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21-636: Stitt received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Foodways Alliance for his elevation of Southern cuisine and his advocacy for locally grown food . Stitt was born in 1954, grew up in Cullman, Alabama , and graduated high school in 1972. He began his studies at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts , then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley , as a philosophy major. It

42-928: A job as a sommelier at a wine shop and as a chef for the Hyatt House Hotel while teaching cooking classes privately. He was unable to persuade local banks to lend him money to start his own restaurant, so he turned to friends and family for assistance. His mother re-mortgaged her house to help out, and Highlands Bar and Grill opened in November 1982. In 1988, Stitt opened Bottega Restaurant near Highlands Bar and Grill, borrowing Italian cooking traditions as its staple. Both restaurants spawned more casual sibling establishments, Bottega Cafe adjoining Bottega, and Chez Fonfon next door to Highlands. Stitt's kitchens have directly influenced local culinary professionals, such as Chris Hastings , owner of Hot and Hot Fish Club. Stitt's activism on behalf of locally grown farm products has energized

63-485: A time when so many in the world went without. Even the Vatican and Pope Paul VI criticized it, calling it "scandalous." It was also noted that he and Franey ordered nearly every dish on the menu, but they took only a few bites of each one. Despite its scale and expense, Claiborne gave the meal a mixed review, noting that several dishes fell short in terms of conception, presentation or quality. Claiborne, who suffered from

84-480: A variety of ethnic cuisines – particularly Asian and Mexican cuisines  – at a time when average Americans had conservative tastes in food, and what little gourmet cooking was available in cities like New York was exclusively French (and, Claiborne observed, not terribly high quality). Looking to hold restaurants accountable for what they served and help the public make informed choices about where to spend their dining dollars, he created

105-508: The Atlantic Monthly , Corby Kummer described the SFA as: “this country’s most intellectually engaged (and probably most engaging) food society." Craig Claiborne Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 – January 22, 2000 ) was an American restaurant critic , food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for The New York Times , he

126-528: The University of Mississippi , where he majored in journalism and got his B.A. degree. Claiborne served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War . After deciding that his true passion lay in cooking, he used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend the École hôtelière de Lausanne (Lausanne Hotel School), located in Lausanne , Switzerland . Returning to the U.S. from Europe, he worked his way up in

147-465: The foodways of the American South . Member-funded, it stages events, recognizes culinary contributions with awards and a hall of fame, produces documentary films, publishes writing, and maps the region’s culinary institutions recording oral history interviews. The group has about 800 members, a mixture of chefs, academics, writers, and eaters. John T. Edge , a writer and commentator, has served as

168-406: The 1950s was largely targeted to a female readership and limited to columns on entertaining and cooking for the upscale homemaker. Claiborne brought his knowledge of cuisine and own passion for food to the pages, transforming it into an important cultural and social bellwether for New York City and the nation at large. Claiborne's columns, reviews and cookbooks introduced a generation of Americans to

189-584: The French-born New York City chef, author and television personality Pierre Franey . Claiborne was an advocate of a fad diet known as the Gourmet Diet . With Franey, he worked out two hundred low-sodium, low-cholesterol recipes for this diet. In 1975, he placed a $ 300 winning bid at a charity auction for a no-price-limit dinner for two at any restaurant of the winner's choice, sponsored by American Express . Selecting Franey as his dining companion,

210-593: The area's local food movement. His first cookbook , Frank Stitt's Southern Table , was a bestseller and was named "Best Cookbook" for 2005 by the Southern Booksellers Association. Southern Foodways Alliance Southern Foodways Alliance ( SFA ) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi , dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of

231-602: The director of the SFA since its foundation in 1999. A journalist, John Egerton , was one of the group's founders. In 2007, the SFA established the John Egerton Prize to recognize annually selected "artists, writers, scholars, and others—including artisans and farmers—whose work in the American South addresses issues of race, class, gender, and social and environmental justice , through the lens of food." John Martin Taylor

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252-541: The discovery of new talent and new culinary trends across the country and across the world. Among the many then-unknown chefs he brought to the public's attention was the New Orleans , Louisiana , chef and restaurateur Paul Prudhomme . At the time, few people outside America's Deep South had any awareness of Louisiana's Cajun culture or its unique culinary traditions . Along with chef, author and television personality Julia Child , Claiborne has been credited with making

273-535: The food-publishing business in New York City , New York , as a contributor to Gourmet magazine and a food-product publicist, finally becoming the food editor of The New York Times in 1957 following the Times' first food editor, Jane Nickerson . Journalism historian Kimberly Wilmot Voss said Nickerson had laid the foundation for modern professional food writing and that while Claiborne has been credited with modernizing

294-437: The four-star system of rating restaurants still used by The New York Times and which has been widely imitated. Claiborne's reviews were exacting and uncompromising, but he also approached his task as a critic with an open mind and eye for cooking that was different, creative and likely to appeal to his readers. Inspired by food writers including M. F. K. Fisher , Claiborne also enjoyed documenting his own eating experiences and

315-425: The often intimidating world of French and other ethnic cuisine accessible to an American audience and American tastes. Claiborne authored or edited over twenty cookbooks on a wide range of foods and culinary styles, including some of the first best-selling cookbooks dedicated to healthy, low- sodium and low- cholesterol diets. He had a long-time professional relationship and collaborated on many books and projects with

336-410: The profession, Nickerson had started down that path years before he was hired as her replacement. According to Voss, Nickerson "discovered" both Claiborne and James Beard . Claiborne was the first man to supervise the food page at a major American newspaper and is credited with broadening The New York Times' s coverage of new restaurants and innovative chefs. A typical food section of a newspaper in

357-474: The two settled on Chez Denis , a noted restaurant located in Paris , France , where they racked up a $ 4,000 tab (equivalent to $ 22,600 in 2023) on a five-hour, thirty-one-course meal of foie gras , truffles , lobster , caviar and rare wines. When Claiborne later wrote about the experience in his New York Times column, the newspaper received a deluge of reader mail expressing outrage at such an extravagance at

378-636: Was also a founding member. Current board members include Francis Lam and Rob Long . The annual Ruth Fertel Keeper of the Flame Award is made jointly by the Southern Foodways Alliance and the Fertel Foundation , and honors an unsung hero or heroine who has made a great contribution to food. The award was first made in 2000. The honoree receives a monetary award and a documentary film is made about them. Claiborne Award recipients: In

399-720: Was also the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography . Over the course of his career, he made many contributions to gastronomy and food writing in the United States. Born in Sunflower , Mississippi , Claiborne was raised on the region's distinctive cuisine in the kitchen of his mother's boarding house in Indianola, Mississippi . He essayed in premedical studies at the Mississippi State College from 1937 to 1939. Finding it to be unsuitable, he then transferred to

420-516: Was living in Provence and compiling a multi-volume Time–Life series on cooking. While there, he met other notable chefs and food writers such as Julia Child , Jeremiah Tower , and Simone Beck . He also took more menial jobs, such as grape harvesting, that would allow him to learn more about foods. After leaving France , Stitt worked in the Caribbean for a while before returning to Alabama. He took

441-468: Was through philosophical treatises on food by authors such as Richard Olney and Elizabeth David that he developed an interest in cooking. After graduation, he spent time in Europe. He tried unsuccessfully to apprentice himself to area chefs, until Fritz Luenberger brought him on at his Casablanca restaurant. Stitt worked in the kitchen at Alice Waters ' Chez Panisse . There he was introduced to Olney, who

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