Mary Sue Milliken

Mary Sue Milliken is an American chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and radio and TV personality with a focus on Latin cuisine in the United States.

Mary Sue Milliken
Occupation(s)Chef, restaurateur, author
Known forToo Hot Tamales, Border Grill, SOCALO, CITY Restaurants
RelativesJosh Schweitzer (husband)
Websitehttps://www.socalo.com/

Early life and education

Milliken is a graduate of Chicago's Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute.[1]

Career

Restaurants

After working together in Chicago and Paris, Milliken and her longtime collaborator, Susan Feniger, settled in Los Angeles where they founded the critically acclaimed City Café in 1981.[2] They eventually expanded to a larger space on La Brea Avenue, renaming the establishment CITY Restaurant. In 1985, they opened the Mexican restaurant Border Grill in the original City Café space, before moving it to Santa Monica in 1990. The restaurant later expanded to Pasadena (closed) and the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.[3] Broadening their culinary horizons, Milliken and her partner opened Ciudad in Los Angeles in 1998. The success of the three restaurants has often led Milliken and Feniger to be recognized for single-handedly changing Los Angeles' culinary landscape.[4]

Publishing and television/film
Mary Sue Milliken with chef Fergus Henderson at a dinner at the US Embassy in London in 2019.

In collaboration with Feniger and others, Milliken has published five cookbooks: City Cuisine (1989), Mesa Mexicana (1994), Cantina: The Best of Casual Mexican Cooking (1996), Cooking with Too Hot Tamales (1997) and Mexican Cooking for Dummies (1999/2002).[5]

Milliken is also a seasoned TV personality, starring with Feniger in 396 episodes of Too Hot Tamales and Tamales World Tour on the Food Network in the 1990s. Prior to the shows on the Food Network, in 1993 Milliken and Feniger appeared with Julia Child in her PBS series Cooking With Master Chefs.[6] Milliken also prepared with Feniger the food that was served in the 2001 movie, Tortilla Soup.

Milliken and Feniger were a team of sixteen chefs on the Julia Child series, Cooking With Master Chefs, in 1993.

Most recently, Milliken appeared on the third season of Top Chef Masters that aired in 2011. She was the first runner-up and won $40,000 for her charity, Share Our Strength.[7]

Awards

She was the co-recipient of the 2018 Julia Child Award from The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts.[8][9]

Personal life

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Josh Schweitzer, and their two sons. Josh Schweitzer was previously married to Milliken's business partner Susan Feniger.[10] Milliken serves on the Board of Directors of Share Our Strength.[11]

References
  1. "Chef Bio: Mary Sue Milliken". lafoodbank.org.
  2. Jenkins, Kathie (27 March 1994). "You'll Never Eat Lunch in This City Again". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  3. "Border Grill at Mandalay Bay Las Vegas". mandalaybay.com/.
  4. Gold, Jonathan. "Border Grill: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011". laweekly.com/. LA Weekly. Retrieved 22 November 2011.
  5. "About Mary Sue and Susan". marysueandsusan.com/. 27 March 2018.
  6. "Featured Chef: Chefs Mary Sue Milliken And Susan Feniger". chef2chef.net/.
  7. "Mary Sue Milliken Top Chef Masters Contestant Bio". bravotv.com/top-chef-masters/season-3/bios. Bravo. Archived from the original on 2011-11-13.
  8. Chris. "Recipients". The Julia Child Award. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  9. Fabricant, Florence (2018-07-17). "Julia Child Foundation Honors Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-12.
  10. "Sex, Love & Food w/ Celebrity Chefs Mary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger". 28 February 2012.
  11. "No Kid Hungry Blog: Chef Mary Sue Milliken". strength.org/. Archived from the original on 2011-11-17.
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