MEET OUR CHEFS

Resort Executive Chef

Executive Chef Ramesh Kaduru joins Omni Hotels & Resorts after a rich tenure with The Ritz-Carlton Company, most recently as executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta. Chef Kaduru spearheaded the culinary program at several of Florida’s most prestigious resorts. Prior to joining The Ritz-Carlton, Atlanta, Chef Kaduru was executive chef at The Ritz-Carlton, Coconut Grove and led culinary teams at The Ritz-Carlton, South Beach and The Ritz-Carlton Resorts of Naples. Chef Kaduru has also held positions at The Ritz-Carlton, Aruba and The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain. Born and raised in India, Chef Kaduru holds a diploma in Hotel Management & Catering Technology, as well as a Bachelor of Science from S.V. University in India.

Chef Kaduru oversees the culinary operations at the resort’s nine exceptional dining experiences, also infusing his unique background and Indian cooking traditions in the resort’s wedding and event catering menus.

Resort Executive Chef

A 25-year hospitality veteran, Chef Ash’s diverse background includes training at L’Ecole Du Grand Chocolat in France and the International School of Confectionary Art in Maryland. His 20+ years of experience include, Executive Chef of Milwaukee’s historic Preferred Hotel, The Pfister, as well as Executive Chef/Director of Food and Beverage of the InterContinental Milwaukee and Executive Outlet Chef at the esteemed Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, rated Five-Star by Forbes and Five Diamond by AAA. Prior to that, Chef Ash worked at Parian Restaurant in the Regent International Hotel and for three-star Michelin Chef Jean Louis Palladin at Napa Restaurant in the Rio Suites Hotel of Las Vegas. 

Known for his culinary excellence and openness to innovation, Chef Ash has also consulted for the Harmon Nicolas Restaurant Group through the company Elements of Design—a company with an ultra modern twist on dining concepts.

Chef Ash is an incredible talent who brings with him unparalleled knowledge of the industry. With excellence being the only expectation facing Chef Ash, he has been empowered to build a menu that has no boundaries or nationalities, but driven by the complexity of tastes and the depth of the palate.

Executive Sous Chef

Under the helm of Executive Chef Robert Ash, Chef Anthony Burdo assists in leading the culinary team for seven on-site dining experiences as the executive sous chef of Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. With 15 years of diverse culinary experience and extensive scholastic training from The Culinary Institute of America and Johnson and Wales University, Chef Anthony Burdo brings unparalleled talent to the team.

Prior to his position as executive sous chef, Burdo served as senior sous chef at Marriott Orlando Airport Lakeside, where he was responsible for all six food outlets and more than 30,000 sq. feet of convention space. Burdo began as a member of the opening team with Orlando World Center Marriott, gaining progressive employment as assistant sous chef, specialty restaurant chef and ultimately serving as senior sous chef over Ristorante Tuscany and Siro Urban Italian Restaurant. He completed a strenuous 10-week culinary manager training program at Atlanta Marriot Northeast and prior to that he served as sous chef for Fish in Charleston, SC.

Chef Burdo obtained his A.A.S. in Culinary Arts and his Bachelor of Science in Hotel-Restaurant/Institutional Management from Johnson and Wales University in 2001 before furthering his culinary education at The Culinary Institute of America. However, Burdo started his unofficial culinary career at a young age, inspired by his grandmother—a native of Campobasso, just outside of Naples, Italy—as he watched her prepare fresh made pastas, meatballs and sauces. The belief that food should be prepared simply, from scratch and fresh daily from garden to table, was instilled early and inspires him still today.

Executive Sous Chef, Restaurants

Chef Christopher McDonough, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu, began his culinary career at the Swan and Dolphin Resort in Orlando, where he held various positions including executive chef of II Mulino New York Trattoria and Todd English’s Bluezoo, winner of the AAA Four Diamond award. During his career, Chef McDonough traveled to Brazil to work alongside world-renowned 2-Michelin star Chef Alex Atala and Chef Geovane Carneiro, to fine tune and hone his skills. Aside from cooking, chef McDonough is an avid reader and enjoys racing cars and motorcycles at various circuits worldwide.

 

Chef McDonough serves as executive sous chef over the resort’s restaurants.

Restaurant Chef, Zen

Chef Joseph Berta began his career in the culinary arts at a young age. He developed his passion for cooking at home, cooking for his family and friends. Joseph attended Johnson & Wales University. He obtained both an Associate's and Bachelor's degree in the field of culinary arts and continued his professional training at the five-star Best Western Hotel in Dortmound, Germany and 400-seat Luisenhof Restaurant in Dresden, Germany. 

Returning to the United States, Chef Berta assisted the Harper's Group in the opening of M5 Modern Mediterranean, an upscale open kitchen restaurant in Charlotte, NC. He then decided to advance his career in the hotel sector and began at the Eden Roc Beach Resort in Miami Beach. He was selected to open the new restaurant - The Burlock Coast Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, which set the new standard of hotel restaurants in the Ritz-Carlton brand.

 

Chef Berta currently oversees Zen Restaurant at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate.

David's Club Chef

Chef Kip Thornsbrough grew up on an agricultural farm in central Illinois. His journey began in 2001 when he enrolled in Scottsdale Culinary Le Cordon Blue.

From the mountains of Idaho to Lake Tahoe, he spent years as a sous chef at Caesars Casino Resort Lake Tahoe and transitioned to Food and Beverage Manager for Caesars Mount Bleu Casino Resort and eventually extended his culinary talents to the next level at Elegant Affair Catering.

In 2012, Kip joined Horizon Casino Resort as executive chef. There he brought his exquisite palate and creativity to everything he touched. In 2016 he was selected to be the executive chef for the Overland Restaurant, a farm to table restaurant with a deep local association with producers and farmers.

In an effort to move closer to family, Chef recently joined the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate team. He believes the most flavorful cuisine is made simply from your heart with the best quality products and he considers it part of his job to inspire and educate every culinary enthusiast about the bounty that surrounds them. 

ZEN Restaurant Chef

Chef Masashi Innami has studied traditional and non-traditional Japanese cuisine for more than 20 years. Early in his career, he volunteered at a Tsukiji fish market in Japan to learn the different species of fish and how to handle each fish properly. Chef loves working in all areas of the kitchen but his specialty is the art of sushi and Izakaya style of cooking, which is a wide variety of menu items, masterfully prepared and served at a slower pace.

For seven years, he was sous chef at Gaylord Palm's Sora. He was most recently Assistant Head Sushi Chef at Morimoto Asia located in Disney Springs. Chef has also consulted in the opening of three local Sushi restaurants.

Restaurant Chef, David's Club

Chef Richard Assaf has more than 18 years of experience, studying French culinary at Sagesse University, in Beirut, Lebanon and culinary courses with Michelin star chefs, Joel Robuchon and Alain Ducasse, in France.

 

Chef Assaf spent six years as the executive chef for the five star restaurant, L’avenue du Parc Restaurant & Lounge in Lebanon. He specializes in fine dining, cooks everything from scratch and focuses on proper cooking technique, taste and presentation. Chef Assaf has traveled and worked in many countries to broaden his culinary experience.

 

He currently serves as the restaurant chef at David's Club.

Resort Restaurant Chef

As Resort Restaurant Chef with Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, Chef Robert Gioia is responsible for successfully running three onsite dining outlets, Trevi’s Italian Restaurant, Piper's Grille at the ChampionsGate Golf Clubhouse, and Croc’s Poolside Grill. During his five years at the resort, Chef Gioia has proven to be a valuable asset to Omni Orlando, bringing 18 years of extensive culinary experience and innovation to the team.

Prior to his role as restaurant chef de cuisine with Omni Orlando, Gioia was hired as sous chef for the grand opening of Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. During his 11-year tenure with Gaylord Palms, Gioia was promoted to executive restaurant chef and ultimately, general manager for three, high-volume, onsite dining outlets. After his time with Gaylord Palms, Chef Gioia made the daring decision to open his own restaurant, Alfresco, a Mediterranean style restaurant in the Winter Garden, FL area. Robert actively served as owner, operator and executive chef of Alfresco for nearly two years and still maintains his partnership with the restaurant he helped build from the ground up.

Chef Gioia started his career at a young age as a dishwasher and quickly was promoted to head cook by the age of 16. He obtained his Associate in Culinary Arts in 1991 from Schenectady Community College before working with Walt Disney World Resort for eight years as line cook and junior sous chef. Robert pursued his culinary education studying and crafting his skill in Venice, Italy. Chef Gioia always enjoyed how good food made people happy and promoted family-fun gatherings within his own household. His passion for serving others, creating, learning and leading, inspired him to become the chef he is today.

Sous Chef

Bravissimo (exceedingly well done) is something we’ve come to expect from Chef Luca Sterpetti, as he puts his heart and soul into his work at Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, serving as sous chef of Trevi’s Italian Restaurant and Croc’s Poolside Grill. Chef Sterpetti brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table, especially in regional and creative Italian cuisine, and is valued for his energetic and motivated “team-player” attitude.

With more than 20 years of extensive experience in the food industry, Chef Sterpetti started his culinary career in California restaurants from 1994-1999 as line, sous and specialty chef. More recently, Sterpetti served as banquet and buffet sous chef for Rosen Center Resorts, supervisor and manager of Mama Della’s Ristorante within Portofino Bay Hotel and chef of Terra Mia Italian Restaurant and Pizzeria in the Orlando and Lake Mary, FL area.

Inspired at a young age by his grandmother’s home cooking, Luca decided to pursue culinary education in Italy, where he was Certified in Chef de Cuisine and obtained his diploma in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Istituto Alberghiero ‘Celletti ‘Formia, Italy. Chef Strepetti enjoys exploring international cuisines from around the world and loves a good glass of wine but, interestingly enough, says his passion is ice cream (we’re sure many would agree)!

Banquet Chef

As banquet chef for Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate, Chef Jason Carr spearheads the food and beverage operations for nearly 129,000 square-feet of meeting and event space. Joining Omni Orlando earlier this year, Chef Carr brings more than 12 years of culinary experience to the banquet team.

At age 15, Chef Carr embarked on his culinary career serving as line cook at Marriott Wentworth by the Sea in Newcastle, N.H. From there, Chef Carr attended The Atlantic Culinary Academy in Dover, N.H. before continuing to grow as a line cook and saucier for Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin, The Peabody Hotel, Ritz Carlton Grande Lakes and Rosen Center Hotel in Orlando from 2003-2009. In 2009 Chef Carr was promoted to banquet chef at Waldorf Astoria and Hilton Bonnet Creek, Orlando and continued to serve as banquet chef for Hilton San Diego Bayfront before joining the Omni Orlando culinary team.

Food has always been a passion of Jason’s as he started cooking at a young age with his grandmother. Interestingly enough, this passion compelled Jason to travel across the country and to places such as Hawaii, Sicily, Ireland, Tunisia and Amsterdam, in pursuit of discovering different types of cuisine and cooking styles and to compete in several American Culinary Federation sanctioned cooking challenges.

Resort Tournant Chef

A four year Omni Orlando culinary veteran with a dedication to cultivating exciting culinary experiences, Zachary Barnes serves as the resort tournant chef, where he assists in the culinary operations of all seven food and beverage outlets at Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate.

Chef Barnes started his tenure at Omni Orlando as the banquets hot-side supervisor and as Trevi’s evening supervisor before being promoted to banquet sous chef and finally, resort tournant chef. Barnes started his culinary career as a pizza cook, garde manager, sauté cook and catering sous chef at Fratello’s Waterfront Restaurant in Milwaukee. From there, he continued to progress as the cook for in-room dining, café pfister and pfister banquet kitchen for the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee before joining the team at Omni Orlando.

Outside of the kitchen, Zachary enjoys gardening herbs, vegetables and flowers and is a coffee fanatic, roasting his own beans. His hobbies are natural segues from his passion for food, as Chef Barnes enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, getting lost in the creative process and seeing guests enjoy his finished product.

Zen Restaurant Chef

Growing up in the small Province of Cheng du China, Tang credits his success from early childhood experiences with his mother Wang, who taught him the true meaning of Sichuan family style dishes, from wok fried whole Basa fish with aged salted black beans, to slow roasted crispy pork belly with crushed Sichuan peppercorns.

As Tang entered his culinary career with Zen at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in 2004, he asked to design all of the custom wok stations to fit him and his team. Tang made sure that from start to finish, the design was suitable enough to execute and achieve the highest level of quality. To this day, he still only produces dishes from his wok pan custom made 10 years ago. Tang swears that “all of his dishes taste better” coming from that specially made piece of equipment.

Honoring the ingredients has always been a focal point in his culinary upbringing, sourcing only the best products from around the country. Chef Tang travels to his hometown in China twice a year to bring back “must have” traditional ingredients to share with eagerly waiting Zen customers. His passion to share recipes and stories of his childhood echo throughout the restaurant. One story depicts a master chef of a local restaurant kitchen in his neighborhood who caught a 10 year old Tang sneaking sweet and sour spare ribs. As it turns out, that person, Chef Zhang, gave Tang some amazing advice about going to culinary school to help unlock his hidden talent and sharpen his culinary skills, and that one day he should travel to the United States.

Tang continues to marvel people with his simplistic approach to traditional Sichuan cooking, from sweet and sour to hot and spicy, he touches all parts of the palate to create harmonized balanced dishes. Every dish that Tang serves not only honors the people of Cheng Du China but more importantly Master Zhang and of course his Mother Wang.