Meet Chef Truss

Chef and Owner Mike Truss has had lifelong ties to the "field fresh" culinary concept. In his youth, he spent a good amount of time on his grandfather’s local vegetable farm. The farm, names Truss Farm and located on Pine Street in Plantsville, had 5 greenhouses and produced 5,000 pepper plants, 5,000 tomato plants, as well as dozens of other plant varieties. In his youth, Chef Mike would help his grandfather prepping fields, maintaining buildings, growing seedlings, planting, picking, and delivering veggies and flowers. Thanks to these early experiences, Truss has carried a deep and personal appreciation and understanding of the labors that go into quality produce.

Truss attended Newbury College in Boston, Massachusetts and received his degree in culinary arts. He continued to pursue his passion after college, and worked under some of the most talented chefs in Boston. He then relocated to Sonoma California where he worked as a banquet chef. It was here he solidified his culinary focus on the relationship between farmer and chef. This decades long journey resulted in exquisite, local, responsibly sourced catering and cuisine.

Truss returned to Connecticut in 2004 where he worked as an executive chef throughout the state. When opportunity arose, Truss purchased the Plantsville Napoli Deli franchise and brought his own twist to the classic Italian deli.

Now Truss is taking his second dive into restaurateur with Craft Kitchen. He goal is to replicate the classics of lunch, pizza, dinner, and catering with a field fresh, cooked from scratch philosophy.