Elizabeth Falkner is an American consulting chef. She is currently residing and working in New York and 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,, as well as "Chopped All Stars",, "Top Chef Masters", "Top Chef", "",, "Top Chef, Canada", "Food Network Challenge",. 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.
Biography
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. In 2006, Falkner appeared as a guest judge on Top Chef, a reality show on the Bravo network. In 2005, Falkner competed on Iron Chef America, Tyler's Ultimate, $40 a Day, Sugar Rush, Best Of, Bay Cafe, Top Chef-Pastry and others. She has cooked at the James Beard House in New York City, the Masters of Food and Wine in Carmel, CA, and the Chef's Holiday at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. In 2010, Falkner relocated Citizen Cake to 2125 Fillmore Street. In 2011, Falkner closed both of her San Francisco establishments, Citizen Cake and Orson, and moved to New York, where she opened two short-lived Italian restaurants, Krescendo in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, and Corvo Bianco on the Upper West Side, leaving each after seven months.
Personal life
Falkner identifies as lesbian. She is active in the LGBTQ community, and done extensive work with Act Up and the Human Rights Campaign, receiving the Charles M. Holmes Award from the latter in 2005.
