Elizabeth Falkner

Elizabeth Falkner
Elizabeth Falkner (middle) and Scharffen Berger
Born	February 12, 1966 San Francisco
Education	San Francisco Art Institute
Website	www.elizabethfalkner.com
Culinary career
Cooking style	Pioneering American, Italian, Mediterranean, breads, Neapolitan Pizza, Pastries, Cakes, and California

Elizabeth Falkner (born in San Francisco) is a consulting chef working and living in New York who has been cooking since 1990. She frequently appears as a competitor and sometimes a judge on many of the cooking competitions on television from "The Next Iron Chef, Super Chefs", 2011 and "The Next Iron Chef, Redemption", 2012, (both Food Network), as well as "Chopped All Stars", (Food Network), "Top Chef Masters", "Top Chef", "Top Chef: Just Desserts", (Bravo), "Top Chef, Canada", "Food Network Challenge", (Food Network) on. Falkner was the executive/chef/pastry chef and managing partner of Citizen Cake for 14 years, and executive chef and co-owner/co-managing partner of Orson for 4 years, restaurants located in San Francisco, California, U.S.. Both establishments closed in 2011. In 2012 Falkner won First Prize at the World Pizza Championships in Naples, Italy with her innovative "Finocchio Flower Power" pizza. Falkner relocated to Brooklyn, NY in 2012 and was employed at Krescendo for seven months.

Falkner graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1989 with a BFA in fine arts. She began her cooking career in 1990 as the chef at a French Bistro, Cafe Claude, before moving into French fine dining at Masa's with Chef Julian Serrano. In 1993, Falkner became the pastry chef at Elka in the Miyako Hotel, and in 1994 Falkner was the pastry chef under Chef Traci Des Jardins at Drew Nieporent's Rubicon.

In 1997, Falkner opened Citizen Cake at its first location in the South of Market district of San Francisco. It remained there until 2000 when she moved the restaurant to 399 Grove Street, in the Hayes Valley district. In 2001 to 2002, Falkner taught professional pastry courses in Japan; and, in 2002 to 2003, she was the chef on a team doing research for American/European pastries for Barilla in Parma, Italy.