Farmers Founding - The Founding Farmers Cookbook : 100 Recipes for True Food & Drink from the Restaurant Owned by American Family Farmers

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NEVIN MARTELL

I would like to extend my deepest appreciation to my wife, Indira, and my son, Zephyr, for their love, support, patience, and inspiration. Hugs and high fives to my familyWPM, Dad, Jo, Will, Flossie, Gus, Phin, Mummy, Big O, Maribeth, Yao, Leo, Yom, Jared, and Poppy, as well as all my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. A big tip of the hat to Dave Dunton at Harvey Klinger, Inc., for his hard work and help. And, of course, a huge thanks to everyone at Founding Farmers who answered my questions, let me get in the way while they were cooking, fed me, and gave me guidance throughout this projectespecially Jennifer Motruk Loy, Riva Warrilow, Julie Sproesser, Chef Joe, Jon Arroyo, and Angie Mauermann. An extra-special shout-out goes to Mike V. and Dan Simons for trusting me with their baby.

FOUNDING FARMERS

Making a cookbook is like building a barneveryone chips in. We embrace a practice called swarming, which is when assistance is needed, when extra hands get the job done, and when we come together to resolve a situation and then return to our previous objectives. Inspired by nature primarily, this tactic was used to make The Founding Farmers Cookbook a reality. Its about connection, collaboration, and synergy, and we recognize our swarmers, both in large and small roles, who are all an essential part of this book youre holding now.

At the top of our list of those to be acknowledged is North Dakota Farmers Union, for truly being our partner, our teachers, our inspiration, and the true original stewards of the land. We love having the farmers come to the restaurant when they do a fly-in and see what they have helped us to achieve. The best part is when they have a dish and it reminds them of something from home, from their farm, or from an old family recipe.

Our relationship with North Dakota Farmers Union started with Robert Carlson, currently President of the World Farmers Organisation, who helped bring Founding Farmers to life as an inspirational mentor, leader, and partner. His dedication to farmers and ranchers is in his blood, and it has guided nearly all that we do and offer through our restaurants from the beginning.

We are grateful for the guidance and support of Elwood Woody Barth, President of North Dakota Farmers Union, a true farmer, a leader, trusted to bring Founding Farmers to life and to uphold the mission and our grassroots philosophy to support the American family farmer and rancher.

Working with Woody and with us was Mark Watne, former staff executive director of North Dakota Farmers Union. Mark was our day-to-day contact and friend, helping us navigate and really understand the world of todays farmer. Thanks also to Anne Denholm for all of her assistance and coordination in making our cookbook a reality, and for providing us with the history books and insight into the farmers mission and work.

Chef Joe Goetze is our true friend, travel companion, and the culinary backbone of Founding Farmers. Patient and creative, Joe supports and knows everyone in each of our restaurants who sets high standards for the true food and drink that is center to our existence. Its hard to be in three places at once, but because of the talented and skilled members of the teams in the restaurants, he trusts and knows that our guests receive great food each and every time.

We are lucky to work with managing partner Mary Carter and appreciate her support and contributions to the cookbook. Mary is a go-getter and has taken Founding Farmerss notable success in our first couple of years to the extraordinary levels of where we are today. Her focus on operations and her love of being in the kitchen have helped to grow our brand in the best ways possible, and have built a strong menu that gets better and better all the time.

We are grateful for Angie Mauermanns attention to detail as keeper of our recipe archive. She is commended for her organizational skills, her responsiveness, and her patience, which carried through every aspect of the cookbook, including notes from her recipe testing.

Recipes have to be tested, and it was no small task for this book. Cheers to multiple hat-wearing colleague Valerie Zweig for helping to work through a number of dishes and variations so we could make them the best versions for your use. Her background in culinary arts was a great benefit.

Huge thanks go to our kitchen staff, from cooks to preppers, to bakers, dessert makers and, of course, our dishwashing team, who prove every day that a restaurant of our size and popularity can consistently deliver the best we have to offer. They exemplify our dedication to serving only fresh, American family farm-sourced foods that keep our guests coming back for more.

In our restaurants, our managers, servers, bartenders, swarmers, stockers, and front desk staff are our brand ambassadors, bringing the essence of Founding Farmers to life every day. We have some of the most loyal staff in the business, and they are dedicated to making the Founding Farmers experience truly memorable for every guest that comes through our doors.

We could not have made this book without the amazing talent of our friend and collaborator, Nevin Martell, whose humor, wit, way with words, and love of food made him the perfect person to capture our story and share it with you. He has been a joy to work with. Photographer Rene Comet has supplemented his words with beautiful images shot with the perfect set designs, accents, and perspective that we needed to match our recipes. Kudos to food stylist Lisa Cherkasky for her incredible and patient work on translating our recipes for the camera so that they perfectly match who we are, which should give you the confidence to use this book often.

We had no idea what we were getting into when we thought about making a cookbookwere restaurateursso we called on our industry colleague Julie Sproesser to help us figure it all out. With experience from time spent on other cookbooks, Julie was the project manager supreme and guided our every decision, from what to include in the book to how the recipes would be written. And, shes a fabulous cookshe did plenty of the recipe testing, helping our culinary team refine and tweak each recipe until it was perfect.

Helping Julie with the project management task was Jennifer Motruk Loy, guru of all things marketing for Founding Farmers. Jenns organizational wrangling of all the cooks in the kitchen and coordination of the creative elements and tasks from the writing to the photography, and through to graphic design and printing, set the foundation for the book in your hands.

Thanks also to Riva Warrilow, our all-things-marketing coordinator, for every bit of assistance and support she provided along the way. She demonstrates the swarming concept each day, and we are grateful.

And, deep thanks and appreciation of course goes to our amazing wives, Robin and Suzi, and to our children, Ali, Cole, Cooper, Oliver, and Finnley, who give us so much support as we immerse endlessly into our restaurants.

Finally, we owe huge thanks and appreciation to our guests, who are the reason we do what we do. We have been fortunate to live and work in the nations Capitol, but more importantly, since we opened in September 2008, we have had the pleasure to serve guests from all over the world and from close to home, sharing our farmhouse hospitality and our true food and drink. They teach us each day what true humility, generosity, service, and patience are all about, and we continuously strive to get better and better at what we do.

Cheers, and good eating.

MICHAEL VUCUREVICH AND DAN SIMONS
Partners & Founders