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Logline

A private peek behind the curtain at award-winning celebrity chef, Susan Feniger, as she tries to create her first solo restaurant in Los Angeles: Susan Feniger’s STREET. The adventure of hunting down delicious street food takes Susan to Southeast Asia, China and then back to Los Angeles where the recipes refuse to behave and the build-out of the new restaurant goes horribly, horribly wrong.

Synopsis

When celebrity chef, Susan Feniger (one half of Food Network’s Too Hot Tamales, Top Chef Masters, Border Grill & Socalo restaurants), decides to open her own restaurant without her longtime business partner, Mary Sue Milliken, the task is daunting. With no support from their co-owned restaurant kitchens and staff, Feniger must use her home to test brand new recipes, figure out design and construction, gather the team, and basically start over like a “newbie.” But her dream is to open a new Los Angeles restaurant serving global street food: Susan Feniger’s STREET.

Best laid plans go awry and we get a behind-the-scenes peek at the public personality, as her spouse, Liz Lachman, shoots it all: Feniger’s private dreams, fears, and also her goofy sense of humor. (Where else can you see Susan dancing with the dog in her pajamas?)

Following her passion, Susan travels to Shanghai, Vietnam and Singapore tasting street food and bonding with the street stand owners through their shared language: Food.

Meanwhile, as the opening date of the restaurant approaches, Feniger is not nearly ready with the final menu. Often, the camera is alone with her at home in the kitchen, trying to perfect a recipe and remembering her mother’s influence, or showing her frustration with the 11th batch of fudge that still isn’t right. Sometimes she just can’t get the damn cat off the table! And the nightmares at the restaurant site continue to mount up: wood rot; termite damage; re-pouring the cement floors; rebuilding one whole wall; And will they finally pass inspection? But we know it will all turn out fine – Or will it?

This is a story about starting over and reinvention. It’s also a story about failure…not IF one fails but HOW.

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Meet the Filmmakers

Liz Lachman – Director/Producer

LIZ LACHMAN is an EMMY AWARD winning musician and composer, a GOLDEN REEL AWARD winning music editor, and a BMI TV MUSIC AWARD winner. As a filmmaker her latest short psychological drama, PIN-UP, starring Angela Sarafyan (WESTWORLD) and Christina Chang (THE GOOD DOCTOR) has won 30 film festival awards world-wide and Liz is now in development on the feature version. Her first short film, Getting To Know You, starring Dana Delaney and Ian Gomez, won 9 festival awards.

As a writer, Liz has twice been Quarter Finalist and placed in the Top 15% in ACADEMY NICHOLL Screenplay Competition, placed as Semi Finalist and Quarter Finalist in the PAGE Screenplay awards, Semi Finalist in FINAL DRAFT Big Break Screenplay Competition and in STOWE Story Labs. Her feature screenplay, Rowing In Eden, is currently being produced by Lora Kennedy and Cindy Tolan with Saffron Burrows directing. Liz’s book of blogs chronicles being dragged around the world on food trips with Susan, and is titled “NO ESCAPE: My horrible food travels with Susan Feniger…a love story.” It is being published by Cool Titles Publishing .

Liz’s favorite things are classic Alfa Romeos and comic books. So yes, she’s actually a 12 year-old boy.

Lisa Donmall-Reeve – Producer

LISA DONMALL-REEVE migrated to film from a successful career in theatre, where she spent over twenty years as a performer playing many leading roles in London’s West End and internationally. She has assisted some of the world’s finest choreographers on numerous projects and helped shape the next generation of dancers as an educator in the U.S. and U.K. Lisa launched LDR Creative LLC in 2016 with the objective to build creative teams that inspire, and to produce product that makes a difference. Her first short film, Early Mourning, screened at over 20 film festivals, winning 5 awards including the Audience Award at the Soho International Film Festival 2017. The next short, Free, is distributed on both Shorts TV and Amazon Prime, and several more shorts are currently screening on film festival circuits. Lisa’s first feature length documentary, ‘Uprooted – The Journey of Jazz Dance’ enjoyed a world premiere at the Lincoln Centres Dance on Camera Film Festival in NYC, winning the Best of Fest Feature Award in 2020, has won sixteen further awards including Best Musical Documentary at The Rhode Island International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Documentary during its International Premiere at Raindance Film.

Myrta Vida – Co-Producer

MYRTA VIDA is a Producer for 3DMC, the Independent Filmmaking Co. responsible for the award- winning Features: tangerine, The Florida Project, The Infiltrators, and Premature. She’s currently in pre-production for two Rachel Mason-led Independent Features.

Ms. Vida’s Feature Screenplay, What The Boy Couldn’t Say, placed TOP 10% at the 2021 ACADEMY NICHOLL Screenplay Competition. She’s also the Producer of Second Responders, an OFFICIAL NOMINEE at Diversity in Cannes Short Film Showcase (2021) and HBO’s Official Latino Film Festival (2021), among others, and Endlich, a WINNER at the UK’S Out of The Can International Film Festival (2021), an OFFICIAL NOMINEE at the Seattle Film Festival (2021) and a SEMI-FINALIST at the Austin Arthouse Film Festival (2021).

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ms. Vida is also a decorated U.S. Army Veteran. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri –St. Louis (UMSL), and is also a graduate of the New York Film Academy’s (NYFA, NYC) Conservatory in Screenwriting, where she now also teaches Screenwriting and Producing.

Make a donation to Susan Feniger. FORKED.

Contact

For inquiries, please contact fiscalsponsorship@filmindependent.org.