On behalf of myself, Ad Hoc chef de cuisine Dave Cruz, and our co-authors, I would like to thank the many colleagues behind the scenes who helped to make this book happen. First and foremost, the whole team of Ad Hoc have established a restaurant that has inspired the food in this book, a few of whom deserve special mention: Jeff Cerciello, culinary director for Bouchon; chefs Josh Crain and Jonathan Watsky; and, in the dining room, Nick Dedier. Chefs Brandon Olsen and Michael Kalhorn from Ad Hoc were instrumental in recipe development, testing, and photography. We’d like to thank our assistants, who help us to manage our busy days, Molly Fleming, Simran Winkelstern, and Kim Schager. Deborah Jones is grateful to her assistants, Jeri Jones and Gene Lee.
For the beautiful props for photography, we’re grateful to many companies. For the beautiful presentation pieces: Heath Ceramics, iLeoni, Match, Sagaform, and Vanderbilt & Co. For antiques: Heritage Culinary Artifacts and Sonoma Country Antiques. And for cookware, cutlery, and utensils: All-Clad, Berti, Cucina Pro, Cuisipro, Emile Henry, Kuhn Rikon, Rösle USA, and Staub.
The team at Artisan has once again pulled out all the stops to produce a book that I’m immensely proud of: Trent Duffy, Nancy Murray, Jan Derevjanik, Amy Corley, Erin Sainz, Barbara Peragine, and our fantastic copy editor, Judith Sutton.
Finally, I want to say a personal thanks to my book team. We have worked together now on four books and truly are a family. We love the process of making a book as much as we do holding the finished product. They are: Deborah Jones, our brilliant photographer, who brings the food to life on the pages; Susie Heller, Michael Ruhlman, and Amy Vogler, who pull together all our thoughts, from the recipes to the essays; the creative team of David and Joleen Hughes at Level Design; and, of course, my publisher at Artisan, Ann Bramson, who has believed in me for more than ten years.