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.

Early life and education

Milliken is a graduate of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

's Washburne Culinary & Hospitality Institute.

Career

Restaurants

After working together in Chicago and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, Milliken and her longtime collaborator, Susan Feniger, settled in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

where they founded the critically acclaimed City Café in 1981. They eventually expanded to a larger space on

La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north-south thoroughfare in the City of Los Angeles and in Los Angeles County, California. La Brea is known for having diverse ethnic communities, and many shops and restaurants along its route. History ''La Br ...

, 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 Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to ...

in 1990. The restaurant later expanded to

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...

(closed) and the Mandalay Bay Resort in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. 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.

Publishing and television/film

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). 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 Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

in the 1990s. Prior to the shows on the Food Network, in 1993 Milliken and Feniger appeared with

Julia Child Julia Carolyn Child (née McWilliams; August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004) was an American cooking teacher, author, and television personality. She is recognized for bringing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, '' ...

in her

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series '' Cooking With Master Chefs''. 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

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 Share Our Strength is a national organization working to end childhood hunger and poverty in the United States. Share Our Strength holds culinary events, solicits individual donations, and uses social media to raise funds, which are then used to ...

Awards

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

Personal life

She lives in

with her husband, Josh Schweitzer, and their two sons. Josh Schweitzer was previously married to Milliken's business partner Susan Feniger. Milliken serves on the Board of Directors of

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Milliken, Mary Sue Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American food writers American women restaurateurs American restaurateurs American television chefs Writers from Los Angeles Women food writers Women cookbook writers American women chefs 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers