Author:Frank Stitt Availability:
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Editorial Review:
There are some places worth traveling to just for the food: Rome, Venice . . . and now, Birmingham, Italy. In this companion to his first, best-selling cookbook, the beloved Southern chef Frank Stitt travels to Italy and brings the best of Mediterranean cuisine back home. To Stitt's mind, the two regions--Italy and the American South--share commonalities. Both native cuisines have a tradition of turning humble ingredients--ground corn, bitter greens, cured pork, the daily catch--into poetry on the plate. And as the chef points out in his lively introduction to the book, this is elemental cooking based on the purity and simplicity of the freshest and finest ingredients. Yet leave it to Stitt to make Italian cuisine his own. "There's no Pompano in Venice, but ours, fresh from Apalachicola, fits into the cartoccio (Italian fish stew) perfectly; our Chilton County white peaches are squeezed by hand for a bellini; our wild Gulf shrimp, oysters, crab, and fish are easily a match for their Mediterranean equivalents," Stitt writes. This appealing new cookbook includes the best of the Southern-influenced Italian recipes he has served at his Birmingham, Alabama, restaurant Bottega Restaurant and Café, for the last two decades--the Tomato Chutney and Roasted Sweet Pepper Pizza, Lamb Shanks with Sweet Peas and Mint, and fabulous desserts including Zabaglione Meringue Cake. Accompanied by sweet recollections of his journeys to Italy, this inspiring and accessible cookbook proves once again why the novelist Pat Conroy calls Stitt "the best chef in America."
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0
Frank Stitt matches his previous standard:
I purchased 4 copies of Frank Stitt's Bottega Favorita: A Southern Chef's Love Affair with Italian Food as gifts for the holidays. I found myself resisting wrapping a copy because I was so caught up in reading through it! When I moved to Birmingham, Alabama, nine years ago, I found that Frank Stitt's Southern Table: Recipes and Gracious Traditions from Highlands Bar and Grill was a staple in kitchens of all of our friends. After eating at Frank Stitt's Highlands Bar and Grill, I knew why. He combines... more info
Perfect companion:
I'm a big fan of Frank Stitt's first "Southern Table" cookbook. Don't think that he is limited only to Southern dishes. His new book is a great companion to the first book and offers a fresh approach to classic Italian dishes. One of my top choices for best new cookbook of the year.
