Susan Feniger grew up with a fierce attachment to traditional Ashkenazi Jewish foods. “My mom made brisket, always,” she recalled. “Fattier the better for me and my dad.”
Feniger’s connection to Jewish food has evolved far beyond her mother’s kitchen in Toledo, Ohio. Feniger, who lives in Los Angeles with her partner, Liz Lachman, has enjoyed a career spanning nearly 30 years in L.A., dating to when she and longtime business partner Mary Sue Milliken opened the seminal City Café and CITY Restaurant. But these days, the chef best known nationally for her television appearances on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters and the former Food Network program she shared with Milliken, Too Hot Tamales, which focused on regional Mexican cuisine. Her latest book, Susan Feniger’s Street Food: Irresistibly Crispy, Creamy, Crunchy, Spicy, Sticky, Sweet Recipes, was published this summer.