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With a growing restaurant empire and a new cookbook, Elizabeth Falkner has spring boarded from Bay Area favorite to acclaimed chef and can frequently be seen on national television programs on top networks. Once known as the go-to for all things pastry, her expertise is now widely acknowledged to have bridged the gap between sweet and savory.
“I have focused on the pastry kitchen for most of my career, and after shifting some of my attention on the savory kitchen, now I am even more interested in breaking down some of the culinary barriers that exist between these two categories of cuisine,” said Falkner. “We utilize all of the vibrant products the Bay Area has to offer and we apply what we learn from tasting the familiar and the exotic or foreign; then we throw in a little high tech, once in a while. We strive to make great food with our own stories or signatures.”
Elizabeth began her professional cooking career in 1990 as the chef of Café Claude, and before going off on her own, graced the kitchens of Masa’s, Elka/Miyako Hotel and Rubicon. Recognizing the need for a contemporary, quality pastry shop in the Bay Area, Elizabeth opened Citizen Cake in San Francisco’s south of Market section in October 1997 and in May 2000, moved the successful business to its current Hayes Valley location. Citizen Cake is a retail patisserie, restaurant and bar serving brunch, lunch and dinner menus in addition to imaginative cocktails and a well-noted wine program. In 2007, Citizen Cake was awarded a recommendation from Michelin and received 7x7 Magazine’s award for best dessert. In 2004, Elizabeth opened Citizen Cupcake, a satellite of the original, at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco’s Union Square.
Elizabeth’s first cookbook, Demolition Desserts (Ten Speed Press) was released in September 2007 and is a true study in all of the concepts and techniques that make her work so unique. It looks at classic desserts and cultural traditions and encourages the reader to look at them with new eyes.
In 2006 Elizabeth appeared as a challenger on the ever-popular, Iron Chef America on Food Network. She has also appeared as a special guest judge on Bravo’s wildly popular kitchen reality show, Top Chef and is a recurring competitor on Food Network’s Challenge series. Elizabeth her work and restaurants have also been featured on Tyler’s Ultimate with Tyler Florence, Rachael Ray’s $40 a Day, Sugar Rush, The Martha Stewart Show and numerous Bay Area news and magazine programs.
Elizabeth was named “Rising Star Chef” by the San Francisco Chronicle in 1995 and “a chef to look for in the future” by Condé Nast Traveler in 1996. In August of 1999, she graced the cover of San Francisco Magazine as the publication’s first “Pastry Chef of the Year.” Bon Appetit magazine hailed her one of the 10 best pastry chefs in America in September 2003 and she was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s pastry chef of the year award in 2005. In 2006, Elizabeth was selected as Bon Appetit’s Pastry Chef of the Year in and she has also been featured in Pastry Art and Design, Gourmet, Food and Wine, Travel and Leisure and Epica, Japan’s travel magazine.
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