Obsession: A Love Note to Cherry Bombe Magazine

Warning: Severe gushing below.

I remember the first time I saw Cherry Bombe magazine. I was hanging out at my favorite place in PCC (the magazine stand) waiting for my husband and son who were grocery shopping. The bright, artfully overexposed Juergen Telleresque cover of Issue 2 featuring Babycakes NYC founder Erin McKenna with a vintage aqua blue Easy-Bake Oven (beautifully shot by Jennifer Livingston) grabbed my attention right away. I flipped through it quickly, then put it back on the shelf. I love food and restaurants, and even reading about them sometimes, but I don’t cook or bake and only devour cookbooks for their design sensibilities. Cherry Bombe was just another food magazine. Or so I thought.

Fast forward to May 2014. Victoria wrote a post about Cherry Bombe on SFGirlbyBay and mentioned that Issue 1 featured Sofia Coppola and Garance Doré. Huh? What? Okay. Fine. I’m in. I ordered Issue 1 right after reading Victoria’s post and I loved it. You guys, I actually READ so many of the articles. That’s not always the case with the magazines I get. I quickly ordered the second and third issues and after I finished those, I signed up for a subscription.

Cherry Bombe is filled with fresh, stunning styling and food photography that has the vibe of cool high end fashion shoots. Bonus: When I was reading Issues 2 and 3 on our camping trip last week, the covers served as talking head “evil leaders” for my four-year-old son’s superhero action figures. No offense to the lovely cover ladies. I also love the founders’ (Editorial Director Kerry Diamond and Creative Director Claudia Wu, who met while working at Harper’s Bazaar in 2001) To Do Lists and that every issue features some of the coolest people in general, not just in food. Hello, Grace Coddington and Kim Gordon.

I think that reading all of the issues of Cherry Bombe and increasing my fiction intake as of late has played a big part of my falling back in love with writing. I’ve kept things pretty visual in this space for a while, saving most of my words for Seattle Refined. While I’m still planning to share plenty of visual inspiration, I expect you’ll be getting more writing from me every now and then too.

A Few of My Favorite Articles/Photo Essays in Cherry Bombe

ISSUE ONE

Vision Quest: Food Stylist Victoria Granof talks about Irving Penn, Her Fondness for Imperfection and Some Unexpected Trade Secrets | Interview by Christine Muhlke

W.W.G.H.D. – This interview with chef and writer Gabrielle Hamilton by Julia Turshen may have been the first time I marked a passage in a magazine the same way that I do when I read books.

Cakewalk: Caitlin Freeman’s Tiered Tribute To Dries Van Noten

ISSUE 2

Coffee Talk – Designers share their perfect cup of coffee and pair it with its corresponding PANTONE swatch. This article is the one that I showed my husband as an example of why Cherry Bombe was made for me. P.S. I used the myPANTONE iPhone app to find mine – PANTONE 7591 C.

Matt Owen’s The Royal Tenenbaums illustration that accompanies the Food on Film piece.

A LA MODE: Dessert by Design | Photography by Catherine Losing | Food Styling by Iain Graham

ISSUE 3

Table for One: The Luxury of Eating Alone by Sierra Tishgart

Turning the Page: Ruth Reichl interviewed by Evan Kleiman

Moon Juice Kingdom: Green Juice, Cosmic Snacks, and The Wellness Revolution: Welcome to the World of Amanda Chantal Bacon by Rachel Marlowe

Okay…I’m seriously FORCING myself to stop here. 1) I’m tired of typing and searching for links to all of these talented people, and 2) I don’t want to give anything else away. Trust me. You’re going to want to read this magazine.

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Bon appétit! xoxo

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