Chef,
teacher, author, caterer and restaurateur, Gerri Gilliland arrived in
Los Angeles from Northern Ireland in 1975, and began an extraordinary
career in the food industry. Today she owns and operates three distinctively
different and critically acclaimed restaurants on Main Street Santa Monica
and in Marina Del Rey, California: Lula Cocina Mexicana, Jake and Annie's
American Cafe, and Washington St. Bar & Grill. In addition, she is
the co-author of the cookbook, Grills and Greens, which was nominated
for a James Beard award in 1995. (available
at Amazon.com)
Since 1977 Gerri has taught at many major cooking schools in the Southern Caliornia area including UCLA extension, Williams-Sonoma, Montana Mercantile and Bristol Farms Cooking School. With a degree in both classical French Cuisine and Home Economics, she has taught and presented cuisines as diverse as Indian, Chinese, Regional Mexican, French, Californian and of course, Irish. Indeed, one of her first jobs in this country was as a personal chef for a Chinese family.
Gerri opened her first restaurant, Gilliland's Cafe in 1984, and almost simultaneously, began a small catering company that provided some of the restaurant's more popular items, like the Christmas Puddings to such stores as Bloomingdales, Dean & Deluca & Balducci's in New York. However, it was due to the opening of Gilliland's Cafe, a popular yet intimate upscale neighborhood restaurant, serving California and Irish cuisines, that Gerri's reputation grew from local to national prominence and won many accolades from the press and public alike. Gerri sold Gilliland's in 1998.
In July 1991, Gerri realized another dream and opened her second restaurant,
LULA
COCINA MEXICANA, a celebration of her love and fascination of the cuisines
and cultures of Mexico. Named after her good friend and mentor, Lula Bertran,
LULA serves the freshest and lightest of authentic Regional Mexican Cuisine
in a bold Cantina-style setting.
Gerri's entrepreneurship reached yet a new height in March 1993 with the opening of her third restaurant, JAKE AND ANNIE'S AMERICAN-IRISH CAFE. Aided once again by her husband Theodore Lonsway, JAKE AND ANNIE'S is an open and airy cafe serving American-Irish cooking and located on Main Street next door to LULA.
In June of 1997, Gerri and her husband purchased THE BLACK WHALE, a legendary restaurant in MARINA DEL REY and reopened as THE WASHINGTON STREET BAR & GRILL. This restaurant is the biggest project yet and the main feature is a wood broiler for indulging her latest food obsession, Santa Maria Style Grilling. That is, cooking the finest Certified Angus Steaks and Giant Alaskan Crab Legs over Red Oak wood from the Santa Ynez Valley.