Radio Cherry Bombe

Mimi Thorisson is the author of A Kitchen in France, and Manger, her blog devoted to French cooking and life in the French countryside. Though she grew up in Hong Kong, Mimi developed a love of French cooking early on while visiting her grandmother in the South of France. She is the host of the French cooking shows La Table de Mimi and Les Desserts de Mimi. She lives with her photographer husband, their seven children, and a band of smooth fox terriers in an old château in St. Yzans, in the Médoc region of France.

Jessie Kanelos Weiner is an illustrator, food stylist, and author best known for her vibrant watercolor illustrations and fine line coloring books. Jessie writes and illustrates a blog about her life called thefrancofly.com. She has written a handful of cookbooks, including a collection of American family recipes adapted to French tastes Pâtisseries et gâteaux d'Amérique. Her latest book, Edible Paradise: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables, explores the edible plant kingdom. A Chicago native, Jessie currently lives and works in Paris.

Klancy Miller is a writer and pastry chef deeply fascinated by all things French. After graduating from Columbia University and working in international development in French Polynesia, she earned a Diplôme de Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Paris. Klancy stayed in Paris to apprentice in the pastry kitchen at the Michelin­-starred Taillevent restaurant, and was later hired by Le Cordon Bleu Paris to join the recipe development team. During this time, Klancy was featured on Food Network’s Recipe for Success, in an episode about American culinary professionals in Paris. Now in New York and Philadelphia, she continues to write about food. She was a commentator on the Cooking Channel’s show Unique Sweets and has been a contributor to the online magazine Food Republic. When she’s not writing or cooking, Klancy takes hip­hop dance classes, throws waffle parties, obsesses about her next vacation, and searches for the perfect cookie. Her first cookbook, Cooking Solo, is out now.

Celestine Maddy is the founder and publisher of Wilder Quarterly and the author (with Abbye Churchill) of the new book A Wilder Life (Artisan, 2016). She was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative in Business” for 2012, and is also a Cannes Lion winner. Before founding Wilder Quarterly, she was the Director of Emerging Media at global agency StrawberryFrog. She is currently Vice President of Marketing at Reddit and she splits her time between New York and San Francisco.

Chloe Coscarelli is the chef and co-partner of N.Y.C.’s vegan hot spot By Chloe, located in the heart of the Village. She is also the author of three best-selling cookbooks — Chloe’s Kitchen, Chloe’s Vegan Desserts, and Chloe’s Vegan Italian Kitchen. Chloe first earned national attention after taking the top spot on an episode of the Food Network’s hit reality-competition series “Cupcake Wars,” becoming the first vegan chef to win a culinary competition on national television. Chloe is a graduate of The National Gourmet Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. She also completed Cornell University’s Plant-Based Nutrition program. Two more By Chloe restaurants are set to open in Flatiron and SoHo in 2016, serving the same colorful, plant-based fare that made the original location a smash success.

Emshika Alberini

Emshika is the chef/owner of Chang Thai Cafe and M-ZO Tea & Co, both located in Littleton, New Hampshire. She’s been a generous supporter of Radio Cherry Bombe and Heritage Radio Network, so we invited her to join us as our first-ever guest host. Emshika grew up in Bangkok and learned to cook from her mother and grandmother. She moved to New York in the early 2000s and earned a master’s degree in organizational management from Russell Sage College in Troy, N.Y. She then moved to Littleton and opened her cafe in 2008. Unable to get a loan, she financed the entire thing on her credit card. Chang Thai found an audience and in 2014, Emshika opened M-Zo Tea & Co next door. Business NH Magazine recently named the establishments as two of New Hampshire’s five best women-led establishments.

Sohui Kim

Sohui is the chef and co-owner of Good Fork, a neighborhood institution in Red Hook, Brooklyn, and Insa, the new Korean bbq and karaoke spot in Gowanus. Sohui was born in Seoul, Korea, and lived there until the age of 10. In 1981, she immigrated to the United States and took up residence with her family in the Bronx. She later graduated from Barnard with a degree in liberal arts. After working in the architectural publishing business, Sohui was close to applying to law school when she got bit by the cooking bug and attended The Institute of Culinary Education instead. She completed her education with an externship at Blue Hill under chefs Dan Barber and Michael Anthony and went on to work for Anita Lo at Annisa in the West Village. She and her husband Ben Schneider opened the Good Fork in order to express her unique culinary perspective: a hybrid of her time in Korea, the Bronx, and the fine dining kitchens of Manhattan. Her favorite karaoke song is “We Belong” by Pat Benatar.

Margaret Braun, the author of Cakewalk, is a New York‐based artist who has redefined the art of cake decorating. In the 1980s, Margaret worked her way through various New York bakeries developing a distinctive, boundary‐breaking style that fuses the food arts to the fine arts.

Her various projects have included creating 2,000 wedding cakes for a royal wedding in the Middle East and Marilyn Manson's wedding cake in a castle in Ireland; making a sugar mosaic sculpture at a Venetian palazzo; decorating a dance company with icing in Berlin; and and fashioning a 30‐foot‐tall DayGlo firework‐blasting cake sculpture.

As an artist in residence at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York earlier this year, she completed an installation called 2,000 Sugar Cups. This project was a reflection on her work in the kitchen and was an exercise on how individuality can thrive when set against sameness.

Alexandra Du Cane is the co‐founder of Pointy Snout, a sustainably farmed U.S. caviar company. A self‐studied expert, Du Cane personally grades each tin, ensuring both quality and transparency. Pointy Snout has been featured in luxury lifestyle outlets such as Travel + Leisure, Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, Departures, Town & Country and dubbed "black gold" by W magazine in 2014. Before starting Pointy Snout, Du Cane founded one of the world's premier fashion and advertising photo agencies, with offices in New York, Paris and Los Angeles, producing global marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as BMW, Seagram, and AT&T.

Joy Wilson is the voice behind the popular blog JoytheBaker.com. She is a baker, food photographer, writer, and curator of all things sweet. Her first book, the Joy the Baker Cookbook, is an unabashed celebration of butter and sugar, and her second, Homemade Decadence, is filled with ooey gooey sweet treats. She is currently finishing her third cookbook, all about brunch, to be released in Spring 2017. Joy is also creator of the viral Instagram Drake on Cake. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with her monstrous cat Jules, an admirable collection of nail polish, and a refrigerator full of butter.

Danielle Chang created LUCKYRICE to follow her passion for creating a platform for Asian culture. Her career has always revolved around pop culture, storytelling, and entrepreneurship. She began her career at The New York Times and later founded and published the lifestyle magazine, Simplycity. After earning her master’s degree in Critical Theory from Columbia University, she was a Professor of Contemporary Art History as well as a curator of emerging art. Most recently, she was CEO of Vivienne Tam, a fashion company, and, prior to that, the managing director of Assouline, a French creative advertising agency.

Her focus today is the culinary arts. Danielle’s first cookbook, Lucky Rice: Stories and Recipes from Night Markets, Feasts, and Family Tables, was just released and brings alive the flavors of Asian cuisine. Danielle is currently the host and producer of Lucky Chow.

Suzanne Cupps is Chef de Cuisine at Untitled and Studio Cafe, both in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. As a child, Suzanne often dodged her mother’s requests for help in the kitchen, and it wasn’t until the end of her undergraduate years at Clemson University that she began to consider cooking as a potential career.

Suzanne’s first job in the hospitality industry was an HR administrator position at the Waldorf Astoria, where she realized that her interests lay firmly in the kitchen. Soon after, Suzanne enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education and found the atmosphere of a professional kitchen to her liking.

After graduating from ICE in 2005, Suzanne began her culinary career with Union Square Hospitality Group as an extern at Gramercy Tavern. She then went on to hone her skills at Anita Lo’s restaurant Annisa. In 2011, Suzanne returned to Gramercy Tavern as a line cook. Most recently, she held the position of Tavern Sous Chef.

Avery Ruzicka is the force behind Manresa Bread, the celebrated bakery in Los Gatos, California. She studied politics, international studies, and creative writing at college in North Carolina, but her interest in food led her to culinary school in New York City. She focused on bread baking and after graduation worked with master baker Ben Hershberger at Per Se.

She first crossed paths with Manresa Chef David Kinch as a student and eventually made her way out west to work at his celebrated restaurant. But there was a catch. The only job available was a front of house gig, so she worked as a runner and helped out in the kitchen when she could. Eventually, Avery began baking for Manresa full time and put together the restaurant’s bread program.

Manresa Bread officially launched in March 2013 at several farmers’ markets in the area. The bakery opened its doors in January 2015 and regulars line up for the sourdough baguettes, football-sized loaves of levain, chocolate brioche, and almond croissants lovingly baked by Avery and her team.

Mandy Aftel is world renowned expert in the natural fragrance field and is the founder of Aftelier Perfumes, a Berkeley-based company. She creates bespoke fragrances for her clients and also has a line of culinary essences and sprays for use in professional and home kitchens. Mandy has written several books on fragrance and co-authored a book of food and fragrance recipes with Chef Daniel Patterson called Aroma. She also has contributed her work and expertise to a number of museum exhibits and lectures regularly on the subject of fragrance.

Thessaly La Force, writing for The New York Times, said Mandy “could be considered the scent world’s Alice Waters, borrowing customs from the French in that effortless yet mindful California way.”