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

Southern Living, Nov 2004 by Jones, Scott

Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions From Highlands Bar and Grill BY FRANK STITT (ARTISAN, $40)

Some cookbooks are meant to inspire, while others are more instructive. Many simply take readers on culinary journeys. This cookbook manages to do all three. If this is your first introduction to Southern cooking, then you are in for a treat.

Those who know the subject well will immediately understand the significance of this cookbook as an exciting guide to some of our country's most tempting food.

Frank Stitt, a pioneer of fine Southern cuisine, manages to lay down on every page the philosophy he has perfected for more than 20 years in his Birmingham-based Highlands Bar and Grill. He believes that Southern cooking can be refined, exquisite, and soul-soothing-all at the same time.

Whether explaining the merits of freshly shelled butter beans and pink-eyed peas or paying homage to the local farmers and purveyors who've been an integral part of his success, this chef exudes an insatiable and infectious passion for Southern food that is sure to carry over into your own kitchen. -SCOTT JONES