Karen Page (Weinberg ’83) is the ultimate foodie, and better yet, she’s famous for it. James Beard Award-winning co-author of Becoming a Chef, Dining Out and The Flavor Bible, Page got her start in the food industry by delivering birthday cakes.

AT NU

Page used her four years at Northwestern to define self-sufficiency. She was the first member of her family to attend college, which she made happen by taking out loans and winning multiple scholarships. Though Page entered NU in Medill, she graduated with an economics degree and sacrificed her love for journalism to continue her on-campus entrepreneurship. Page started three businesses, most notably Cakes Unlimited, a birthday cake delivery service that worked with Bennison’s Bakery. This earned her the cover of Newsweek On-Campus as one of the country’s top college entrepreneurs.

GRADUATION

Page ventured to Wall Street after graduation to put her economics degree to use. She spent two years working with Lehman Brothers as an investment banker and another two working to launch her own magazine. After earning her MBA from Harvard Business School, Page worked as a strategy consultant with food and beverage companies. Making her transition from Wall Street to the food industry was largely due to the influence of her future husband Andrew Dornenburg, a professional chef. “Falling in love with someone who’s interested in cooking and food helped spark that transition,” Page says.

NOW

“My husband was trying to decide whether or not to go to cooking school, and we found that there were no books on this subject,” Page says. So, she and her husband took matters into their own hands. They traveled around the country interviewing dozens of top chefs and published their first book, Becoming a Chef, in 1995. “Things took off from there,” Page says. “Book one led to book two, book two led to book three and 14 years later here we are.” Between wining and dining at the finest restaurants in America, Page finds the time to give back. “One of my most important charitable affiliations is Citymeals-on-Wheels,” Page says. “We host an annual lunch for 300 of New York’s most powerful women, raising more than $1 million to feed the homebound elderly.”

FUTURE

“I love being able to help people with something that is so integral to our lives,” Page says. Her love for writing books and going on tours will definitely continue, as she is currently finishing another book, On Mastering Wine. Like any good writer, Page’s ideas don’t stop there. “I have a list of a dozen books I’d like to write next, both on food and wine as well as other completely unrelated non-fiction topics,” she says. “I suspect I have a novel in me, too.”