Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg have been called the brightest young author team on the culinary scene today's on NPR. Others were inspired by its future-focused final chapter on food safety and purity, and the book's contention that 'chefs cannot remain unmoved by these changes.' BECOMING A CHEF's place in culinary history has been marked in timelines published by the National Culinary Review, which noted its 1995 publication as a key milestone for providing 'the first compendium of answers to some of the most common questions an aspiring chef can ask.' Many culinarians have cited BECOMING A CHEF as a life-changing book that first confirmed their interest in a culinary career. The following spring, the book won the 1996 James Beard Book Award for Best Writing on Food - and this cult classic ( Restaurants & Institutions ) was on its way to sales of more than 100,000 copies.

is a comprehensive primer on the culinary profession.a combination of brass tacks and philosophy.'īy December 1995, BECOMING A CHEF 'proved a surprisingly popular gift item' ( Forbes ), and the book was soon recommended or required reading at schools ranging from The Culinary Institute of America to Wesleyan University. 'When Julia Child sends a congratulatory note on your recently published book and says she keeps her copy by the bed, you've done a good job. Yet its first-time authors were interviewed by Matt Lauer on the 'Today' Show, and BECOMING A CHEF went on to be hailed for launching 'a new dimension in food writing, creating a standard for a whole new genre' ( The Record ). The book that first kicked off the boom and established the category of contemporary writing on food, BECOMING A CHEF - written by Manhattan restaurant chef Andrew Dornenburg and his Harvard MBA wife Karen Page - was published during the summer of 1995 with extremely modest expectations: Its initial printing was a mere 2500 copies. 'An extraordinary book.There's never been a book like this before.'

Becoming a Chef by Andrew Dornenburg