Mary Sue Milliken

Jet Tila Appointed Thai Cuisine Ambassador

Jet Tila has been appointed the first Culinary Ambassador of Thai Cuisine by the Royal Thai Consul-General in Los Angeles, tasked with spreading awareness nationwide and making official his unofficial -- and longstanding -- role as a guide to the cuisine. Tila was tapped for the position after a m ... More >>

Amateur Night: Why Chefs Hate (And Love) Valentine's Day

Amateur night. It's the term used in the restaurant business for New Year's Eve, Valentine's Day, and often Friday and Saturday nights. They're the nights when people come out who don't usually eat out. Waiters, especially snarky jaded waiters, as well as many chefs, hate these nights because they e ... More >>

11 Great L.A. Chefs Tell Us Their Holiday Food Traditions

For the past couple of weeks, we've been talking to L.A. chefs about their holday food traditions. Here's a roundup of all of those great chefs and what they do for the holidays, food-wise, plus a couple of extras thrown in for good measure.

Chefs Cook At Home, The Holiday Edition: Sotto's Steve Samson A Recipe For Tortellini

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, Sotto's Steve Samson tells us about his family's Christmas tortellini. "My mom is from Bologna so practically every special occasion meal, especially Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, is centered around tortelli ... More >>

Chefs Cook at Home, The Holiday Edition: Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken

This week and next, we'll be featuring the holiday food traditions of L.A. chefs. Today, we talk to Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken about her December traditions. "It can't be December without my stollen -- a fantastic buttery yeast dough studded with the best Farmer's Market dry fruit (cognac i ... More >>

Food Trucks Booted From LACMA Area During Day

Food trucks, those ubiquitous attractions along Wilshire Boulevard's Museum Row for hipsters and tourists alike, are getting the boot. The L.A. City Council voted last week to prohibit the trucks from parking on Wilshire between Fairfax Avenue and La Brea Avenue between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Is this a ... More >>

Where The Chefs Eat: Border Grill's Mary Sue Milliken

Where the Chefs Eat is an ongoing series in which we ask a local chef to give us his or her favorite dining options. This week, Mary Sue Milliken, chef and owner of Border Grill, tells us her regular spots. When Mary Sue Milliken eats out, invariably she eats Japanese. "My husband has been to Japan ... More >>

Current TV To Air Health-Conscious "Currently: Feeding The Need" Series Featuring Wolfgang Puck and Mary Sue Milliken

Around Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, we think about food. (And not just what we plan to serve alongside the turkey.) We're grateful for food, and we think more consciously about those who don't have enough food, and those who don't have access to good quality food, and are suffering bec ... More >>

The Chef's Library: Mary Sue Milliken Discovering Korean Cuisine Edited by Allisa Park

The Chef's Library is a series in which we ask chefs around town to tell us about their favorite cookbooks. Today, we talk to Mary Sue Milliken, chef and owner of Border Grill. Mary Sue Milliken could talk cookbooks all day. "Oh my gosh, I love cookbooks," she says. "I just devour them." There are ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/29 - 11/2

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "You were expecting maybe Jeff Koons and a chocolate fountain? No." Michael McCarty Updates Michael's Restaurant: Bar Food Drinking With Dennis Hopper. "Thanks to C&H, sugar cane will always be associated with a Hawaiian hi ... More >>

Q & A With Mary Sue Milliken: The Diplomatic Culinary Partnership, Prop 37 a New Chef at Border Grill

Mary Sue Milliken, as always, is in the midst of a zillion things. The food activist, TV personality and chef-owner with Susan Feniger of Border Grill has been a vocal advocate of passing Proposition 37, the ballot initiative that would make the labeling of GMO products law in California. Milliken ... More >>

L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade: A Recap of the 2012 Event

L.A. Loves Alex's Lemonade Stand is arguably the premier charity auction/food and wine event raising money -- a lot of money -- for pediatric cancer research. Hosted by Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne (Lucques, A.O.C., Tavern) and David Lentz (The Hungry Cat), it was held for the third year in a row ... More >>

Karen Hatfield Hosts 1st Annual "Pink Apron" Dinner with Mary Sue Milliken, Suzanne Tracht, Dakota Weiss, Nyesha Arrington Sherry Yard

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month and to support The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, chef Karen Hatfield is hosting a one-night dinner at Hatfield's on Oc. 8 with help from five of L.A,'s best female chefs, including Suzanne Tracht (Jar), Mary Sue Milliken (Border Grill), Dakota W ... More >>

Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival: The Wine Part of the Equation

The second annual Los Angeles Food & Wine Festival concluded Sunday, a slickly produced, three-day debauch mostly held in and around the capacious digs of L.A. Live and its Marriott property -- though neither conference room nor rooftop exhibition tent could adequately contain the assemblage of whit ... More >>

Bad Mother Cluckers: 1st Annual Fried Chicken Festival Announced

With L.A. festivals dedicated to burgers, tacos, ice cream and the like, it seemed only a matter of time until someone decided to design an event around the comfort food classic. The good news? The first annual Los Angeles Fried Chicken Fest, coming Sunday, Aug. 26, in Beverly Hills, looks to be eve ... More >>

Top 5 Weekend Food Events: St. Patty's Day Cooking Class, LQ@SK, Downward Dining, Free Food & Art, Gourmet Sandwiches

Pop-Up Art Gallery Free Food & Cocktails Westwood's Palomar Hotel is displaying artwork from Palo Klein Uber, Chris Trueman and Alison Rash for one night only. Free appetizers from Blvd 16 restaurant will be passed around the room, along with cocktails and wine. WHEN: March 15, 5-7 p.m. WHERE: Pa ... More >>

Menu for CITY Night at Border Grill Announced

Earlier this week we told you about CITY Night at Border Grill -- a special event at which Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken will indulge the nostalgia of their 1980s glory days by serving a menu inspired by their first restaurant, City Cafe and its subsequent incarnation, CITY. Today, the menu wa ... More >>

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken on Upcoming CITY Night at Border Grill

Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, young, wild and free.​With their success at Border Grill and beyond, it's difficult to think of chefs and restaurateurs Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger as ever being scrappy young things, just starting out, with a kitchen so tiny it spilled over into th ... More >>

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken To Be Subjects of ABC Sitcom

Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger in their wilder days.​Sclemeel, schlemazel, hazenfeffer incorporated... The most exciting food TV news we've heard lately came from our sister paper OC Weekly, which reports that Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken -- longtime friends, chefs and owners of B ... More >>

Wendy Doulton's The Headhuntress and Carrie McCully's Chef Hunter: Is Getting a Real Job Reality TV's New Fantasy?

Via NBCUniversalThe Headhuntress Wendy Doulton, right, coaches a job seeker.​I watch the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills every week. I watch New York and Orange County, too. (Though we all agree DC was whack, right?) I watch these shows partly for the ability to laugh at the dippy one-liners ... More >>

Chef Hunter at Border Grill: Susan Feniger, Mary Sue Milliken and Winner Monique King Weigh In

Photo courtesy of Border GrillSusan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken​Job interviews are stressful enough, but add TV cameras, a head-to-head competition and the watchful eyes of two of the most successful people in your field evaluating your every move, and you've got Chef Hunter, the palm-sweate ... More >>

Street: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011

Border Grill: 99 Essential Restaurants 2011

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 9/6-9/9

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "The restaurant occupies one of the best spots in Little Tokyo, right next to the perpetually megacrowded ramen shop Daikokuya, and is as bright and modern as its blaring 1970s rock is not -- I'm no ... More >>

So You Think You Can Eat

Battle Sangria: Rick Bayless vs. Susan Feniger & Mary Sue Milliken a Recipe from the Winner

C. LeVasserJamaica sangria by Rick Bayless​Some of us have been going out a lot less these days. But rather than unnecessarily spending twenty dollars on a rare gueuze at Father's Office, we've been throwing our money at things like Scharffen Berger chocolate, or imported speck from Alto-Adige ... More >>

Top 5 Food Events This Weekend: TOTNLA, Ramen, Wine, Hot Dogs & Roasted Meats

Ramen Bull Kicking off its Popchef series, Breadbar's consulting Chef Noriyuki Sugie debuts Ramen Bull, a menu of five beef-centric ramen dishes: short rib ramen ($11); oxtail ramen ($15), beef tongue ramen ($12); spicy ramen ($14); and corn beef ramen ($13). Available Monday through Saturday, 5 t ... More >>

Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken Go to OC, Show Real Housewives that Mexican Food is for More Than Just Pool Parties

bravotv.comSusan Feniger menu planning with Micah and Peggy Tanous.​Did you see Mary Sue Milliken win the Elimination Challenge on Top Chef Masters Wednesday night? Of course you did. But did you also happen to see her and Susan Feniger on the last two episodes of The Real Housewives of Orange ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 5/2-5/6

Flickr/Lauren Manning​ In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "This is the South. You have to have liquor. This is not California." Q & A With Amber Huffman: Bourbon Blunders, Derby Cocktails Cooking For Jess Jackson At His Kentucky Racehorse Farm. "Can 79 ... More >>

Top Chef Masters Update: Norbert Wabnig Judges Cheese Challenge

bravotv.comCurtis Stone and Norbert Wabnig tasting cheese dishes from last night's Quickfire Challenge.​Norbert Wabnig, cheese expert and owner of the Cheese Store in Beverly Hills, made an appearance on Top Chef Masters last night, serving as the cheese challenge Quickfire judge. (Insert "big ... More >>

LAX Concessions: SSP "Shocked" By Airport's Snub Of Celebrity Chefs

Not much to smile about: Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger were snubbed by LAX​These are tough times to be a celebrity chef. Last year, a star-studded group of L.A. chefs (including Nancy Silverton, Joaquim Splichal, Mary Sue Milliken, and Susan Feniger) came very close to winning a spot at L.A. ... More >>

Top Chef Masters: How Did Local Favorites John Sedlar and Mary Sue Milliken Do?

bravotv.comChefs John Sedlar and Mary Sue Milliken pulling some culinary nunchuck-ery in the Quickfire challenge.​We forced ourselves to stay awake for the Top Chef Masters 11 p.m. premiere last night (thankfully, it will air at 10 p.m. going forward). Still, we couldn't wait to see how L.A. c ... More >>

The 32nd Annual Planned Parenthood Food Fare

photo courtesy of Border GrillMary Sue Milliken, Susan Feniger and Julia Child​ This Thursday, March 10th, Planned Parenthood Los Angeles will hold their 32nd Annual Food Fare at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. One of the longest-running food events in L.A., the event has come a long way si ... More >>

25 Years of Border Grill

Revamped Ciudad carries on fine tradition

First Bite: 25 Years of Border Grill, or a Revamped Ciudad

Jonagold apple, portions removed​Is it possible that the Border Grill has been open a full 25 years? It must -- the anniversary party was this week. And is it possible that owners Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, who worked the marriage of Mexican cuisine and New American grill cooking a f ... More >>

A Recipe From the Chef: Mary Sue Milliken's Mexican Chopped Salad

Peter BarrettMexican chopped salad at Border Grill​ In our recent interview with Mary Sue Milliken, the Border Grill chef talked about all kinds of fun things, like stalking lamb in Mongolia and having a Hitchcock experience with raising pigeons in her back yard. She also discussed the Border ... More >>

Q & A With Mary Sue Milliken, Part 2: The Transformation of Ciudad, Lifting the Tablecloths Some Thoughts on Food Trucks

Border GrillMary Sue Milliken ​In the first part of our interview with Mary Sue Milliken, the chef talked about her travels abroad (fish tacos in the surfing capital of Alaska, chasing dinner in Mongolia), which she somehow has had time to do while, with Susan Feniger, running not one but now ... More >>

A Recipe From the Chef: Mary Sue Milliken's Tacos de Lengua

Peter Barretttacos de lengua ​ When we interviewed Mary Sue Milliken, chef-owner with her longtime business partner Susan Feniger of Border Grill, the second of which is now open in the former Ciudad space downtown, she talked about the fun she's been having chasing her food. Mongolian lamb, ... More >>

Short Attention Span Dinner Theater: Your Week in Food, 10/11-10/15

In which we highlight the past week in food, either at home or abroad. "There was a time when art in restaurants signified more than the $3,000 ceramic dildo for sale at the gift shop of Bazaar." Best High-Art Patio: Michael's. "If that sounds like the perfect snack after stumbling out of a b ... More >>

Q & A With Mary Sue Milliken: Adventures In the Alaskan Surfing Capital, Chasing Boar in Mongolia Her Hitchcock Squab Experiment

Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger have been culinary fixtures in this town for decades, from their first restaurant, City Cafe, which opened in 1981, to their downtown flagship Ciudad, to the Westside's Border Grill to, inevitably, a food truck of the same name. Oh, and let's not forget the five c ... More >>

Milliken & Feniger Update: Ciudad Closing, Border Grill Opening

CiudadCiudad dining room​After twelve years, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger are closing their downtown restaurant Ciudad. But don't worry, the doors won't be shut for long: the chefs will be reopening the restaurant in October as a Border Grill. Their other Border Grill, more a casual can ... More >>

Fergus Henderson To Give Cooking Class at Ciudad

Julian Andrews/The AgeFergus Henderson goes whole hog at Ciudad​English chef Fergus Henderson of St. John Restaurant is coming to Los Angeles. While he's not opening a restaurant (much as we'd love to hear that he was), he will be coming to downtown restaurant Ciudad on May 15th to offer an ex ... More >>

Happy National Margarita Day Two Border Grill Margarita Recipes

Border GrillBorder Grill Añejo Margarita​Today is National Margarita Day. Of course it's a ridiculous and completely fabricated holiday, probably invented by the makers of some brand of tequila or powdered margarita mix. But if you like margaritas, you should ignore that crass reality and jus ... More >>

Border Grill Rallies Support for LAX Opening Pink's Coming Soon to Tom Bradley International

Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger are rallying support from Border Grill enthusiasts for the opening of a third restaurant inside LAX. "Wouldn't it be great to have the delicious Mexican food of Border Grill at the Los Angeles International Airport? With a Border Margarita and a Carnitas Taco, sud ... More >>

Street Cred

At her new Hollywood restaurant, Susan Feniger puts the cart before the hors d’oeuvre

Food's Big Night Out: Not Such a Big Night for Los Angeles at the James Beard Awards

Jessica RitzThe scene at Avery Fisher Hall, with Ted Allen in the mix. The James Beard Foundation Awards is the Big Night Out for an industry that's all about nights out. Cooks, writers, restaurateurs, sommeliers, and others in the service of making great food and interpreting it for a hungry public ... More >>

Ciudad: The Great Leap Backward

Every four years, Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken go back to the City

Ask Mr. Gold

Ceviche

Little Bites

Border Grill’s bocaditos