Field Notes: Cherry Bombe's Jubilee Conference
Plus what I learned about cooking—and life—from Ms. Gloria Steinem
When Kerry Diamond, founder and editor-in-chief of Cherry Bombe, invited me to Jubilee, I had to pinch myself. For the record, I’m not anyone special. This kind of generosity is just typical Kerry—and why she’s known as an unflagging champion of women in this industry.
If you’ve ever been curious about Cherry Bombe or Jubilee, consider this my excessively detailed (and somehow still incomplete!) dispatch from the day.
Saturday, April 12
7 AM: My alarms goes off. I live in the Hudson Valley, so my morning is structured around catching the train into the city. I eat up most of my time deciding what to wear. I’m in that awkward newly postpartum phase, so nothing fits quite right. It also “feels like” 23 degrees outside and it’s snowing. I go with the closest thing I have to a uniform: a pair of Levi’s and a pajama top. I’m curious what the cool cookery girls will be wearing though.
9:55 AM: I arrive at Grand Central and grab a coffee then a taxi. I know, I know. It’s cheaper to take the subway. But I haven’t been to the city in a few weeks so I want to take it all in above ground!
10:20 AM: By the time I reach the Glasshouse on 12th Ave, the line already wraps around the building. I notice how many mothers and daughters are here together. Suddenly, I’m missing my mom…
10:35 AM: Okay, wow. Kerry and the team pulled out all the stops this year. There’s a step and repeat sponsored by California Prunes and a life size Cherry Bomb cover for pictures. While I wait for my chance on the pink carpet, I take in what everyone else is wearing. It’s a lot of color and print. There’s a definite food theme happening too—cherries, obviously, but citrus, pineapples, even a mini skirt dotted with tiny pizzas make an appearance. It’s playful and joyful and very “wear whatever makes you smile.” I immediately recognize some Rachel Antonoff and Susan Alexandra pieces. There are also a lot of…Canadian Tuxedos?? I make a mental note to ask my friends in fashion if this a thing.
10:45 AM: A few photos later, and I’ve made into the marketplace. San Pellegrino, Kitchen Arts & Letters, and Ghirardelli are among the early crowd favorites. The longest line by far though is for Kerrygold’s Butter Club. From where I’m standing, the green curtains obscure everything inside, but I overhear someone say you can spin a wheel inside for exclusive merch. It’s tempting.
Still, if last year’s Jubilee taught me anything, it’s this: get your seat early. The Butter Club will be there later. A clear view of the stage won’t. I sneak into the third row and sit next to Tamara Keefe, the owner of Clementine’s Ice Cream in Saint Louis.
11:15 AM: Kerry welcomes us to the largest Jubilee yet—with around 1,000 women (!!!)—and ends with an emotional acknowledgement of the political climate.
11:20 AM: Chrissy Tracey starts things off with a story about feeling lost in tech and finding herself again through nature. It all comes into focus when she’s forced to bring nature inside, cooking for a close friend with terminal brain cancer. “Hope can be slipped into a broth,” she says.
??:?? AM (Sorry!): At the Beyond the Pass panel, the conversation moves beyond the kitchen. Chefs and restauranteurs Caroline Styne, Cheetie Kumar, Sarah Grueneberg, and Stella Dennig discuss turning passion into policy—who gets heard, who gets helped, and how to make it last—through the work of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. I love that they’re working on solving problems like childcare for second-shift workers.
I also learn a bit about road life from Cheetie. (She got into food after one too many plates of promoter’s pasta…)
12:15 PM: Another Canadian tuxedo! This time on the host of Top Chef Canada and cookbook author, Eden Grinshpan. She talks about joy as the foundation for hope and her new cookbook, Tahini Baby.
12:40 PM: Asma Khan takes the stage. The chef and owner of London’s Darjeeling Express is funny, wise, and unapologetically herself. She’s got a sharp wit, a soft spot for the word “bloody,” and a deep understanding of what it means to build something as an immigrant, a woman, an outsider. That perspective informs everything—from how she runs her business to who she hires. And it’s why Darjeeling Express has an open kitchen. Guests see exactly who’s making their food: nine brown-skinned women, most of them immigrants, three of them grandmothers…laughing, cooking, creating joy. I’m excited to go home and watch her Chef’s Table episode.
1:00 PM: Snack Break! I head for the Veuve Clicquot bar and grab a glass of RICH before making a game plan. The line for the Butter Club is still long. The Kerrygold photo booth, however, is empty. I take the win, snap a few pics, then grab a caprese and prosciutto sandwich before sitting with a few other solo attendees. We chat about where were from (Kentucky, Atlanta, the Hudson Valley), if this is our first Jubilee (yes, no, no), and what we’re looking forward to the most (Gloria!!!).
Then I wander through the Bombe Squad booths—brands and small businesses from members of the Cherry Bombe community. That’s where I spot the Flour Fairy herself, Lauren Dozier. I stop to say hi/gush.
1:30 PM: I haven’t waited in line for a club since 2020, mostly because I’m now over the age of 30. But if there’s anything that will get me to queue—it’s butter. Ten minutes later and I’ve arrived at the wheel of fortune. Prizes include crewnecks, water bottles, totes, pennants, socks, and baseball caps—some decorated with playful illustrations from Hello Adrienne, all with Kerrygold branding, of course.
A brand rep lets me know that if you land on a tote, crewneck, or cap, they’ll embroider it for you on the spot. I purchased the hat at last year’s conference, so I’m quietly manifesting the crewneck. While I wait, I start mentally cycling through embroidery ideas—maybe a monogram, maybe “Butter Bean.”
When it’s my turn to spin, I land on…socks. I look down at my bare ankles peaking out from under my shoes. What can I say? You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, etc. Etc.
I take my socks and head over to the cheeseboard.
2:25 PM: Chef Lana Lagomarsini brings us back from lunch, then hands it over to Klancy Miller, who moderates Meet the Moment: The Power of Food & Storytelling in Creating Change. On stage: Deb Freeman, Zaynab Issa, Natasha Pickowicz, and Paola Velez. Each brings a distinct voice, all deeply rooted in purpose. The conversation moves quickly—from third culture to the legacy of Edna Lewis—but the message persists: food as resistance, food as memory, food as a way forward.
Natasha and Paola share an idea I’m now obsessed with: bake sales and supper clubs as the everyman’s political fundraiser. No tux required.
??:?? PM (Wow, I am bad at this): Woldy Reyes shares how food helped him navigate growing up different—queer, hard of hearing, and a person of color. He closes with a Backstreet Boys sing-along. The crowd is into it. I might be the only person here who doesn’t know the words to “I Want It That Way.”
3:00 PM: Michelladonna and Alice Ma, the duo behind Shop Cats, the show that “interviews” NYC bodega cats, take the stage. They introduce Caroline Chambers: Substack queen, cookbook author, military wife, and mom of three. She joins Kerry for a conversation about the state of food media—less polished, more personal—and how motherhood shifts your center of gravity. As a new mother myself, I’m nodding along more than I expected. (Something Caro would 100% call out later when we talked…talk about embarrassing haha.)
3:30 PM: Padma Lakshmi and her daughter, Krishna, take the stage to introduce Gloria Steinem. Just further proof that gorgeous, gorgeous girls love fundamental human rights.
3:35 PM: As Gloria walks on stage, the entire audience rises to their feet. It’s a standing ovation before she even says a word.
Her longtime collaborator Amy Richards teases her for being the keynote speaker at a food conference: “She’s the least foodie person I know.” (We learn that Gloria went years living in her apartment before she even realized her stove was broken. Icon behavior, truly.) But food, as Gloria reminds us, is political—the production, the consumption, all of it.
Amy reminds us that Gloria isn’t a total stranger to food either. Her activism started with organizing migrant farm and restaurant workers after all. And those men-only lunch services at the Plaza’s Oak Room? Gloria helped change that, covering the National Organization for Women’s “eat-ins” for New York Magazine.
Gloria points out that the original feminist movement began around kitchen tables—a place men couldn’t be bothered with. Today, she says, gathering in community still matters. The in-person, all-five-senses kind. She urges us to open our tables, our living rooms, our lives—to people who share our values, even if they come from different places.
“We’re communal animals; we need to love each other.”
And we’re on our feet again.
4: 15 PM: It’s happy hour. I grab a spicy marg from 21 Seeds and introduce myself to one of my favorite food writers Abena Anim-Somuah. We chat about her recent travel piece for Racquet magazine, all about navigating the tennis scene at a tony Jewish men’s club in Mexico City.
4:45 PM: I trade my lanyard for a goodie bag and head back to Grand Central.
See you next year, Jubilee 👋
Tchin tchin,
Veronica
P.S. If you made it this far, you are—as Kerry would say—the bombe. And Kerry, if you’re reading, thank you.
the Gloria Steinem stove anecdote is incredible (and unreal!)