CAREERS: STAFF STORIES
Nessim Halioua
When people describe Ad Hoc as a "family-style" restaurant, they refer to more than the presentation of the food. For an employee like Nessim Halioua, Ad Hoc channels the food-centric family in which he was raised. Growing up in Virginia Beach with a mother from Tunisia and a father from Morocco, the dinner table was where Nessim's big Mediterranean family came together, all nurtured by his mother's Tunisian cuisine. And when he's enjoying the employee meal with the rest of the staff or sharing the restaurant's lovingly prepared daily menu with the guests, Nessim feels that same nurturing through food revived at Ad Hoc.
One of the original employees at Ad Hoc, Nessim moved to Yountville from San Francisco specifically to be part of Thomas Keller's newest Napa venture. Throughout college and afterwards Nessim worked with the elderly, teaching art classes in an assisted living facility. When he was ready for a change, the restaurant industry seemed like a natural transition: it gave him a chance to provide people with an escape from their daily lives. Nessim says that working at Ad Hoc lets him share in that escape - he wakes up excited every day to work with his colleagues, take on the new challenges that each service presents and most importantly, to share high quality food with enthusiastic guests. And he says that just like at home, at Ad Hoc everything happens around the table.
