Alice Vol. 4 No. 2

on Julia Child before he was nominated on a
decade long streak for Best Chef in America.
For someone like Stitt to accomplish so
much on his own, he remains one of the most
humble people I’ve ever had a conversation
with (and I’ve never spoken to anyone more
decorated than him in the world of food).
His three restaurants create a sense of place
when you sit down at one of his tables, as if
he was sitting across from you like he was
with me. His eye contact is fixed on me when
he speaks, and he remains engaged with the
conversation.
“I want people to be
wowed by the sincerity, the
genuineness, the quality of
the food,” Stitt said.
You wouldn’t know unless you looked
at the top right corner of his menu for
Highlands that it changes everyday. The
typography of his menu and logo is simple.
Yet, it makes a bold enough statement for
someone like me who geeks out over fonts
to appreciate it. The font speaks a lot for the
restaurant's atmosphere. It’s classic and
whimsical. It’s reasonably priced for a nice
meal yet has the sense of exclusivity only the
best restaurant in America could give. The
details in the decor aren’t obvious to a naked
eye. The restaurant itself draws inspiration
from Creole and French artists. The walls of
the kitchen and private business area are still
intact from the 80s. There’s framed news
articles and shadow boxes of older menus
with detail right down to who the servers
were for the night.
“Birmingham is really a place where
I could take my California, French and
Caribbean influences here,” Stitt said.
“My mom took a second mortgage out on
her house to raise money, since I needed
investors to open the restaurant. Everything
I had was used equipment.”
The sincerity of Stitt and his staff is
enough to earn a spot as the Best Restaurant
in America. It took ten years of perseverance,
hard work and dedication climbing James
Beard’s list for the title to finally stick. If
there was one thing he wanted to strive
for in opening three restaurants, a James
Beard Award was never his end goal. It was
always about having the highest integrity as
a proprietor and chef.
“I want people to be wowed by the
sincerity, the genuineness, the quality of the
food,” Stitt said.
Behind a great man, is his two equally as
talented and hardworking women. If it wasn’t
enough to have a champion restaurant,
his pastry chef since the conception of
Highlands, Dolester Miles - known around
the restaurant as Dol - is a James Beard
winner as well. She began working along
Stitt with no prior kitchen training, just a
stellar work ethic and sweet tooth. In present
day, she bakes the purest coconut cake with
a crème pâtissière that I’m not ashamed to
say tastes better than my own grandmother’s
recipe.
“Dol didn’t have any cooking experience,”
Stitt said. “She helped us sew the curtains a
week before we opened.”
Though he’s humble, Stitt remains
confident in his recipe development. He will
not take credit for any measure of success in
his restaurants without mentioning his other
life partner who works just as hard behind
the scene: his wife, Pardis. Pardis has been
responsible for advancing the business
interests since their marriage began. He
says it’s frustrating when people credit his
success without mentioning her.
“If I were her I’d be so pissed off,” Stitt
said. “How dare you not acknowledge the
woman who’s been here the past 25 years
working equally as hard.”
He says he practices new recipes every
evening with his co-owner, as a great chef
should. His face lights up and his tone
changes when asked about Pardis.
“I owe it all to her.”
It’s no secret his productions of food are
sensational love letters to his wife, and that
is something even Walt Disney would be
proud of.
Alice Spring 2019 63