Elizabeth Falkner

Elizabeth Falkner is the Chef/partner of two Michelin recommended restaurants in San Francisco. Elizabeth Falkner’s Citizen Cake and Ice Cream Parlor in Pacific Heights, along with the popular SOMA restaurant bar and lounge Orson. Once known as the go-to for all things pastry, Elizabeth's expertise is now widely acknowledged to span both savory and pastry.

Besides running restaurants, Elizabeth loves culinary competition as a sport and is one of the most recognizable chefs in the culinary scene. Elizabeth is a competitor on the upcoming series of Next Iron Chef on the Food Network, airing October 2011. She was a judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, Just Desserts in the fall of 2010 and was a competitor on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters in 2009 and has also appeared as a judge on Top Chef Masters and Top Chef. Elizabeth was a competitor on Iron Chef America in 2006 and a three time competitor on Food Network’s Challenge and has appeared as a guest on Simply Ming with Ming Tsai, Tyler's Ultimate with Tyler Florence, Rachael Ray's $40 a Day, Martha Stewart Living, and more.

Elizabeth founded Citizen Cake, as a retail bakery South of Market in 1997. Citizen Cake was an immediate hit, and after a few years, she moved it to Hayes Valley, in May of 2000, and expanded it into an elegant restaurant, bar, and patisserie. Citizen Cake helped spearhead the development of Hayes Valley into a citywide destination for fine dining, shopping, and socializing. Citizen Cake was awarded recommendation by Michelin in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and has scooped up numerous awards from both local and national media. In 2010, Citizen Cake relocated and opened on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights, San Francisco and in 2011, Elizabeth renamed it Elizabeth Falkner’s Citizen Cake and Ice Cream Parlor.

Elizabeth is also the chef/partner of Orson restaurant and bar, which opened in 2008 in an old steel foundry warehouse in the South of Market district of San Francisco. “At Orson, I love to take classic or iconic dishes from around the world and remodel them often with little surprises. Orson is my dream restaurant with a gorgeous bar and dining room, great sound system and a fantastic kitchen to cook in.” Orson has also been awarded recommendation by Michelin in 2009, 2010 and 2011 and has been featured in many local and national media.

Falkner's dramatically architectural "cakescapes" and whimsically remodeled desserts have been featured in dozens of magazines, including  Art Culinaire, Pastry Art and Design, Conde Nast Traveler, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure and Epica, Japan’s travel magazine. Falkner is also noted for her savory creations including her Citizen Steak with Blue Cheese Ice Cream and Seared Scallops with Bacon, Tomato, and Avocado Puree featured on Martha Stewart Living.

Elizabeth has also been spokesperson for Scharffen Berger chocolate since 2008 and has consulted for numerous products and brands such as Barilla/Molino Bianco, Starbucks, Hershey, General Mills, Nestle, Nabisco, Pepsi and more.

Throughout her career, Falkner has been both a leader and a mentor to many other chefs, working closely with Les Dames d'Escoffier and Women Chefs & Restaurateurs (WCR), who awarded her their Golden Bowl for Pastry in 2003. She has been named the city's "Best Pastry Chef" by San Francisco magazine and a Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle. Bon Appetit magazine hailed her as one of America's 10 top pastry chefs in 2003, and named her Pastry Chef of the Year in 2006. In 2005, she was nominated for the pastry chef of the year award by the James Beard Foundation and has been a featured guest chef for JBF hosting dinners for the foundation. Elizabeth currently serves on the board of directors of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs.

Demolition Desserts, her first cookbook, was published by Ten Speed Press in 2007. Using vivid manga-inspired graphics, Demolition Desserts lays out the elements of Falkner's multi-part contemporary desserts to make even the most inventive combinations easily accessible to home chefs. Demolition Desserts was a finalist for IACP’s Julia Child, Best First Cookbook award in 2008 and was selected “favorite book”, by the students of Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, also in 2008.

Cooking Off the Clock, her second book, will be released in fall of 2012 and is also published by Ten Speed Press.

A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute with a particular interest in film, Falkner often finds culinary inspiration in film, art, music, and sculpture.