In this episode of Repertoire, I travel to Santa Monica, California to sit down with Susan Feniger—chef, restaurateur, television pioneer, and one of the architects of modern Southern California food culture.

Susan’s story stretches across more than four decades of American dining. After early years cooking in Chicago, France, and Los Angeles, she and longtime partner Mary Sue Milliken opened City Café in 1981, followed by City Restaurant and the groundbreaking Border Grill, helping introduce Angelenos to a more nuanced, regionally grounded understanding of Mexican cuisine. Her career has earned lifetime achievement honors from the James Beard Foundation, the LA Times, and the California Restaurant Association, with artifacts from her first restaurant now held at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

We dive into:

• Building long-term creative partnerships and sustaining trust over decades.

• What it takes to remain curious, relevant, and physically present in kitchens over a 40-year career.

• How leadership evolves from command-and-control toward empathy, stability, and emotional intelligence.

• Why restaurants function as chosen families, safe spaces, and engines of community care.

• Her lifelong commitment to philanthropy and advocacy, from LGBTQ+ leadership to medical research fundraising.

• The intersection of food, identity, fashion, and self-expression in chef culture.

• Balancing creative freedom with operational discipline and financial reality.

• How aging, mentorship, and succession reshape responsibility in hospitality.

Susan and I talk about longevity, stewardship, generosity, and quiet discipline—the invisible work required to keep showing up with integrity in an industry that rarely slows down. It’s a conversation about building legacy not through visibility or ego, but through consistency, care, and service.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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