Cookoos Rotisserie Chicken is a labour of love for owner Joe Boussidan who grew up in the area for most of his life. Now when Joe, who is an orthodox Jew, decided to make the jump from a printing career to the kosher food business, he wanted to do it right. He told me he had a lot at risk. He was 40 and had six kids at home!

So he put in 18 months of traveling and researching before he settled on making wood fired rotisserie chicken. He was originally interested in making wood oven pizzas because there wasn't a kosher place doing that. So as part of his research he went to L.A., visited Wolfgang Puck's restaurant and Spagos to learn about the process.

Once he decided on the oven, he realized pizzas are much more complicated than he first thought and decided chicken would be a better bet.

In order to test his wood fired oven though, he needed kosher chickens which he brought with him on the plane. Needless to say when he pulled out his three kosher chickens from his briefcase, he ended up giving a quick lesson in kosher food. But when he tasted the chicken later back in his hotel room, he was blown away by the wood fire flavour and Cookoos was born. That was two years ago.

He admitted that in the beginning it was a struggle because wood burns at a much higher temperature and can be finicky. But over time, he told me he became one with the fire.

The chicken definitely has a unique smoky flavour like chicken cooked over a camp fire. He uses a mix of apple, maple and oak wood which adds a great flavour to the meat.

On top of the rotisserie chicken, he also has hamburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches and Chinese food! As Joe says, Jewish people love Chinese food and enough customers asked him to put it on the menu so he obliged. He has items like General Tao and sweet and sour chicken, lo mein noodles and giant spring rolls. All the food is made fresh every day.

Go to the link to read more and hear the audio:

http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/beyondburgers/2007/04/cookoos_rotisserie_chicken.html

Q: I heard you recently provided catering services for a bar mitzvah that were well received. Tell me about that?

A: Catering, by nature, comes to you because of the product that you are selling to the individual. We generally sell on a one-to-one basis, that causes the trust value to grow between us and our customers and causes that customer to think of us when they have an event or function that needs to be catered. I only cater to the ones that aren’t very large so that catering does not take away from the restaurant that requires a lot of attention and maintenance. If someone wants catering of a simple nature for a Kiddish, or Shiva, or a Shabbaton, I will provide catering services and I will elevate these services to a more interesting level. This will create some very positive exposure within the Jewish community. Therefore, I can stick to what I do now and expand the market in a comfortable manner.

Q: Your coleslaw is delicious. How do you get it to be so delectable?

A: Joe Boo’s mayonnaise was crafted to perfection by a group of people. .Normally, when coleslaw sits out, it gets soggy. So, I produced slightly thicker cut coleslaw than what’s available on the market. The cabbage in Joe Boo’s coleslaw, has more of a taste than minced coleslaw.. This coleslaw characteristically has more of an enjoyable crunch to it. To make it more interesting, we added mayonnaise, honey, mustard, salt, pepper and lemon juice. We don’t make large batches of our coleslaw at one time, because mayonnaise tends to separate and develop into a film of water and mayonnaise. We therefore make approximately 10 pounds daily, therefore keeping everything fresh and current.