Bio for Liz Thompson

Liz is originally from New York and has been a pastry chef for over twentyyears. She received her training at the French Culinary Institute in New York when Jacques Pepin ruled the kitchen and went on to do her restaurant internship at Citrus in Los Angeles with Michelle Richard. After moving from New York to Los Angeles shortly thereafter, she went on to workas a pastry chef at four star restaurants including Checkers Hotel downtown for 5 years.   Liz then moved on to opening“The Pig, Memphis Style BBQ” in West L.A. and Universal City Walk with her husband which received several write-ups in The New York Times, Newsweek, Bon Apetit, Gourmet and was named “Best BBQ in Los Angeles” by Los AngelesMagazine 3 years in a row. Several television cooking demonstrations grew from the success and Liz continues to do television appearances in addition writing about food for national publications.

On the business side, Liz received her BBA in Marketing from Emory in Atlanta and her MBA in Marketing and Finance from Fordham University and started her food marketing career with Chiquita Brands and the launch of the first frozen fruit pop.

For the past few years, Liz had been a Culinary Instructorat The Art Institute of California teaching s pastry and cooking in addition to restaurant management classes and now focuses soly onrestaurant and food consulting.
Outside of classic work, Liz has been one of the “Chefs in the Classroom” for LAUSD Nutrition Network for 7 years teaching kids about healthy eating and how to make “Healthy Snacks ” and is currently working with MEND, Meeting Each Need with Dignity, food bank in Pacoima to develop recipes for their clients. The professional organizations thatLiz is invovled with include WCR, Les Dames D’Escoffier and The James Beard Foundation.

In recent years, Liz has focused on recipe development and starting food companies, helpign them go from concept to the shelves. Her last product line is about to launchnatioanlly in the fall of 2020. Her current projects include opening a new restaurant, writing a cookbook for a Los Angeles pastry icon and helping to developma new line of food products.

And for adventure, Liz has taken a few chefs form the U.S. each Fall to participate in the International Gourmet Food Festival in China as guests of the Chinese Government and the China Hotel Association under the name of “Traveling American Chefs”. She did this from 2011 0 2016.

“How I Got Here”: Women Beyond a Certain Age Podcast May 3, 2020

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-unsinkable-liz-thompson-part-1/id1430084217?i=1000473429000