About

“Karen Page, along with her husband Andrew Dornenburg, has written some of the most important books on food and cooking.”

—Evan Kleiman, host of Good Food on KCRW, Southern California’s flagship NPR affiliate

“The definitive food writing duo….Perhaps the most influential and important of all food writers working today.”

—Jennifer English, James Beard Award-winning radio host, KLAV Radio

“I have been a fan of both of you for so long.”

—Paula Wolfert, legendary cookbook author

“The writing team of Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have made their mark with books that bring us inside the craft and life of America’s chefs and their restaurants.”

—Lynne Rossetto Kasper on Minnesota Public Radio

“Award-winning co-authors of many definitive guides.”

—Lettie Teague, The Wall Street Journal

“The world’s most creative cookbook authors.”

—Guy Bower, Host, The Good Life on KNSS Radio

“I don’t think there are any authors better represented on leading chefs’ bookshelves across the country than Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg.”

—Andy Harris, Producer and Co-Host, SoCal Restaurant Show on KLA Radio

“Husband-and-wife team Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have written [several] books together covering many aspects of food and the culinary profession.  The three most recent titles — WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT, THE FLAVOR BIBLE and THE FOOD LOVER’S GUIDE TO WINE — are hands-down three of the most indispensable books on food and wine available.”

—Stir Boston, the demonstration kitchen and cookbook store owned by Barbara Lynch Gruppo

“I am just so thrilled that you guys are at the forefront of such an important conversation.  These books are such an asset to so many people out there.”

—Stefanie Sacks, MS, CNS, CDN, culinary nutritionist, author, and host of Stirring the Pot on Long Island NPR

“Writers of some of the best reference books around [including] CULINARY ARTISTRY, one of the Top 10 must-have cookbooks of the past 25 years.”

—Alison Fryer & Jennifer Grange of the Cookbook Store, in the Toronto Star

“[Among] the great cookbook authors of our generation.”

—Mike Roizen, MD, Chief Wellness Officer of the Cleveland Clinic, on YOU: The Owner’s Manual radio show

“Legendary food writing duo.”

—Molly Woodstock, in Portland Monthly

“BECOMING A CHEF by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page…was actually more than a cookbook, and launched a new dimension in food writing, creating a standard for a whole new genre.”

—Pam Chirls, cookbook editor, as quoted in The Hackensack, NJ Record

“The food world’s leading experts on flavor affinities.”

—Greg Morago, Houston Chronicle

“Among the most highly-esteemed authors in the food world and rightly so.”

—Charlie Suisman, ManhattanUsersGuide.com

“Have long had the knack of being on the cutting edge of America’s fascination with the food world.”

—Bill Daley, Chicago Tribune

“These culinary authors tend to revolutionize any subject they sink their teeth into.”

—Local Palate

“It’s not easy taking on the culinary world’s biggest questions, but Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page seem to enjoy the work.”

—Rachel Wharton, New York Daily News

“Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg not only write must-own books like THE FLAVOR BIBLE and WHAT TO DRINK WITH WHAT YOU EAT, they’re also killer radio guests.”

—Jennifer Sendrow, producer, “Cooking with Emeril”

“Dornenburg and Page had correctly sensed that America had an incipient interest in the work of the professional chef and were really the first to start feeding what has proved to be an astonishingly voracious and still-unsated appetite for information about food and cooking and the men and women who do it for money — the real information, not the stylized fluff available in food magazines, which had been the only material available for decades.”

—Michael Ruhlman, in The Reach of a Chef

“Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page had me at ‘hello’ a long time ago. That was seven years ago when I read their first book, BECOMING A CHEF. They went on to enthrall me with CULINARY ARTISTRY and then DINING OUT, books that have enriched the fount of culinary knowledge in North America…The authors excel in cherrypicking the top culinary minds in North America…The resulting books move the culinary culture forward thoughtfully and intelligently…They’ve done a marvelous job of making the history, culture, and even science of food compelling.”

—Mia Stainsby, restaurant critic, The Vancouver Sun

“…This is also a special time to bestow recognition and honor upon Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, leaders in our industry and today’s graduation speakers…Accomplished authors, respected food authorities, industry leaders … [with] exceptional talent and vision in writing some of the foodservice industry’s most well-respected books.”

—Dr. Tim Ryan, President, The Culinary Institute of America, in naming them Honorary Culinary Ambassadors

Cited as two of a dozen “international culinary luminaries” along with Gael Greene, Patrick O’Connell, Alice Waters, and Tim and Nina Zagat (in Relais & Chateaux’s L’Ame et L’Esprit magazine), Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have written groundbreaking books chronicling and celebrating America’s culinary revolution that have won every major gastronomic book award, including the Georges Duboeuf Wine Book of the Year,  Gourmand World Cookbook Award – Best in the World, IACP Cookbook of the Year, and the James Beard Book Award for Best Writing on Food.  Their books have been credited with global influence spanning the fields of cuisine, culinary education, restaurant criticism, food and drink pairing, and mixology, and are available in multiple languages (including Chinese, English, French, German, and Russian), cumulatively selling the better part of a million copies.

In June 2018, Page and Dornenburg were named two of 40 of America’s Culinary Pioneers at George Washington’s Mount Vernon during the 40th Anniversary celebration of The Inn at Little Washington.

Described upon the publication of their second book in 1996 as “the brightest young author team on the culinary scene today” (NPR) and subsequently as “culinary historians,” “cultural anthropologists” and even “the Jane Goodalls of the chef world” (Food & Wine Radio Network) for chronicling the contemporary food revolution and the advent of today’s era of celebrity chefs, Page and Dornenburg have been characterized as “incisive, hip” (Publishers Weekly) writers whose books are “extremely popular among, and indeed essential to, professional chefs” (WOR Radio).

Their accomplishments led to their being named Honorary Culinary Ambassadors of the Culinary Institute of America and featured on the cover of the 50th anniversary issue of Chef magazine, and invited to speak across North America (including at the 92nd Street Y, Atlantic Community College’s Academy of Culinary Arts, Barnes & Noble’s Booksellers University, Bedell Cellars, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, the Culinary Institute of America’s NY and CA campuses, the Harvard Business School, IACP, the Lodge at Woodloch, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the National Restaurant Association Show, New England Culinary Institute, the New York Restaurant Show, the Oregon Truffle Festival, Purdue University’s School of Hospitality and Tourism, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College, the Smithsonian, the Symposium for Professional Food Writers at The Greenbrier, the Virginia Festival of the Book, and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs’ conferences in Boston, Louisville, and Washington, DC) and around the world (including at the Gastronomy by the Seine conference and the Paris Cookbook Fair in Paris, and at The Flemish Primitives in Bruges, Belgium).

Their groundbreaking work has been discussed globally in forums such as the 2012 symposium “The Emerging Science of Gastrophysics” held at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen, and cited in many academic and professional papers, journals, and texts, including those of Northwestern University’s Jeanne M. Brett, the University of Houston Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management’s Willliam N. Chernish, Columbia University’s Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson, The MIT Press’s Jamie Horwitz and Paulette Singley, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven’s Maddy Janssens, Aberdeen University’s Roland Robertson, and psychologist Dr. Larry M. Leitner.  It has also been lauded by a biochemistry doctoral candidate in The Chronicle of Higher Education, by a minister in an op-ed in The Charlotte Observer, by a cocaine-dealer-turned-chef in his speech to FENI (Foodservice Educators Network International), on the op-ed page of the Chicago Sun-Times, and in the magazine The Week, “a witty, informative, and completely indispensable digest of the best reporting and writing from the U.S. and international press.”

In addition to the realm of cuisine, Page and Dornenburg’s work has been credited with greatly spurring creativity and innovation in the field of contemporary mixology.  THE FLAVOR BIBLE is frequently named a must-have book for modern bartenders, bar chefs, and mixologists, appearing on SeriousEats.com‘s 2014 list of Favorite Modern Cocktail Books, Eater.com‘s 2013 list of the Best Cocktail Books, as well as Cocktail.About.com‘s list of the Best Cocktail Books of 2008.  Individual bar professionals around the globe have also cited THE FLAVOR BIBLE as an inspirational cocktail reference, from Arlington to Austin to Barcelona to Belfast to Birmingham to Boulder to Calgary to Chicago to Cincinnati to Columbus to Healdsburg to Kansas City to Las Vegas to London to Los Angeles to Madison to Miami Beach to Minneapolis to Nashville to New Orleans to Phoenix to Pittsburgh to Portland (ME) to Portland (OR) to Rio de Janeiro to San Francisco to Seattle to St. Louis to Tampa to Vancouver and beyond, as noted in this 2011 Food Arts feature.

Long on the cutting edge of the worlds of food and technology, the couple hosted the “Chef’s Dinner Club” — one of the Internet’s earliest online food shows — as the flagship program of America Online (AOL)’s electronic Gourmet Guide (eGG) back in 1995. They co-hosted the legendary Julia Child for her first-ever online chat on AOL on June 5, 1996, as reported in the Los Angeles Times and USA Today. In 2002-03, they co-hosted the show “Chef’s Night Out” on Taxi Vu, which aired in the backseats of New York City taxicabs and featured chefs ranging from Terrance Brennan (Artisanal, Picholine) to Diane Forley and Michael Otsuka (Verbena, Bar Demi) to Amy Scherber (Amy’s Bread) to Tom Valenti (Ouest, ‘Cesca) on where they like to eat on their nights off.  In May 2006, they hosted the first-ever Live Blog from backstage at the James Beard Awards (now a near-annual tradition).  In October 2006, they devoted a month to hosting the world’s first-ever Gastronomic Virtual Book Tour for What to Drink with What You Eat, which spanned from Paris to Seattle with stops at popular websites such as DavidLebovitz.com, AmateurGourmet.com, and Sallys-Place.com.

Dornenburg and Page were named to FoodReference.com’s “Who’s Who in Food” in 2006, and are members of the Authors Guild, International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), James Beard Foundation, PEN American Center, Slow Food, Wine Media Guild, and Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. Their chapter on “Choosing a Cooking School: The Role of Education in a Cooking Career” has appeared in numerous annual editions of Peterson’s Culinary Schools. They have served as judges for a number of food and/or wine competitions, including the Old Ebbitt Grill’s annual Oyster Riot oyster wine competition (along with fellow judges chef Jose Andres, restaurant critic Phyllis Richman, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia), the El Coto de Rioja Paella Parade (with Daisy Martinez and Kevin Zraly), the Apple Pie Competition at the Hastings Farmers Market, the Association of Food Journalists’ annual journalism awards competition, Fleet Week’s “Best Chow” competition aboard The Intrepid, and the annual Tribeca Cook-Off at Tribeca Rooftop. In addition, they served on the Advisory Panel for the Dallas Wine and Food Festival’s Rising Star Chefs’ Contest for several years, updating its written evaluation of contestants.

From March 2007 to December 2008, Page and Dornenburg penned a wine column for The Washington Post (named Best Newspaper Food Section by the James Beard Awards during their tenure), which was frequently picked up via its wire service by dozens of newspapers across the country, including am New York, Arizona Daily Sun, Arizona Republic, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Connecticut Post, Duluth (MN) News Tribune, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, (Hackensack, NJ) Record, Honolulu Advertiser, (Indiana) Post-Tribune, Knoxville News Sentinel, Miami Herald, Monterey Herald, Napa Valley Register, Newark Star-Ledger, The (Norfolk, VA)Virginian-Pilot, Oregonian, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Raleigh News & Observer, (North Jersey) Record, San Antonio Express-News, San Mateo County Times, Santa Rosa Press Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, White Plains Journal News, Winnipeg Free Press and The Wichita Eagle.  Going “where few wine writers have ever gone before,” they focused on not only on the topic of food and wine compatibility but also such subjects as the secrets of America’s best sommelier, offbeat wine grape varieties, the role of intuition in making and enjoying wine, and wine’s potential to close the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots.”  Their column was cited in media including About.com, AllBusiness.com, Intuition Center, Manhattan User’s Guide, Martha Stewart Radio, The Week, Weekly Wine Digest, Wine Review Weekly, and WTOP Radio.

Page and Dornenburg have been interviewed by Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show and by Juju Chang and Bianna Golodryga of ABC’s “Good Morning America,” and featured in media as diverse as American Way, Avenue, Bon Appetit, BusinessWeek, Chef, “The Diane Rehm Show,” “The Dr. Oz Show,” Entertainment Weekly, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Frequent Flyer, “Good Food,” Health, “The Kojo Nnamdi Show,” “The Leonard Lopate Show,” Nation’s Restaurant News, New York, The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Pages, Playboy, Restaurant Hospitality, Restaurants & Institutions, “The Ronn Owens Show,” The San Francisco Chronicle, “The Splendid Table,” Time Out, Town & Country, Travel & Leisure, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Their latest books include KITCHEN CREATIVITY: Unlocking Culinary Genius — with Wisdom, Inspiration, and Ideas from the World’s Most Creative Chefs (Little, Brown; 2017) and THE FLAVOR ATLAS (forthcoming from Little, Brown).

Page and Dornenburg are avid practitioners of Christian meditation and contemplation who have run more than a half-dozen marathons, dozens of half-marathons, and countless shorter races between them.  The couple married in Boston in 1990 and have called Manhattan their home for more than 25 years.

“Growing up, the release of a new Beatles album was an event. We didn’t know what it would contain, but knew we were in for a treat. As an adult, a similar giddy excitement beckons when I hear of a new project by Karen Page, co-author of the James Beard Award winning culinary classics BECOMING A CHEF and THE FLAVOR BIBLE….And as a chef for over 30 years, I’d rank THE FLAVOR BIBLE and now its sequel, THE VEGETARIAN FLAVOR BIBLE, in rarified air amongst my 400+ cookbook collection. ”
—Chef Alan Lake, GapersBlock.com (Chicago)

“After all these years of reading and feeling like I ‘knew’ Karen Page, I haven’t actually met her. When her first groundbreaking book, BECOMING A CHEF, came on the scene in 1995, I was energized and transfixed. She and her husband and collaborator Andrew Dornenburg brought to life what it actually was like to be a chef. They unveiled the stories of 60 chefs and they showed us a behind-the-scenes world in a way we had never seen before. The idea of the food business being something aspirational or inspirational was not so universally accepted. It was the beginning of what we take for granted now – that food and food information are everywhere! Karen and Andrew felt this pulse early and they have continued to bring us books with singular visions.”
—Dede Wilson, Bakepedia.com (April 2015)

“Thank you both for your hard work and dedication to this industry.  Your books are a great source of reference that I use constantly.  Thank you again!”
—Spencer Churchill-Pappano, via Instagram