Capricorn Season with the One and Only Wishbone Kitchen
Meredith Hayden spills her New Year's resolutions to kick off Radio Cherry Bombe's 2026 season
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“I’ve always been nosy in the kitchen.”
Meredith Hayden has been flipping pancakes since she was stove-high. Then came the Betty Crocker cookie mixes, then the Ina Garten meatballs, and, after the planet spun around the sun a few times, she was inventing her own recipes (swamp soup, we love you) as a 12-week bestselling cookbook author and beloved culinary creator. You might know her as Wishbone Kitchen.
“Desperation can bring out a lot of creativity,” Meredith tells host Kerry Diamond today on the kickoff of the Radio Cherry Bombe 2026 season, because it was only after being laid off from her ad sales job at Vogue, and facing the pandemic standstill of 2020, that she was forced to slice and dice a new path forward. She applied for a job at Cherry Bombe (sorry, Meredith, but things seem to have worked out for you!), got in the (fabulous) kitchen of a private chef client in the Hamptons, and turned on the camera. The rest is recent history—still being written.
This month, Meredith is turning 30 and tells us that she’s headed to Japan with her boyfriend, and working on her resolution to finally nail that elusive work-life balance. Aren’t we all. A new notebook should help, right? (Meredith loves a notebook. We can relate.) Listen to the latest Radio Cherry Bombe for the full story on Wishbone Kitchen, the intel on Meredith’s recent favorite New York restaurant, and cooking with ADHD, wherever you stream your podcasts.
Link it up:
The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook belongs on your shelf if you love: pasta, big salads, and a little lobster
Meredith’s own cookbook shelf is crowded with Ina Garten classics, and if yours isn’t, here’s a signed edition
We love a fresh notebook as much as Meredith does. Do you skew team cute notebook or classic?
Check out the limited-run Home Chef x Wishbone Kitchen collab for the parmesan chicken—we made and loved it. Use code CHEFMER to receive your first box at $4.99 per serving plus free shipping.
Meredith’s desert island tool is a microplane and her desert island chef pal is… well, you’ll have to listen to find that out.
Need a cozy meal? Make Meredith’s Balsamic Braised Short Ribs.
Fun fact: Wishbone Kitchen is a reference to the roast chicken dinners her mother would make when she was growing up, which always ended with her sharing the wishbone break with a sibling to see who’d bask in the good luck that week.
Cooking tip of the week: Ina’s method for cooking onions in red wine for her spaghetti sauce changed Meredith’s red-sauce-loving life and inspired her go-to meatball recipe. Gotta try.
Something to noodle on: Meredith mentions the thick noodles she had in Italy, “like bucatini with no hole,” and the world needs to know more. It’s called pici! And why is it so hard to find stateside? You can find it at Eataly and other Italian specialty grocers, but the best option might be to pack an empty duffel inside your suitcase en route to Florence this spring…
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