Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes from the Highlands Bar and Grill FROM THE PUBLISHER
Frank Stitt's Southern Table features the distinctive recipes of one of America's most original culinary voices, an award-winning third-generation Alabamian whose travels around the world brought into focus the uniqueness of the food back home. Now, Frank Stitt has written a long-awaited cookbook featuring his enticing, Provencal-influenced southern food. More than 150 recipes range from the traditional -- Green Tomato and Peach Relish, Spoonbread, and Pickled Shrimp -- to the inspired -- Slow-Roasted Black Grouper with Ham and Pumpkin Pirlau, and Roast Fresh Pork Rack 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.
In addition to regional recipes executed with finesse, Frank Stitt's Southern Table profiles those people, places, and events that shape, and are shaped by, the culinary traditions of the South: an annual winter quail hunt amid the south Georgia pines; early-morning bartering among the produce vendors at the Alabama Farmers' Market; Buddy "the Watermelon King" Payton, who can read a watermelon the way a palm reader reads the lines of your hand; the laden farmhouse table Stitt sat at as a child. In personal essays -- and odes to favorite ingredients -- Frank Stitt's Alabama reveals itself to us. At Highlands Bar and Grill, Stitt embraces these southern traditions and blends them with worldly flavors and humble elegance. The result is food that no one anywhere can resist.
FROM THE CRITICS
Korby Cummer - The New York Times
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.
Publishers Weekly
"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.
Library Journal
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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