Susan Feniger of Border Grill: My favorite dish on my menu is …
“Top Chef” cheftestant Susan Feniger hops between Los Angeles and Las Vegas with the regularity of a Southwest Airlines flight schedule caring for her Border Grill customers in both cities.
She has two outlets here, one at Mandalay Bay and the second at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Her debut solo venture, Blue Window, opened in L.A. last year. A mobile kitchen truck of her restaurant Street in L.A. also is planned for the Strip soon.
Susan led her chef partner Mary Sue Milliken and fellow “Top Chef” stars Hubert Keller and Rick Moonen as the kitchen brigade for The Scleroderma Research Foundation fundraiser Cool Comedy-Hot Cuisine on Thursday night at Brooklyn Bowl Las Vegas in The Linq Promenade.
Susan has been on the SRF board for 18 years after losing a friend to the dreadful disease. I’ve known Susan and Mary Sue since we introduced them as the “Too Hot Tamales” on The Food Network in tthe 1990s, and I was MC for the traveling show tour for them from Hawaii to Boston.
Susan appeared on 396 episodes of The Food Network’s “Too Hot Tamales” and the follow-up “Tamales World Tour.” I asked Susan for her favorite menu item from her two Las Vegas restaurants:
“Pescado Veracruzana. It’s one of those amazing comfort food dishes that has all the flavors I love. The heat from the slices of jalapeno, sweetness from sauteed onions, saltiness and tang from olives, strong flavor of fresh oregano. It’s got all the elements I love in one dish.
“For me, a simple but strong flavored dish that I can eat on a cold winter night or a warm summer breezy evening sitting on a patio, it’s just the right mix. It’s filling, rich, but not heavy. I call it the Mexican version of chicken soup!”
Susan told me that she would order a Smoky Paloma to drink with the dish: Kimo Sabe Joven Mezcal, Lychee Liquer, Gifford Pamplemousse Grapefruit Liquer and lime juice. To start and end her ideal meal?
Susan would begin with “yummy plantain empanadas” and finish with “delicious Tres Leche with strawberry sauce.” She has co-authored six cookbooks. Her latest is “Susan Feniger’s Street Food.” She says the recipes are irresistibly crispy, creamy, crunchy, spicy, sticky and sweet.
A classically trained graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Susan was a trailblazer from the start, landing a job at Chicago’s Le Perroquet as one of the first women in the all-male kitchen. Susan then worked at Wolfgang Puck’s Ma Maison in Los Angeles.
She further honed her skills on the French Riviera. She opened City Cafe in L.A. in 1981 offering eclectic global dishes. This led to City in 1985, when the tiny space was transformed into Border Grill, a “taco stand” serving authentic home cooking and street foods of Mexico.
In June 2013, Susan and Mary Sue were awarded the California Restaurant Association’s Elizabeth Burns Lifetime Achievement Award, joining the ranks of just a handful of other women who have made history in the restaurant industry.
Susan and Mary Sue were inducted into the 2014 Menu Masters Hall of Fame. Susan is an active member of the culinary community, serving on the L.A. Sports & Entertainment Commission advisory board and with Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. She founded Chefs Collaborative.
What goes into her favorite dish, and where do the ingredients originate? “You have to pick fish from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list that is Best Choice or Good Choice. Fresh oregano. I love to get chilies from my backyard when I make it at home.
“Sometimes we add fresh fennel from my garden. Tomatoes this time of year can’t be beat, so we add those and a yummy olive to give that rich, salty finish. It’s prepared in about 5 minutes tops … made to order!”
* * *
This is an occasional series of favorite recipes from our city’s celebrity chefs. Rick Moonen of RM Seafood and Rx Boiler Room kicked it off Sept. 23 with his True North Salmon from the Gulf of Maine.
