An appreciation of quality food started at a young age. Her father immigrated from China with his family as a young teen. Cerrissa’s grandfather worked in various Chinese Restaurants in NYC and always made cooking a part of family time. Along with her cousins, she would help their grandfather prepare meals. He never learned English and she never learned Chinese, so food was their way of communicating. Quality ingredients with little waste was one of the most important things he instilled in her. Poplar pays homage to his memory and ethos on food.

Cerrissa has a background in Government & Law, Interior Design, Tile, Personal Training, and Education. She has worked in DC restaurants on and off and is a certified cider expert.

Iulian Fortu is the Executive Chef at Poplar restaurant in Washington, DC. Iulian has a lifelong passion for food, which he loves to share with others through workshops, foraging walks, cooking classes, and private
dinners. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he spent a summer working at the acclaimed Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, where he acquired an in-depth knowledge of local ingredients and unique methods of food preparation. Iulian also trained at the Puglia Culinary Centre in southern Italy learning about and preparing foods from every Italian region. He has been a speaker and instructor for such organizations as the
Willowsford Conservancy, the Mycological Association of Washington and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. A professional forager, Iulian is purveyor to many notable fine restaurants in DC, including Reverie, Oyster Oyster, Bresca, and The Dabney.

Sam oversees production for ANXO Cider, a Mid-Atlantic based cidery making dry cider from apples the way winemakers make wine from grapes. Sam's ciders are naturally sugar-free and showcase the amazing fruit growing regions of the Mid-Atlantic, where he sources all of ANXO's fruit from. Sam is also an avid forager, collecting hundreds of pounds of wild mushrooms annually with his daughter Willow and dog Tavi. Though he is not a Chef, Sam has showcased phenomenal ingredients throughout his two decades in the restaurant industry, and now oversees operations for Poplar, a foraged-focused restaurant that opened in Washington, DC this year under forager and Chef Iulian Fortu.