Meet Lois: Head Chef
When Lois Gullace was interviewed for the head chef position on
the front porch of the Blue Rooster a little over a year ago, she knew she has
stumbled upon a very special place.
"Talking with Karen on the front porch, it was so laid back
and it certainly wasn't like your normal food restaurant interview," she said,
reflecting on her year of service running the kitchen of the Blue Rooster. "Right
away, I loved it."
Having previously worked in the kitchen of a large central New Jersey
country club - preparing food en mass for crowds - she knows that the
culture of working in the restaurant industry can be demanding,
stressful and full of strong personalities. "Here, there is no attitude
in the kitchen. We all work as a team," she said.
Her
cooking style was also well-matched with the menu that Karen had
already envisioned. From her first professional cooking experience
running her own catering business out of her home, Lois has always
prided herself for cooking in an "entirely home made" style that
centers on making everything from scratch. "Everything is done with
tender loving care," she said.
She points to the Rooster's daily quiche selections as an example of
how making something by scratch pays off when it hits the plate.
No fewer than four sets of hands have a part in bringing the quiche to
a customer's table. The bakery makes the shells, the chef decides what
to put into them, another cook mak
es the mix and when it is ordered,
someone puts it into the oven. "That's a whole lot of love that goes
into one dish," Lois said. "When that happens and I smell them come out
of the oven, as a chef, it's more than I can ask for."
