And I am Simon Tung, co-founder of Macaron Parlor.
Christina Ha: I'm also the co-founder of Meow Parlor.
Simon Tung: And I'm a co-founder of Cat Camp.
Christina Ha: We have 8,000 cats.
Simon Tung: We have a lot of cats. We love food and we really love cats and we both wanna wish Kerry and the whole Cherry Bombe posse a happy 200th episode.
Christina Ha: Hip, hip, hooray!
Kerry Diamond: Please note, it has been an honor and a privilege to host this show. As Sharon Richardson said earlier, a story is a gift and I feel I've been gifted 200 times over because of Radio Cherry Combe. It's been a privilege to learn and grow and change with all of you.
Kerry Diamond: This show is nothing without our listeners, so thank you for tuning in each week. We can actually see a map of where our listeners are and we love knowing that the show makes it around the world each week.
Kerry Diamond: Thank you to the wonderful sponsors for helping keep this show on the air and thank you to Kerrygold for throwing our 200th episode party. You can see pictures from the party on our website. Thank you to the team at Heritage Radio, the home of Radio Cherry Bombe.
Kerry Diamond: We have some news. We will be launching a second podcast in a few months with a new host. We're doing another Radio Cherry Bombe tour across the country starting in late spring and we'll be visiting San Diego, Nantucket, Baltimore, Phoenix, and several other cities. Starting with this episode, we'll have transcripts available on our website so the show will be accessible to even more people.
Kerry Diamond: Thank you to Handsome Brook Farm for supporting this season of Radio Cherry Bombe. For more, visit Handsome Brookfarm.com. Radio Cherry Bombe's associate producer is the one and only Jess Zeidman. Jess, I love working with you. I hope you know that. And our theme song is by the band Tralala. Thanks for listening, everyone. You are the bomb.