What makes a recipe special and truly worth your time? For us, it comes down to the person behind the recipe. Why cook any old dish from some anonymous recipe online when you can make one from a person you love or admire? We prefer a recipe that’s the equivalent of a sweater borrowed from a girlfriend, a dog-eared book your sister lent you, or the weird knickknack that belonged to your grandmother. Dependable, interesting, nostalgia inducing, maybe even a little quirky.

That is the premise behind Cherry Bombe: The Cookbook. We wanted to produce a collection of meaningful, intriguing, and delicious recipes from the women who inspire us, so we emailed chefs we love, past Cherry Bombe cover girls and subjects, friends, and even a few strangers and asked for a recipe they treasure.

Once the submissions started pouring in, the Cherry Bombe team started cooking. We tested everything ourselves in our small New York City apartments. We wanted to vouch for every dish in this book and ensure that anyone, at any skill level, and with any kind of kitchen setup, could make all the recipes. We visited our local grocery stores and bodegas more times than we thought humanly possible and we cooked through multiple heat waves. Some recipes were perfect on the first try; others took three, four, even five times to get just right. We washed a lot of dishes, composted a lot of fruit and veggie scraps, and offered a lot of food to our neighbors.

What we loved as much as the beautiful dishes were the anecdotes that each woman shared. Because of their stories, you can’t help but feel their presence guiding you and cheering you on as you work your way through the cookbook. As you chop, blend, beat, and sauté, you’ll realize there’s girl power swirling all around you. The late author Laurie Colwin—whose much-loved books Home Cooking and More Home ­Cooking were big influences on this project—said it best: “No one who cooks cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.”

Thank you to all the wonder(ful) women who contributed recipes to this project. There are so many different talents in this cookbook, from pastry chefs, food stylists, and bakers to editors, bloggers, and farmers. Cherry Bombe was created to celebrate women in the world of food and we’re thrilled to continue our mission here. Lastly, thank you for bringing these recipes to life. Happy cooking.

YOU’RE THE BOMBE!