Tom Brandt: General Manager & Co-OwnerA graduate of Niagara University, Tom has spent a career as both a restaurant operator and Kitchen manager. Most recently, Tom has served more than 20 years as General Manager with Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Lake Mary, Orlando, Winter Park and Naples, Florida. He also worked with The Chart House as both a Kitchen Manager and operations manager over four years. Along with his wife, Suran, Tom owned and operated Sabai-Sabai mobile Thai food truck in the Orlando area for nearly 4 years. Tom passed the certificate level of the Court of Master Sommelier exam in 2006.
Jenneffer Pulapaka: Wine Director & Co-OwnerJenneffer is a social entrepreneur and champion of global cuisine. She was born and raised in Orlando, but she spent many months in Europe and Asia, which influenced her understanding of global foods. Today, Jenneffer is a podiatric surgeon with her own private practice (The DeLand Foot and Leg Center) and also serves as the Wine and Beverage Director at Cress.
Hari Pulapaka: Executive Chef & Co-OwnerHari was born and raised in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai (formerly, Bombay). He came to the United States in 1987 to pursue graduate studies in Mathematics. Today, Hari is a classically trained James Beard nominated Chef as well as an active tenured Associate Professor of Mathematics at Stetson University. Hari teaches full-time at Stetson University during the day and returns to the kitchen at Cress at night.
Sous ChefSam is a native of Central Florida with over a decade of experience in the culinary arts. A graduate of the University of North Florida, Samuel studied Political Science, Economics, and International Relations. He is a self-taught culinarian and enjoys connecting his academic education to the culinary arts by exploring the history and politics of food cultures around the world. Samuel aims to connect with the past through time-honored traditions in cooking, reconciled with modernity on a thoughtful plate. In his spare time - outside the kitchen and hitting the books - Samuel enjoys hiking, fishing, and kayaking as well as hosting family dinners.
Assistant Sous ChefPhil's father was a master technician so his first job was as an auto mechanic. He was interested in music from a very young age and wrote his first song at almost five years old on the piano. In his teens, he moved to guitar. Having a technical mind, Phil needed to take his guitar apart and figure out how it worked. He later was trained in building and repairing guitars by Gibson custom shop. This led Phil on a path that took him around the world more than twenty times as a guitar tech for many successful bands. As a young child with two brothers, two sisters and a mom who hated to cook, Phil decided to pick up her red and white plaid Betty Crocker cook book and figure it out. Because of this he gained a love for cooking. The feeling that he got when he was cooking was calming as he knew they were going to eat. Phil still gets this feeling and feels at home in a kitchen. This feeling drove him to work and learn with and from some really great chefs. Phil has never been to culinary school but has also been told he didn’t need to by chefs with respectable educations. Phil have moved on from the pizza shaped like South America that he made as a preschooler and has fallen in love with making beautiful and delicious art on the plate. Phil is always pushing for a higher level of cooking and can’t stand the feeling of failing to make himself better every day. Phil could be working on cars or building guitars or working many careers that pay much more but, he is happy in the kitchen. Phil belongs in a kitchen. And Phil is lucky enough to have a beautiful fiancé that wants him to do what he loves. They have a two year old daughter who is only interested in mac n cheese but he's working on her.