Born and raised in Belgium and France, Raphael Francois studied hotel management and culinary arts, ultimately earning his Culinary Certificate. He began his professional career in the late 90’s working at several acclaimed restaurants in Brussels, notably Le Sea Grill, Comme Chez Soi and La Maison du Boeuf.

Eager to expand his culinary horizons, Raphael set his sights on France and held positions in Michelin starred establishments such as the Four Seasons George V and Hôtel de Crillon in Paris.

Returning to Paris in early 2006, Raphael worked closely with Hélène Darroze as executive head chef in her eponymous restaurant, Restaurant Hélène Darroze which has 2 Michelin stars, as well her other Paris projects. After several successful years alongside Darroze in Paris, Raphael relocated to London to take the executive chef position at the Connaught Hotel and the fine dining restaurant at the Connaught, which was awarded two Michelin stars in 2011.

In 2015 Raphael made the leap across the pond to take the helm of the iconic Le Cirque restaurant in New York, before moving to Washington DC in 2017 to open Le DeSales – his first restaurant as chef partner.  Continuing his journey west, Raphael opened his first restaurant in California, Tesse, in West Hollywood in June 2018 .

Mueller graduated with honors from both the Culinary and Baking & Pastry Programs at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. She returned to her home in Los Angeles, to work with Donald Wressell at The Four Seasons Beverly Hills and from there went on to work at numerous award-winning resorts and fine dining restaurants including The Wynn Las Vegas, Bradley Ogden at Caesars Palace, the Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort in Florida, the Hotel Bel-Air, the Ritz-Carlton Los Angeles and Jonathan Club. In 2015 she joined as the Culinary Institute of America Greystone in Napa Valley as pastry chef and baker instructor.

Sally has successfully competed in numerous national and international competitions. In 2011, she competed against 5 other pastry chefs and won the US national title for Valrhona C3 Competition.

The following year, she went on to represent the US at the Valrhona C3 World Competition in Spain during Madrid Fusion where she placed 3rd. To date, this is the highest level any US pastry chef has ever reached in this world competition. That year she also was named “Top 10 National Pastry Chef” by Dessert Professional. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and in 2011 she was a cheftestant on Bravo’s Top Chef: Just Desserts where she came out as a finalist and runner-up.

Julian Cox is widely viewed as one of the great culinary talents of Los Angeles. His work behind the bar earned him 3 consecutive James Beard nominations (2012-2014) for outstanding bar program for his trendsetting work at John Sedlar’s restaurant, Rivera. As Executive Director of Beverage for Sprout LA, Julian oversaw one of the largest restaurant expansions in LA history. Julian’s name is synonymous with renowned Chefs. He’s opened restaurants with Octavio Becerra, Nancy Silverton, Tim Hollingsworth, Ori Menashe, Walter Manzke, David Meyer, John Sedlar, and Doug Psaltis among many others.

His restaurant experience covers opening over 50 restaurants and bar concepts in 10 different cities across the US.
In 2015, he was named one of the 10 best bartenders of the past decade by Food and Wine magazine. He spent the next two years in Chicago at Lettuce Entertain You, studying under legendary restauranteur Rich Melman. At Three Dots and a Dash, Julian’s mastery of high volume tap cocktails earned him a nomination for America’s Best High Volume bar at Tales of the Cocktail in 2016.

In 2017, he moved to San Francisco to help Chad Robertson and Liz Prueitt attain their liquor license at Tartine Manufactory SF. He was tasked to open their San Francisco and SFO airport locations as well as project manage their openings in Korea. He recently oversaw the opening of Banc Of California stadium LAFC at The Fields in downtown Los Angeles, and now in addition to other ongoing projects around the US, Julian oversees the bar program here at TESSE.

With an esteemed career in hospitality, Jordan Ogron welcomes the opportunity to become a first time owner. Ogron began his career in the restaurant industry serving as the Wine Director for Rivera Restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. He was responsible for co-writing (with M.S. Steven Geddes), overseeing and developing the wine list, which was awarded with a “Two Wine Glass” Wine Spectator Award in 2012. After demonstrating his expertise in this area, Ogron was quickly promoted to Assistant General Manager. 

In 2009, Ogron was given the opportunity as a consultant to work as both Wine & Beverage Director and Director of Operations for Fraîche Restaurant in Santa Monica. Brought on to reinvent the restaurant’s rustic French and Italian market-fresh approach, Ogron delivered quality-focused results. Ogron created a Pre-prohibition, seasonal cocktail program and wrote a new wine list consisting of over 300 labels.

After his tenure at Fraiche Restaurant, Ogron spent three years at Fig & Olive in both New York and Los Angeles, working his way up from Floor Manager to Service Director for Fig & Olive Inc. Ogron also lent his expertise to the beverage program and was involved in all upper management beverage-focused decisions, acting as the Corporate Wine Director for the east and west coasts.

In late 2012, Jordan served as General Manager for Bestia DTLA.  He moved on from Bestia to become the Director of Food & Beverage at The Standard in Hollywood. His final tenure was with Hakkasan Group, where he was hired to resurrect a failing restaurant (Hakkasan Beverly Hills) and open a new restaurant (Herringbone Santa Monica) almost simultaneously for the company. Ogron left Hakkasan Group in September of 2016 to pursue his dream of becoming an Owner. That dream becomes a reality with Tesse Restaurant and Boutellier Wines.

William (Bill) Chait has been involved in the restaurant industry for more than 30 years during which time he has developed and operated over 20 highly successful restaurant concepts. In 2016, Chait joined the wildly popular Tartine Bakery as a managing partner and investor.  Through 2015, Chait operated as the founder and Managing Partner of Sprout LA, he was responsible for the development and the opening of several of Los Angeles' most exciting restaurants, such as Bestia, Petty Cash, Republique, Barrel and Ashes, Otium, Redbird, Sotto, Rivera and the Rose Café and Restaurant.

In 2010, he created the nationally acclaimed LA pop-up restaurant Test Kitchen, which pioneered an exciting new concept in dining featuring world renowned guest chefs and budding culinary talent. Tesse is his latest venture.

Chait and his restaurants have been featured in countless publications including, most recently, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Bon Appétit, Nation’s Restaurant News, Sunset Magazine, and Los Angeles Magazine. He is on the Advisory Board for OpenTable.  Chait attended the University of California, Berkeley and is married and lives in Los Angeles.