A Recipe for Success
The captivating tale about what it takes as a small business owner to build a meaningful company from the ground up, falling in love with your work along the way.
Inside the Book
- Funny and inspiring personal anecdotes that illustrate the power of tapping into your own singular brand of leadership
- Strategies for creating a one-of-a-kind work culture based on greater meaning, purpose, and connection
- Tools to embrace a feminine leadership style that offer an enduring competitive advantage to entrepreneurs

In
The Mac & Cheese Millionaire: Building a Better Business by Thinking Outside the Box, best-selling author, entrepreneur, and culinary innovator Erin Wade shares her inspiring and often hilarious journey of leaving her corporate lawyer job to open a hit mac and cheese restaurant, taking you through the challenges and victories that paved her path to success. By sharing the lessons that helped her sell millions of dollars in cheesy carbs, she delivers the tools you need to create change and surpass all your expectations.
This book isn't just a personal narrative; it's a masterclass in redefining what it means to love your work. Because while her journey started out of a love of mac and cheese, Wade found that what she ultimately fell in love with...was business. What follows is the story of starting a small business, all of the ensuing trials and tribulations, and ultimately building a unique, feminist work culture that helped transform the restaurant industry.
With leadership takeaways for businesses of all sizes,
The Mac & Cheese Millionaire is an essential read for small business owners, professional women, aspiring entrepreneurs, and, of course, comfort food-lovers. Wade's story demonstrates how blending passion, innovation, and a bit of culinary magic can lead to unparalleled success. Whether you're dreaming of launching your own venture or seeking to infuse your current role with more meaning and joy, let this book be your guide to transforming your professional life.
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"The Mac & Cheese Millionaire will take you on a journey fueled by determination, compassion, and purpose. Transforming lives through comfort food and elbowing her way into people’s hearts, Erin’s story is sure to inspire anyone who dreams of making a difference."
—Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group and New York Times Bestselling Author of Setting the Table
“In transforming herself from high-priced corporate lawyer to mac-n-cheese queen, Erin Wade made an unexpected discovery: she loved business as much as her favorite dish. What’s more, she turned out to be equally skilled at both—so skilled that one of her techniques was adopted as the national standard by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and she wound up selling her mac-n-cheese restaurant for millions of dollars. Read this book to share the joy of her journey, even if you don’t love mac-n-cheese.”
—Bo Burlingham, author of Small Giants and Finish Big
“Any small business owner will find Erin’s thoughtful experiment—in creating a job she could love by opening a restaurant—a joy to read. The Mac & Cheese Millionaire makes a formidable case for disrupting traditional models of power in the workplace and incorporating the unique values of collective success. Post pandemic, with work force stability and satisfaction at an all-time low, Erin’s story could not be more timely or useful.”
—Mary Sue Milliken, Author, Activist, and Chef-Owner of the Mundo Hospitality Group
“The Mac & Cheese Millionaire captures the true spirit of entrepreneurship - the wild, gritty, sometimes lonely but ultimately creative act of starting something new. It's about problem solving and refusing to take the status quo as a given. A compelling read for anyone looking for their own path to defining success.”
—Ann Miura-Ko, co-founding partner at Floodgate and named the “Most Powerful Woman in Startups” by Forbes
“One of the most wise and funny management books ever written. The Mac & Cheese Millionaire is a beautiful blend of Erin Wade’s rollicking no-bullshit memoir and her hard won and relentlessly useful lessons for building a humane and profitable business.”
—Robert I. Sutton, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and New York Times bestselling author of The No Asshole Rule, Good Boss, Bad Boss, and The Friction Project
“A delightful memoir that doubles as a management and career guide for the modern era, The Mac & Cheese Millionaire offers both humor and wisdom. Erin Wade shares her remarkably adventurous life experiences and along the way decodes how to build a better company and a better relationship with work.”
—Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School and author, Right Kind of Wrong and The Fearless Organization

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About Erin
Erin Wade is a best-selling author, chef, and entrepreneur. Erin opened a wildly popular restaurant, Homeroom, which has been covered everywhere from the
Cooking Channel to the
Wall Street Journal. She authored
The Mac & Cheese Millionaire, the best-selling
The Mac and Cheese Cookbook, and a viral op-ed in the
Washington Post that was named one of the publication’s best of the year. Erin's work on business culture has been covered in Forbes and The
New York Times, and she was named one of thirty-five “World-Changing Women” by
Conscious Company magazine. Erin has a public policy degree from Princeton and a law degree from UC Berkeley. She lives in the Bay Area with her family and an array of surfboards.
A fun and playful cookbook featuring retro, decadent, and kid-friendly mac-and-cheese recipes from the popular Oakland restaurant Homeroom.
Macaroni and cheese is one of America’s favorite comfort foods, beloved by kids and adults alike. But there’s no need to rely on prefab mixes—all you need is a handful of kitchen staples, some tasty cheese, and a little insider advice courtesy of Homeroom restaurant. This perennially popular Oakland, California, eatery—with its entire menu devoted to mac and cheese—now shares its secrets for the best-ever mac recipes that will help you think outside the box!
‘‘Anyone who paves the way for me to have mac + cheese for breakfast understands my heart’s desires. Allison and Erin really know their way around a creamy sauce and amazing cheese combinations. These recipes are fun and majorly comforting—I’m so excited to add this book to my cookbook family.’’
—Joy Wilson, author of
Joy the Baker Cookbook
‘‘When Allison and Erin first came to me to ask for advice on opening their own restaurant. I knew they had what it takes: intelligence, natural grace, and sincere hospitality. The beauty of their food is the unexpected mac and cheese flavors that pop every time. They provide you with plenty of comfort at Homeroom, and now, their cookbook provides you with the ultimate comfort food!’’
—Tanya Holland, chef/owner, Brown Sugar Kitchen