Little did Frank Stitt know when he was cooking in the south of France in 1978 and falling in love with just harvested vegetables, tapenades, and aïolis, that he would return home to Alabama to change the culinary landscape of the South. As one of the first chefs to reverently elevate Southern staples with refined French techniques, Frank’s kitchens became incubators for an armada of acolytes who continue to keep Birmingham bellies full of buttery grits and joie de vivre.