Born in San Francisco, celebrated chef Elizabeth Falkner grew up in Los Angeles and worked her way up in San Francisco’s top kitchens before opening her first restaurant, Citizen Cake, in 1997. A decade later, she opened four more restaurants in San Francisco and New York. Today, she does recipe development and consults on numerous products and brands. She loves to teach about the importance of creativity in cooking, is an inspiring public speaker, and has cooked and spoken all over the United States, Asia, and Europe.

Falkner advocates for people and chefs to think more like athletes by “staying fit to cook.” Along with playing league soccer, studying sword fighting martial arts Jungshin and Iadō, Falkner also practices yoga and cross fit, plays tennis, runs half marathons, ran the NY Marathon in 2016, and regularly participates in ChefsCycle, a 300-mile cycling fundraiser for No Kid Hungry. Falkner has been both competitor and judge on many television cooking competitions, including Tournament of Champions, Iron Chef, Next Iron Chef, Top Chef Masters, and more. She is often featured in food and lifestyle magazines, has received multiple awards, and was nominated for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2005.

Deeply concerned for the restaurant industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Falkner is the host and co-producer of “Sorry We’re Closed,” a feature documentary currently in post-production. The film offers an insider’s perspective on how the restaurant industry deals and evolves in crisis.