An Interview with SIFF27 Culinary Excellence Award winner, Chef Susan Feniger and filmmaker Liz Lachman.

By Geneva Anderson

(March 20, 2024)

When Los Angeles filmmaker and Emmy award winner Liz Lachman (“Pin-Up,” “Getting to Know You”) set out to make her first feature-length film about partner, Chef Susan Feniger, opening her first solo restaurant in Los Angeles in 2009, she already had lots of footage.  The idea of capturing Susan’s journey in realizing “Street,” a dining concept that would bring a variety of global street foods together under one roof and doing this without her longtime business partner and co-chef Mary Sue Milliken, had been simmering for 13 years.

Lachman’s documentary, “Susan Feniger.FORKED,” is a masterful blending of historical clips with footage shot in 2009-10 and 2021-22.  This engrossing behind-the-scenes view of Susan’s endeavor, screens Thursday, March 21, at the Sonoma International Film Festival’s Culinary Tribute Dinner.  There, Feniger will receive the SIFF’s Culinary Excellence Award and curate a multi-course meal inspired by her global travels. 

EatDrinkFilms found the talented duo so interesting, I was asked to learn more.  The day we spoke, Susan was in Palm Springs where she recently opened Alice B, a California-Mediterranean restaurant with a seasonal menu and an art gallery showcasing local female and LGBTQ+ artists.  Liz was at work on a film in Los Angeles. 

EDF: What’s the genesis of the title “Susan Feniger.FORKED”? 

Liz Lachman:  It’s play on words for what happens to Susan in this journey. I call this film a culinary disaster film.

EDF: What’s it been like with the festival scene and getting your first feature length film out into the world?

Liz Lachman:  We’ve done about nine festivals so far.  We had our world premiere at Chicago Reeling Film Festival and won the Audience Favorite Award for best documentary feature and that was just amazing.  It’s been wonderful seeing how audiences respond; they’re tracking everything, laughing at all the jokes. Of course, Susan is just hilarious, always making me laugh but it makes me proud that the editing with Joan Gill Amorim is so solid and it all came together so well.     

Susan Feniger:  The audiences are very vocal, asking great questions, and it’s been so much fun.  After the film had its first of three screenings in Austin, Austin.com listed us as one of their favorite things; we were #2, right after “Saltburn”…wow. 

EDF:  It’s clear from the film that you have a deep understanding of Susan; what about food?  Do you share her love of cooking and street food?  Are you interested in techniques? Did you find filming the food challenging?   

Liz Lachman:  The answer is no to everything, except did you find it challenging. Susan and I have been together for 28 years so, by osmosis, I do have a deeper understanding of food and flavor and pulling things together than I did initially. I don’t like cooking; I never have and I still don’t.  I find it stressful.  Even though I like good food, I’m OK with OK food and a great atmosphere.  When I went to film all of this experience, I realized that my shots surrounding the food were not all that great because I didn’t care about it that much. We had to reshoot the food sequences to give the audience more of a wow factor. In the end, we actually brought on another camera crew to shoot the food.

EDF:  Susan, are you happy with the way the food was showcased?

Susan Feniger:  I had confidence in Liz.  I liked her shots when Kajsa and I were cooking in the kitchen, the casual aspect of that. Then, when I saw the slow-motion sequences that were shot by the team that Liz brought to shoot afterwards, I really thought that was gorgeous.  I liked how those two juxtapositions worked.  Because I am a huge street food fan; it’s not all about the food being gorgeous and perfect for me; it’s about flavor.    

EDF:   As an Emmy award winning composer, one the gifts you bring to the film is the myriad of ways that it is so rhythmic, musical.  You’ve integrated the music of life—from street scenes where we hear jingling bells, then Chinese opera, and later on, sultry jazz.  And Susan herself has her own rhythm which you capture…from the magical noodle pulling episode to the chaos of her cooking in her kitchen and the crescendo of her burning some short ribs to her growing pride in the space as it develops.  And the clatter of construction. The film just flows.  Do you approach filmmaking like a composer or is it more visual?

Liz Lachman:  I found that when I was looking for an editor for this film, I kept interviewing dance movie editors. I didn’t notice this at first but, after three different editors, I realized that I do hear a rhythm and it’s there even without the music, so it barely needed additional music. When Miriam Cutler, the composer, and I were discussing the music I said I imagined about 20 to 25 minutes of music for the whole movie.  She felt that would be ridiculous because it’s too little.  But it turned out to be about 28 min of music. I was the music editor, something I am very experienced with, so I controlled it, with the awareness of this natural flow and that it didn’t really need the emotional help that music can provide.

EDF:  What is the most enjoyable aspect of filmmaking for you?  Is it the shooting of footage or the editing? 

Liz Lachman:   They are both fraught with stress and tension but then, when things start to go well, they are both so uplifting and inspiring and thrilling.  When you are shooting, you are always on a schedule but I don’t like to step on the actor’s toes in a narrative film by telling them what to do. I want them to be creative with their roles, so you never know what you’re going to get.  With Susan, I ended up following her a lot, just filming what she was doing and feeling.  I loved that she was always trying to make me laugh, and it was so casual but still so informative.  I love the editing process as well, which is always stressful because you’re always wondering if you got it right.  My editor, Joan Gill Amorim, and I edited by Zoom but, in the final week, we flew to London and were in the same room working together, which was very exciting.   As it starts to take shape and then all comes together, it’s thrilling,

EDF:  Why did you focus on Vietnam and Shanghai?

Liz Lachman: We were traveling and doing a lot of street food tasting. Anytime Susan goes overseas, it always involves food for her.  Shanghai came about because Susan was invited there by the tourism board.  I thought I’d go and film.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back and reshoot anything, so whenever we were traveling like that, I would always hire A cameras and I would be the B camera. As for Vietnam, Susan was one of the judges for “Top Chef” and was going to be in Singapore, so we decided to go to Vietnam before that and then jump over to Singapore to do judging.

EDF:  What is the one type of street food or otherwise that you long to try? 

Susan:  I am still very drawn to SE Asia.  I haven’t been to Korea or Thailand yet: those would be interesting.  I wouldn’t mind exploring China more either because the street food when I was there was amazing.  The Philippines.  I am open to most anything.

EDF: What’s the difference between being filmed for a TV show and having your partner film you?  Which one has more pressure?

Susan:  When I’m judging or doing something on TV, I am way more aware of what the team behind the camera is doing and what they are directing me to do, especially when it comes to judging foods. Liz was just a fly on the wall which I didn’t pay much attention to, except when she was trying to make me laugh.  I don’t think I paid attention to her as the filmmaker but more in the sense of having her there and having her taste things and give her opinion. That whole process was such a fun time, eight weeks of having a little party at our house.  It was a lot of work and a lot of clean up but it was such a creative process for myself.  Hanging out with Kajsa and cooking and tasting is always an exciting experience.

EDF:  What would you say your great strength as a chef is?

Susan Feniger:  Flavor. My mom was a great cook. I think her love of cooking led to my appreciation of great flavor profiles. When I was really young I just loved hanging out in the kitchen with her, watching and licking the spoons and fudge paddles. I still think that’s where my greatest interest and strengths are— in flavor, not so much sophisticated foods and fancy techniques. 

Liz Lachman: Can we please describe “Velveeta Cheese Dreams” that Susan grew up with.

Susan Feniger:  It was Wonder bread that you cut the crust off and my job was to take melted margarine and brush both sides of it and then make stacks of this bread.  Mom made this cheese dreams mix which was probably melted Velveeta cheese with some cream that was put all over the one side of the bread and then you rolled it up into a twinkie shape and put it into the freezer. Then, when company came over, you pulled it out, let it thaw a little and then stuck it under the broiler and it got all golden brown and gooey.

EDF:  I’m very interested in knowing how the film impacted you.  Did seeing yourself struggling with these endless delays and bills opening Street help you reframe that experience?

Liz Lachman:  I’ll answer for Susan because she has told me this.  She said she really didn’t believe that she had done that much work and she actually felt good about what she had created and it made her feel good about herself.  That made me feel pretty great about the film.

Susan Feniger:  When I look at it now and maybe even then, I felt like the food was great; the concept was great and the feel was great. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t and you just have to give it your best shot.  What it did do was it really helped my partnership with Mary Sue a lot. This was the first time in thirty years that I had done something separate from Mary Sue.  We had always done everything together.  We even won awards together.  Yes, the two of us won a CA Restaurant Association lifetime achievement award that we split. I took this time off, maybe 8 weeks, where I worked heavily on the menu and did all the recipe testing with Kajsa.  Afterwards, I was working both Street and Border Grill.  This time gave us the freedom to explore things that we were each passionate about but, because of our partnership, had never ventured into before. And now, we are really growing our businesses.

EDF: Are you still cooking a lot or has it become more administrative as your restaurant empire has grown?

Susan:  I’m still very involved.  For example, with Alice B, which we just opened three months ago, I was out in Palm Springs and in the kitchen from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. peeling ginger and cutting onions.  In general though, my role has become more about tasting dishes, bringing input to the chefs, new ideas, new ingredients.  I’m not on the line on a daily basis but I still feel very immersed in the restaurant.  I work the floor a lot at all the restaurants and give input and feedback.  

EDF:  You had a long relationship with Julia Child based on mutual respect, love of food and cooking, as well as your wonderful sense of fun.  Will you share a special memory of her.

Susan:  Well, you see in the film when she first comes to City Café…wow.  Mary Sue and I both knew of her and were fans of hers, but we hadn’t really watched her a lot on tv.   When she first walked in and we heard that voice as she knocked her head on those pots, we were just amazed.  She was always such a supporter and always complimented us on how great we were as teachers and stressed how important it was that we keep teaching.  Later, when she came to the CITY restaurant kitchen and came back behind the line and made nan with us in the tandoori oven, it was a moment.  Even though our food was not in the style that Julia was known for, or probably even drawn to, she made us feel so respected. She was so interested in what we were doing and how we were growing and what we were up to next.  Somehow, that experience led to us emceeing her 80^th birthday party which was such a cool thing.  Whenever you would see her, she would just bring a smile to your face. 

Probably the most fun we ever had with her was at Mary Sue’s house where we were filming from something like 5 a.m. in the morning until 5 or 6 p.m. at night.  Julia was interacting with us and keeping track of things but it was eggplant-spinach curry and things that she wouldn’t normally talk about.  Afterwards, we would go back to her hotel have cocktails and then go to dinner till 11p.m. at Border Grill in Santa Monica and then be back at 5 a.m. the next morning filming. She was as passionate as we were, if not more, and playful.  She was such an incredible role model for us, someone we could really look up to and respect.  Seeing how someone at her level was humble, yet so hungry to learn and interested meant so much.

EDF:  Describe what being the first women to win (alongside Mary Sue Milliken) the Julia Child Award for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts meant to you.   

Susan Feniger:  By far, that is the most important award I’ve ever received.  What an amazing experience having the curators of the Smithsonian come out to LA and look through all our years of stuff and take it back to Washington and have it become part of the Smithsonian’s permanent collection. “Our chef’s coats from the 1990’s are on exhibit, right next to Julia’s Kitchen.  Most people in the food industry wore traditional white chef’s coats in the early 1980s, but Mary Sue and I wore colored coats in our restaurant kitchens and on our TV shows.

EDF:  How has making the film or being the subject of a film changed your perception of the other?

Susan Feniger: I’ve always known that Liz was extremely creative.  When we first got together, it was mainly singing and song-writing.  I was blown away by how she would come up with these lines for songs and how, two weeks later, she and her writing partner would have this incredible song.  When she said she was going to make this film, I couldn’t imagine how I could make an interesting topic for a film.  I am impressed…it covers a complicated experience and made me see even more clearly what a great story teller Liz is. It was amazing to see her collaboration with the editor and the composer and how she managed all these details.  

Liz Lachman:  From the moment I met Susan, I realized how creative, positive and high-spirited she has always been.  I didn’t realize until I was filming and we put it all together, just how much of an impact she’s had on me over years.  She’s been a mentor to me in how one approaches life.  

EDF:  What’s your next project Liz?

Liz Lachman:  Right now, I’m fundraising for two narrative feature films that I wrote and will direct.  One is a feature length version of my short psychological drama/horror, “Pin-Up,” and the other is a screw ball comedy, “Free Chicky.”  Whichever is funded first is the one I’m going to do. 

Visit the film’s website. 

“Susan Feniger:FORKED” has been a hit on the Film Festival circuit. 

Upcoming screenings include Sarasota Film Festival, Florida, April 5-14, 2024, and The Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, April 17, 2024, in Hollister, CA.

Enjoy the recipe for “Pollo Ciudad with Cilantro Sauce and Pickled Tomato Salsa” and some surprises here.

Unless otherwise noted all photos are courtesy of Susan Fineger, Liz Lachman, and Mary Sue Milliken.

Fun short videos with Susan by Liz.

Watch many more here.  You can keep loading them at the bottom of each page.

Susan Feniger is an American chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, radio and TV personality. She is known for starring in the cooking shows Too Hot Tamales and Tamales World Tour on the Food Network, Iron Chef, Top Chef Masters, Cooking with the Master Chefs, and more. She has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Restaurant Association and the L.A. Times Jonathan Gold Award celebrating intelligence, innovation, culture, and environment. Most recently, she was awarded the Julia Child Award honoring an individual who has made a profound and significant difference in the way America cooks, eats, and drinks, and was inducted into the permanent collection of the Food Exhibition at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.

Liz’s book of blog posts from her food trips with Susan, “NO ESCAPE: My horrible food travels with Susan Feniger…a love story” is being published by Cool Titles Publishing. (HINT: Liz hates being dragged around the world, tasting unfamiliar foods in 110 degrees. Susan loves it.  Thus, the blogging.)

Visit Susan’s website.

Liz Lachman is an Emmy Award-winning musician and composer, a Golden Reel Award-winning music editor, and a BMI TV Music Award winner. As a filmmaker her latest short psychological drama, PIN-UP, starring Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) and Christina Chang (The Good Doctor) has won 30 film festival awards world-wide and Liz is now in development on the feature version. Her first short film, GETTING TO KNOW YOU, starring Dana Delaney and Ian Gomez, won 9 festival awards. As a writer, Liz has twice been a Quarter Finalist and placed in the Top 15% in the Academy Nicholl Screenplay Competition, placed as a Semi Finalist and a Quarter Finalist in the PAGE Screenplay Awards, a Semi Finalist in the Final Draft Big Break Screenplay Competition and in the Stowe Story Labs. SUSAN FENIGER.FORKED is her first feature film, following her partner of 25 years, chef Susan Feniger as she travels the world gathering street food recipes for her first solo restaurant in Los Angeles.  Liz’s favorite things are classic Alfa Romeos and comic books. So yes, she’s actually a 12 year-old boy.

Visit Liz’s website.

Geneva Anderson is a free-lance writer based in rural Penngrove, CA who writes on art, film, food, identity, and cultural heritage.  She is the editor of ARThound, an online arts publication.  She grew up on a small farm in Petaluma, CA, with animals and gardens.  A graduate of UC Berkeley, Princeton, and Columbia School of Journalism, she covered the transition of Eastern Europe from state socialism and reported for seven years from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Turkey.  She has also worked on assignment in Asia, Cuba, Mexico, South America.

She has written or done photography for Art, Arte, ARTnews, The Art Newspaper, Balkan, Balkan News, Budapest Sun, EatDrinkFilms, Flash Art, Neue Bildende Kunst, Sculpture, EIU, Euromoney, The International Economy, The Press Democrat, The Argus Courier,Vanity Fair,  Global Finance, and others.  She is passionate about Rhodesian Ridgebacks and currently has two, Frida and Ruby Rose.