hi let see that is my motto pretty much
gets me through every day and food is
the most fundamental human need that we
all have and it’s definitely come we
come by it pretty honestly because our
first connection with our mothers is
through food and then all our lives we
gather there in exchange so I hope you
all got my world peace cookies those are
a very delicious recipe that’s why
they’re called world peace cookies and I
gave you the recipe so you can share it
with your friends and family too and I
just want you to sort of notice how that
makes you feel because now we’re
connected in a small special way because
we’re we’ve shared something now whether
it’s plain or fancy Mother’s Milk or
cookies all food really has has the
ability to be a catalyst to bring us
together and what I love about food is
how it does bring that connection to
every day now I’m the youngest of three
girls and when I was in sixth grade food
was what saved me it became my outlet my
medium my family was falling apart and I
turned to food and that’s what got me
through actually I think it’s why I
passed the sixth grade you see I had
started out on the honor roll and then
throughout the year while things were
tough at home
I just stopped working and doing my
schoolwork and it was definitely I
wasn’t finishing assignments I’d start
them but it was definitely a tough year
for me and to make it worse on the last
day when I was supposed to hand in my
report the next day I stayed up all
night and baked a chocolate cake to take
to class now my teacher thankfully I
think knew what I was going through and
she let that cake stand in for my final
project and I did pass and I got to go
to middle school
I started my career actually in a donut
shop and then I start soon after went
into a pizza place and then halfway
through high school I was invited to a
dinner party with my sister and the chef
that cooked he was a professional chef
his name was Greg and I was so amazed at
how quickly he cooked and with such
exuberance that right there that night I
decided I am NOT going to go to college
I’m gonna go to chef school on the south
side of Chicago just like Greg and when
I fit it and and actually I was amazed
that there was a real profession that
you could touch food all day and feed
people it was sort of like a dream come
true and in those days you know chefs
were tradesmen they were like an auto
mechanic or a plumber they were not
celebrities and entrepreneurs like they
are now and they definitely weren’t
women either so it was kind of an odd
choice but it felt absolutely perfect
for me from the very first day after I
graduated from chef school which is two
years I had my heart set on working at
Lapera K which is one of the most
wonderful restaurants in Chicago at the
time now the old-world Yugoslavia Vaughn
granted me an interview and at the end
of it he just kind of chuckled and said
you know I couldn’t have you work in the
kitchen because you would cause havoc in
there with all the boys but you know if
you need a job you could be a coat-check
girl well that didn’t go over very well
I was immediately incensed and furious
and frustrated and I went home and I
started a campaign a barrage of letters
and phone calls and after about a month
yovan caved in and said okay you could
come come work for me tomorrow 3:25 an
hour you can peel shallots just don’t
sue me
now a couple months later another young
woman knocked on the kitchen door and
she was hired on the spot and I kind of
got to thinking well I guess he noticed
that I work circles around the boys and
I’m half the price and that other girl
who came into the kitchen was Susan
Feniger we immediately bonded and we
became fast friends we consoled and
commiserated and really we got each
other through that year and it was a
hard year it was actually you know one
of the most intense kitchens we’ve
either of us have ever worked in and
there was a lot to learn but doing it
together was incredible and at the end
of the year when the chef’s went on
vacation it wasn’t any of those slacker
boys who were asked to lead the kitchen
and be in charge it was me and Susan
after the pair okay we both went to
France and had apprenticeships and then
we decided we were ready to open our own
restaurant I was 23 and I actually had
absolutely no idea about business we
were really lucky because we opened a
little cafe called City Cafe tiny really
and it was an immediate success well
about four years in we raised some money
and we moved to larger quarters which
was also challenging but also very
successful and right after we opened we
were honored with a James Beard Award
where we had to fly to New York and go
to the awards ceremony and it was very
exciting
although the the ceremony was a little
bit tedious so all the interesting
people were out in the foyer actually at
the bar and we’ve met a gentleman there
a multi restaurant operator from Chicago
who was very very successful he was also
getting an award and we really had a
lovely chat with him but little did I
know that this random guy was going to
become really instrumental in our
success a decade later when we were
facing bankruptcy we wrote a couple
cookbooks we opened another restaurant
called border grill and we cooked our
hearts out for 14 years and then
disaster struck it was a series of
things there was the LA riots the
earthquake Malibu fires there was a
pretty serious recession and sales just
sort of plummeted and there we were
without really any knowledge of what to
do and we were paralyzed just kind of
frozen we were just like dumbstruck and
then we remembered this guy that we’d
met at the bar our buddy from Chicago
and we decided to take a chance and call
him up and see if maybe he’d been
through something similar at some point
and he was so gracious and wonderful and
he sent his top two finance people to
come to Los Angeles and spend three days
with us and those guys were amazing they
put it they put us through sort of a
little mini boot camp
a business boot camp we went through all
the PLS and we really were learning and
understanding a lot from these guys and
they were smart we really liked him we
trusted them and at the end they
recommended that we close city
restaurant
this was our beloved first restaurant it
was sort of what put us on the map and
it was absolutely heartbreaking we it
was like someone asked me to amputate my
legs I mean it was my whole identity it
was everything I thought and I was sure
that I was going to disappear and no one
would call me or want to eat my food
anymore and it I was just pretty much at
devastated so much so that when we had
our staff meeting to tell everyone that
we were going to be closing after we
quietly sold the restaurant I we i Susan
and I decided how to talk to the staff
and you know I’m a person who almost
never cries but the moment that the
staff meeting started I just started
sobbing it’s like my entire life of
crying happened in that one hour
and you know we were lucky because well
I actually wanted to stop being a chef I
considered other careers I wanted to do
something that wasn’t so hard and
difficult and then I remembered you know
I just have this relationship with my
craft that I didn’t think I could
abandon it was something that had gotten
me through so many years and brought me
so much joy and you know we and
eventually we had the staff meeting
where we had to tell everyone that we
were closing and I did all the crying
and we also had decided to just make the
best of a bad moment and we had a big
parking lot sale where we sold to all of
our fans and customers they could buy
dishes and ashtrays from city and we had
a band and serve champagne and passed
appetizers so it was pretty much
bittersweet but what happened actually
was life didn’t end I didn’t disappear I
didn’t have to change careers and I
actually started to have some time to
really have let the creative juices flow
and one of the first things I crazy
ideas I had was to pitch the local NPR
radio station on a radio show about the
state of your food because I was a young
mom and I was learning about things like
a poisonous spray on apples that kids
were eating in it and I was really
incensed so we invited the president of
the local radio station over to have
lunch with us of course and we pitched
her on this idea this radio show
well she immediately said that’s a
terrible idea and she was right but she
also offered us our own radio show a
one-hour show called good food on kcrw
and it could start this weekend she said
and that radio show actually which was
parodied by Saturday Night Live
ruthlessly that radio show led to a TV
show on the Food Network called cooking
with two hot tamales and a product line
with Whole Foods Market and another
cookbook and it even we even got a job
as the stylists for all the food in a
film called tortilla soup so you see one
door closed and a bunch more doors just
flew open and it was an amazing time and
now 40 years later Susan and I are still
running our restaurants and still
partnering and it’s been a real roller
coaster you know closing City restaurant
was not the biggest or worst failure
we’ve been through there’s been tons and
tons of up and downs but what gets me
out of bed every morning is food and how
it brilliantly and naturally connects us
to each other so having success doesn’t
really mean that confronting the
failures and the risks are any easier
you’d think it would but it doesn’t for
me I still am a deer in headlights when
I’m faced with those kind of challenges
that are scary and risky and I get that
that feeling in the pit of my stomach
and that’s when I know it’s a risk that
I’ll be happy to have taken down the
road when my courage kicks in you know
my courage I’ve found is what makes my
life expand exponentially and not that I
don’t avoid failure at all costs because
you know failure is what makes my heart
race and makes me sweaty and makes me
you know keeps me honest and humble and
it reminds me that you know perfect is
not a real thing so I feel so lucky to
be part of the food community and have
the ability to connect with people
around food you know the language of
food is universal
and I’ve had the opportunity to share my
passion and my love of food all over the
world we did TV shows in Mexico I went
to Ethiopia on a hunger fighting mission
and I was in Japan with the Governator
helping to promote California produce
and most recently I was in Pakistan with
the State Department on a culinary
diplomacy trip where I was really
reminded of the power of food because I
had many different exchanges teaching
cooking classes and entrepreneurial
workshops for young women talking about
nutrition and it was just the most
satisfying way to realize the power of
food which you know I fell in love with
way back in sixth grade I knew I really
remain hopeful that because food is
going to be a hot topic you know what
happened in the food world was it became
the darling of pop culture and when that
happened I was able to connect with
millions of people rather than one diner
at a time and the world is grappling
with some pretty big problems from
climate change to population to you know
equitable health care and foods gonna
play a really important part in solving
that and I’m hopeful because it is such
a strong connector for us such a primal
thing it’s at the core of everything so
will we be able to get achieved world
peace through cookies or through coming
together around food I don’t know in my
view that’s the only way it would be
possible so thank you so much enjoy your
cookies
you
[Applause]
gets me through every day and food is
the most fundamental human need that we
all have and it’s definitely come we
come by it pretty honestly because our
first connection with our mothers is
through food and then all our lives we
gather there in exchange so I hope you
all got my world peace cookies those are
a very delicious recipe that’s why
they’re called world peace cookies and I
gave you the recipe so you can share it
with your friends and family too and I
just want you to sort of notice how that
makes you feel because now we’re
connected in a small special way because
we’re we’ve shared something now whether
it’s plain or fancy Mother’s Milk or
cookies all food really has has the
ability to be a catalyst to bring us
together and what I love about food is
how it does bring that connection to
every day now I’m the youngest of three
girls and when I was in sixth grade food
was what saved me it became my outlet my
medium my family was falling apart and I
turned to food and that’s what got me
through actually I think it’s why I
passed the sixth grade you see I had
started out on the honor roll and then
throughout the year while things were
tough at home
I just stopped working and doing my
schoolwork and it was definitely I
wasn’t finishing assignments I’d start
them but it was definitely a tough year
for me and to make it worse on the last
day when I was supposed to hand in my
report the next day I stayed up all
night and baked a chocolate cake to take
to class now my teacher thankfully I
think knew what I was going through and
she let that cake stand in for my final
project and I did pass and I got to go
to middle school
I started my career actually in a donut
shop and then I start soon after went
into a pizza place and then halfway
through high school I was invited to a
dinner party with my sister and the chef
that cooked he was a professional chef
his name was Greg and I was so amazed at
how quickly he cooked and with such
exuberance that right there that night I
decided I am NOT going to go to college
I’m gonna go to chef school on the south
side of Chicago just like Greg and when
I fit it and and actually I was amazed
that there was a real profession that
you could touch food all day and feed
people it was sort of like a dream come
true and in those days you know chefs
were tradesmen they were like an auto
mechanic or a plumber they were not
celebrities and entrepreneurs like they
are now and they definitely weren’t
women either so it was kind of an odd
choice but it felt absolutely perfect
for me from the very first day after I
graduated from chef school which is two
years I had my heart set on working at
Lapera K which is one of the most
wonderful restaurants in Chicago at the
time now the old-world Yugoslavia Vaughn
granted me an interview and at the end
of it he just kind of chuckled and said
you know I couldn’t have you work in the
kitchen because you would cause havoc in
there with all the boys but you know if
you need a job you could be a coat-check
girl well that didn’t go over very well
I was immediately incensed and furious
and frustrated and I went home and I
started a campaign a barrage of letters
and phone calls and after about a month
yovan caved in and said okay you could
come come work for me tomorrow 3:25 an
hour you can peel shallots just don’t
sue me
now a couple months later another young
woman knocked on the kitchen door and
she was hired on the spot and I kind of
got to thinking well I guess he noticed
that I work circles around the boys and
I’m half the price and that other girl
who came into the kitchen was Susan
Feniger we immediately bonded and we
became fast friends we consoled and
commiserated and really we got each
other through that year and it was a
hard year it was actually you know one
of the most intense kitchens we’ve
either of us have ever worked in and
there was a lot to learn but doing it
together was incredible and at the end
of the year when the chef’s went on
vacation it wasn’t any of those slacker
boys who were asked to lead the kitchen
and be in charge it was me and Susan
after the pair okay we both went to
France and had apprenticeships and then
we decided we were ready to open our own
restaurant I was 23 and I actually had
absolutely no idea about business we
were really lucky because we opened a
little cafe called City Cafe tiny really
and it was an immediate success well
about four years in we raised some money
and we moved to larger quarters which
was also challenging but also very
successful and right after we opened we
were honored with a James Beard Award
where we had to fly to New York and go
to the awards ceremony and it was very
exciting
although the the ceremony was a little
bit tedious so all the interesting
people were out in the foyer actually at
the bar and we’ve met a gentleman there
a multi restaurant operator from Chicago
who was very very successful he was also
getting an award and we really had a
lovely chat with him but little did I
know that this random guy was going to
become really instrumental in our
success a decade later when we were
facing bankruptcy we wrote a couple
cookbooks we opened another restaurant
called border grill and we cooked our
hearts out for 14 years and then
disaster struck it was a series of
things there was the LA riots the
earthquake Malibu fires there was a
pretty serious recession and sales just
sort of plummeted and there we were
without really any knowledge of what to
do and we were paralyzed just kind of
frozen we were just like dumbstruck and
then we remembered this guy that we’d
met at the bar our buddy from Chicago
and we decided to take a chance and call
him up and see if maybe he’d been
through something similar at some point
and he was so gracious and wonderful and
he sent his top two finance people to
come to Los Angeles and spend three days
with us and those guys were amazing they
put it they put us through sort of a
little mini boot camp
a business boot camp we went through all
the PLS and we really were learning and
understanding a lot from these guys and
they were smart we really liked him we
trusted them and at the end they
recommended that we close city
restaurant
this was our beloved first restaurant it
was sort of what put us on the map and
it was absolutely heartbreaking we it
was like someone asked me to amputate my
legs I mean it was my whole identity it
was everything I thought and I was sure
that I was going to disappear and no one
would call me or want to eat my food
anymore and it I was just pretty much at
devastated so much so that when we had
our staff meeting to tell everyone that
we were going to be closing after we
quietly sold the restaurant I we i Susan
and I decided how to talk to the staff
and you know I’m a person who almost
never cries but the moment that the
staff meeting started I just started
sobbing it’s like my entire life of
crying happened in that one hour
and you know we were lucky because well
I actually wanted to stop being a chef I
considered other careers I wanted to do
something that wasn’t so hard and
difficult and then I remembered you know
I just have this relationship with my
craft that I didn’t think I could
abandon it was something that had gotten
me through so many years and brought me
so much joy and you know we and
eventually we had the staff meeting
where we had to tell everyone that we
were closing and I did all the crying
and we also had decided to just make the
best of a bad moment and we had a big
parking lot sale where we sold to all of
our fans and customers they could buy
dishes and ashtrays from city and we had
a band and serve champagne and passed
appetizers so it was pretty much
bittersweet but what happened actually
was life didn’t end I didn’t disappear I
didn’t have to change careers and I
actually started to have some time to
really have let the creative juices flow
and one of the first things I crazy
ideas I had was to pitch the local NPR
radio station on a radio show about the
state of your food because I was a young
mom and I was learning about things like
a poisonous spray on apples that kids
were eating in it and I was really
incensed so we invited the president of
the local radio station over to have
lunch with us of course and we pitched
her on this idea this radio show
well she immediately said that’s a
terrible idea and she was right but she
also offered us our own radio show a
one-hour show called good food on kcrw
and it could start this weekend she said
and that radio show actually which was
parodied by Saturday Night Live
ruthlessly that radio show led to a TV
show on the Food Network called cooking
with two hot tamales and a product line
with Whole Foods Market and another
cookbook and it even we even got a job
as the stylists for all the food in a
film called tortilla soup so you see one
door closed and a bunch more doors just
flew open and it was an amazing time and
now 40 years later Susan and I are still
running our restaurants and still
partnering and it’s been a real roller
coaster you know closing City restaurant
was not the biggest or worst failure
we’ve been through there’s been tons and
tons of up and downs but what gets me
out of bed every morning is food and how
it brilliantly and naturally connects us
to each other so having success doesn’t
really mean that confronting the
failures and the risks are any easier
you’d think it would but it doesn’t for
me I still am a deer in headlights when
I’m faced with those kind of challenges
that are scary and risky and I get that
that feeling in the pit of my stomach
and that’s when I know it’s a risk that
I’ll be happy to have taken down the
road when my courage kicks in you know
my courage I’ve found is what makes my
life expand exponentially and not that I
don’t avoid failure at all costs because
you know failure is what makes my heart
race and makes me sweaty and makes me
you know keeps me honest and humble and
it reminds me that you know perfect is
not a real thing so I feel so lucky to
be part of the food community and have
the ability to connect with people
around food you know the language of
food is universal
and I’ve had the opportunity to share my
passion and my love of food all over the
world we did TV shows in Mexico I went
to Ethiopia on a hunger fighting mission
and I was in Japan with the Governator
helping to promote California produce
and most recently I was in Pakistan with
the State Department on a culinary
diplomacy trip where I was really
reminded of the power of food because I
had many different exchanges teaching
cooking classes and entrepreneurial
workshops for young women talking about
nutrition and it was just the most
satisfying way to realize the power of
food which you know I fell in love with
way back in sixth grade I knew I really
remain hopeful that because food is
going to be a hot topic you know what
happened in the food world was it became
the darling of pop culture and when that
happened I was able to connect with
millions of people rather than one diner
at a time and the world is grappling
with some pretty big problems from
climate change to population to you know
equitable health care and foods gonna
play a really important part in solving
that and I’m hopeful because it is such
a strong connector for us such a primal
thing it’s at the core of everything so
will we be able to get achieved world
peace through cookies or through coming
together around food I don’t know in my
view that’s the only way it would be
possible so thank you so much enjoy your
cookies
you
[Applause]
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