SUSAN FENIGER
Chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, radio and TV personality

Inspired by a love for bold flavors and strong statements, Susan Feniger has made her mark in the culinary world with home cooking from all over the world. For over two decades, Susan and her business partner Mary Sue Milliken have transformed street foods and comfort foods into critically acclaimed cuisine and become some of the country's foremost authorities on the Latin kitchen.

In 1981, Susan, along with Mary Sue, opened City Cafe on Melrose Avenue in LA. With only 39 seats out front and just enough room in back for a prep table, a hot plate, and a hibachi grill in the alley, the cafe quickly outgrew the space and moved to a larger site.  CITY Restaurant (1985-1994) changed the culinary landscape of LA forever with eclectic dishes from Thailand, India, France, Italy, and Mexico as well as Susan’s mother's own recipe box.  CITY wowed customers and critics alike.

In 1985, Susan and Mary Sue turned the cafe site into Border Grill, a "taco stand" serving authentic home cooking and street foods of Mexico. It too outgrew the tiny space and in1990 moved to its current home on 4th Street in Santa Monica where it now serves Modern Mexican food in an urban cantina setting. In 1998, the partners opened Ciudad in Downtown Los Angeles, presenting the bold and seductive flavors of the whole Latin world. In 1999, the Border Grill concept grew to encompass another restaurant at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

Susan is opening her first solo project at the beginning of 2009. “STREET”, located in Los Angeles at Highland and Melrose, is the realization of a lifelong dream for Susan and will feature flavors influenced by the “street foods” Susan has found in her travels around the world. For more information, go to www.eatatstreet.com.

A natural teacher, Susan shares her passion for food through many media. Her television career began in1993, when she and Mary Sue were two of sixteen chefs invited to cook with the legendary Julia Child in her PBS series “Cooking with Master Chefs.”  Susan is a veteran of 396 episodes of the popular “Too Hot Tamales” and “Tamales World Tour” series with Food Network (1995-1999), and has had several homes on the radio dial in Los Angeles, including KCRW, KFWB, and KFI.  A prolific writer, Susan co-authored five cookbooks with Mary Sue: City Cuisine, Mesa Mexicana, Cantina, Cooking with Too Hot Tamales, and Mexican Cooking for Dummies. In 2001, the dishes of Border Grill and Ciudad “starred” in Samuel Goldwyn’s feature film, “Tortilla Soup.”  Susan and Mary Sue also have a line of prepared foods under their “Border Girls” brand at Whole Foods Markets and a line of signature pepper mills manufactured by Vic Firth.

At the core, Susan’s love of food shines through and is intermingled with her love of interaction with customers and staff.  She still takes time to teach cooking classes and work the Border Grill booth at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market as time and travel allows.  Her days are spent in the kitchen, writing and testing recipes, creating menus, managing busy businesses, researching shows, and creating new products. Most nights you can still find her visiting with guests and working with staff at Border Grill or Ciudad. After more than twenty years of being a chef and restaurant owner, Susan is still pushing the borders.

www.bordergrill.com
www.ciudad-la.com
www.marysueandsusan.com