Hari Pulapaka is the Executive Chef and Co-Owner of the highly acclaimed Cress Restaurant in DeLand FL. Hari is also a full-time, tenured Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Stetson University. Hari lives a full life driven by two full-time professions. As a chef, Hari received a classical culinary degree in 2005 from Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Orlando, has trained at Canoe in Toronto and opened Cress in 2008 with his wife Dr. Jenneffer Pulapaka, who is a podiatric surgeon with her own private practice The DeLand Foot and Leg Center. Jenneffer is also co-owner of Cress and is its Wine Director and General Manager. Cress was recently rated the #1 restaurant in the Greater Orlando area by ZAGAT for 2013. Hari is a three-time (2014, 2013, 2011) semifinalist for The James Beard Award for Best Chef South and a two-time (2013, 2012) nominee for Food & Wine Magazine's The People's Best New Chef.
Hari attended the first official James Beard Foundation Boot Camp in Louisville for Policy and Action as one of only 15 chefs nationwide and now serves on the advisory board of CAN (The Chef Action Network) which is supported by the James Beard Foundation. Hari has cooked at the prestigious James Beard House in New York City on four occasions. Hari was a 2013 invited participant on the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch Blue Ribbon Task Force. Hari is also a Certified Executive Chef of The American Culinary Federation and is working towards being an Approved Certification Evaluator (ACE).Hari received a Ph.D. in Mathematics from The University of Florida in 1995 under the direction of Professor Andrew Vince, an M.S.
in Mathematics under the supervision of Professor James Lawrence at George Mason University, and a B.Sc. in Mathematics from St. Xavier's College at the University of Mumbai. Hari is has published several original research papers in graph theory, number theory, and problem solving. Hari is in his 15th year at Stetson University and teaches a wide variety of courses in Mathematics at the undergraduate level.