Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill

by Frank Stitt, Christopher Hirsheimer (Photographer), Pat Conroy (Foreword by)

Overview

SEBA Award Winner

SIBA Award Winner

R. W. Apple, Jr., of The New York Times credits third-generation Alabamian Frank Stitt with turning Birmingham into a "sophisticated, easygoing showplace of enticing, southern-accented cooking." His southern peers think his cooking may have a more profound sense of place than any of theirs. His food is rustic and homey, but sophisticated in method.

Now, Alabama's favorite son has written a long-awaited cookbook that features his enticing Provençal-influenced southern food. More than 150 recipes range from the traditional—Spicy Green Tomato and Peach Relish, Spoonbread, and Pickled Shrimp—to the inspired—Slow-Roasted Black Grouper with Ham and Pumpkin Pirlau and Pork Loin with Corn Pudding and Grilled Eggplant. Desserts such as Bourbon Panna Cotta and Sweet Potato Tart with Coconut Crust and Pecan Streusel elevate the best of the South for cooks everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579652463
Publisher:	Artisan
Publication date:	08/01/2004
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	632,304
Product dimensions:	9.38(w) x 11.38(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Frank Stitt is the chef and owner of Highlands Bar and Grill—which won the 2018 James Beard Awards for Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Pastry Chef—Bottega Restaurant and Café, and Chez Fonfon, all located in Birmingham, Alabama. He has won the James Beard Award for the Best Chef of the Southeast and has been inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who of Food and Beverage.” He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance for his elevation of Southern cuisine and his early advocacy of locally grown food. He is the author of Frank Stitt’s Southern Table and Frank Stitt’s Bottega Favorita.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Introduction	xii
	Southern Traditions	2
	A Little Something to Start ...	34
	First Courses	70
	Fish & Shellfish	128
	Farm Birds & Game Birds	166
	Meats	194
	Vegetables	232
	... And Something Sweet to Finish	274
	Basics	322
	Techniques & Tools	344
	Sources	352
	Recommended Reading	353
	Acknowledgments	354
	Index	356

Editorial Reviews

In this handsome book, Stitt offers the sort of food you want to make and eat right away: pork chops and brochettes with creamy grits and Maker's Mark bourbon sauce, lemon buttermilk chess tart with a cornmeal-flecked butter crust.
— The New York Times

Korby Cummer

"I have eaten at the Highlands Bar and Grill more than twenty times and have never had a single dish that was not superb," gushes novelist Conroy in his laudatory introduction to this sumptuous journey through one man's passion for fine food, dining pleasure and life's good stuff. The book bursts with mouthwatering recipes for Stitt's take on low country cooking seen through the lens of his Proven al training (he learned the latter at Alice Waters's legendary Chez Panisse in San Francisco). Throughout, Stitt, chef and owner of the Birmingham, Ala., eatery, preaches the gospel of using fresh ingredients. Exotic spices from Asia and the Middle East meet down home succotash and humble cornbread, bringing the food Stitt learned about at his mother's elbow firmly into the 21st century. Each main course recipe, from simple favorites (Flounder with Clam Chowder Sauce) to complex show stoppers (Quail Stuffed with Cornbread and Figs with Molasses Vinaigrette) is accompanied by a brief list of suitable accompanying wines. Christopher Hirshiemer's photos incite drooling, and the deluxe four-color printing throughout the book will beckon to the hungry. A restaurateur of estimable success, Stitt remains humble. He glories in nature's bounty and the talent of his mentors and employees, and generously shares it all in this marvelous book. (Oct.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Winner of a James Beard Award for Best Chef of the Southeast, Stitt has compiled an admirable collection of recipes, anecdotes, and memories that portray his passion for food and cooking. The third-generation Alabamian experienced a variety of cuisines and great restaurants through travels with his parents. While working for Alice Waters in Berkeley, CA, and Richard Olney in France, he developed his culinary skills and deepened his appreciation for fresh, local ingredients. He eventually opened Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, which for the past 20 years has served its devoted clientele a satisfying array of Southern dishes prepared with a decidedly French flair. These are clearly reproduced here with pairing suggestions for wines and beers and (often) with color photographs (not seen). The narrative is nostalgic and homespun. Recommended for larger public libraries and collections with a focus on contemporary Southern cooking.-Andrea R. Dietze, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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