Susan Feniger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Susan Feniger
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Susan Feniger at her Santa Monica restaurant SOCALO. Photo by Anne Fishbein.
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| Occupation | Chef, restaurateur, author |
| Known for | Too Hot Tamales, SOCALO, Border Grill, CITY |
| Relatives | Ben Feldman (nephew) |
Susan Feniger is a famous American chef, restaurant owner, cookbook writer, and TV star. She is best known for her cooking show Too Hot Tamales on the Food Network. She also opened many important restaurants in Los Angeles. Susan Feniger has received a special Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in the food world.
Contents
Susan Feniger's Amazing Career
Opening Restaurants and Creating Food
Susan Feniger and her friend Mary Sue Milliken have worked together for a long time. They first met in Chicago and Paris. Later, they moved to Los Angeles and started their first restaurant, City Cafe, in 1981. This restaurant grew and became City Restaurant.
In 1985, they opened a Mexican restaurant called Border Grill. It became very popular and moved to Santa Monica. They even opened another Border Grill in Las Vegas. Susan and Mary Sue also opened Ciudad, which served Latin-inspired food. These restaurants helped change the way people thought about food in Los Angeles. Susan Feniger loves to use ideas from foods around the world, like from India, France, and Mexico.
Susan Feniger also tried some solo projects. In 2009, she opened Street, which offered different kinds of "street food" from many countries. Later, she opened Mud Hen Tavern, a cozy place with tasty pub food.
More recently, in 2019, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken opened Socalo in Santa Monica. The name mixes "SoCal" (Southern California) with "zócalo," which means "town square" in Spanish. In 2023, they opened Alice B in Palm Springs, focusing on fresh, seasonal ingredients with French and Mediterranean flavors.
Writing Cookbooks and Starring on TV
Susan Feniger has written five cookbooks with Mary Sue Milliken and others. These books share recipes from their restaurants and their love for different cuisines. Some of their books include City Cuisine and Mesa Mexicana.
She is also well-known for her TV shows. In the 1990s, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken starred in Too Hot Tamales and Tamales World Tour on the Food Network. They made almost 400 episodes! Before that, in 1993, they even cooked with the famous Julia Child on her TV show.
Susan Feniger has appeared on other TV shows too, like Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. She also helped prepare the food for the movie Tortilla Soup in 2001.
In 2010, Susan Feniger competed on Top Chef Masters. She cooked a special dish for the gods and raised $32,500 for The Scleroderma Research Foundation, a charity that helps people with a certain health condition. She was very proud to help raise awareness for this cause.
She has also been a guest on shows like Bones and Cutthroat Kitchen. In 2021, she was a guest judge on Hell's Kitchen (Season 19).
Special Awards and Honors
In 2013, Susan Feniger received the Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Restaurant Association. This award celebrates her long and successful career in the restaurant business. In 2018, she also won the Julia Child Award along with Mary Sue Milliken, which is a very important award in the food world.
About Susan Feniger's Life
Susan Feniger grew up in Toledo, Ohio. She went to Pitzer College and graduated in 1976.
She cares a lot about helping others. Susan Feniger has been a founding board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation since 1988. She also serves on the board of the Los Angeles LGBT Center, which supports the LGBTQ+ community.
Her nephew is the actor Ben Feldman.
Images for kids
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Susan Feniger at her Santa Monica restaurant SOCALO. Photo by Anne Fishbein.
