Culinary Award

On June 7, the California Restaurant Association  will present its the Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement to local chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken of Border Grill at a gala held in their honor at Hotel Casa del Mar. 

The founders of Border Grill restaurants and truck and City restaurants, as well as Susan Feniger’s Street gained national fame from their Food Network show “Too Hot Tamales.” “Mary Sue and Susan are pioneers in so many ways,” said Jot Condie, CRA president and CEO. “They not only paved the way for women wanting to work in the industry, they have popularized styles of world cuisine and were two of the world’s original celebrity chefs.

That kind of legacy will never be replicated.” For more than 30 years, Feniger and Milliken have worked amongst the upper echelon of restaurateurs in Los Angeles, where they landed　The duo landed in Los Angeles after working together in Paris and at Chicago’s famed Le Perroquet, and have worked here for more than 30 years amongst the upper echelon of restaurateurs. 

With the opening of City Cafe on Melrose Avenue in 1981, the pair changed the culinary landscape of the city by blending family recipes with eclectic dishes from Thailand, India, Mexico, France and Italy. The first Border Grill opened in 1985, and has expanded to include four locations – including one in Las Vegas – as well as a mobile truck. Along with “Too Hot Tamales,” they also were featured on the “Tamales World Tour” series and “Top Chef Masters,” as well as several radio shows.

Along the way, they co-authored five cookbooks.　They also manage to play an active role in the community, providing leadership for many associations, charities and organizations, including Share Our Strength, the Scleroderma Research Foundation and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center and the Human Rights Campaign.　

The California Restaurant Association is the trade organization of the California restaurant and hospitality industry with more than 22,000 member restaurants. A portion of the event proceeds will support the CRA Educational Foundation and ProStart programs in the Los Angeles are