James Beard winners maintain creativity, drive for excellence

If you’re from Birmingham, it’s hard to imagine a more famous culinary duo than James Beard Outstanding Pastry Chef winner Dolester, or “Dol,” Miles and chef Frank Stitt of Highlands Bar & Grill, also named this year’s James Beard Outstanding Restaurant.

The James Beard Awards are the highest culinary honors in the country.

Miles has worked with Stitt since 1982 and even after all these years, the pastry chef said some of her favorite parts of the job are, when she collaborates with Stitt in the kitchen trying out new seasonal ingredients, experimenting with innovative combinations and playing with taste. 

“[Stitt] comes in and tells me about something he had, and then we’ll try to put our spin on it, not make it exactly like that,” Miles said. “… He’ll go on and on about even a piece of ginger or something he had and about how it made this taste good.”

Together, they’ll create something fresh to add to the menu, she said, as another option to their already beloved menu and ever-changing seasonal dishes.

“It’s so exciting to work with [Stitt] and see him so excited. … It’s a lot of fun when he comes in,” she said. 

Chef Frank Stitt and his wife Pardis Stitt own and operate Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega and Chez Fonfon, with Pardis running the dining rooms in each of the restaurants.

Highlands Bar & Grill, which Stitt describes as a blend of country French and modern Southern cooking, has been nominated for the James Beard Award since 2009. As of 2018, the restaurant finally made it to the top. 

“We were so overjoyed [about Highlands]. I mean, it was about time,” Miles said, who was at the announcement ceremony in Atlanta with him. “…We knew he was going to get it, we just didn't know when.”

Miles, who is the executive pastry chef for all three restaurants, has been nominated for the Outstanding Pastry Chef Award for the last three years. 

Since she won in May, she said, not a lot has changed for her. She still gets to go in early in the morning with her team — which she thinks is “fantastic,” considering it’s “nice and quiet” and they don’t have to share the ovens when she makes deserts like her highly sought-after seasonal cobblers. One is her peach cobbler, which is served with buttermilk ice cream and tastes like “you’re just eating a fresh peach off a tree.” 

What has changed in the kitchen, she said, is the demand for her desserts.

“The most popular thing is the coconut cake, so yes, that production has really picked up — we can hardly keep up with it,” Miles said.

Previously, it was only on the menu at Chez Fonfon and in the Cafe at Bottega, but since the award, they’ve put it on the dinner menu at Highlands.

Receiving the James Beard Foundation Award, Stitt said, has brought a much broader awareness of all of their restaurants to people all over the country and an opportunity to share what they have created over the last 30 years. 

He added, “This inspires us to continue to raise our own expectations.”

Although there’s a fair chance that locals who have been to one of the Stitt restaurants have felt inspired to go to the others, people around the country are really starting to pay attention to his other two restaurants since the award, Stitt said.

This includes Bottega, which he said showcases “the Italian way” with pizza, pasta, seasonal vegetables, seafood and meats, as well as Chez Fonfon, which offers French cooking “in a true bistro atmosphere.” 

“It reignites a desire for people to come and experience us,” Stitt said.

Book a reservation online or by calling the restaurant at 939-1400. To learn more about Highlands Bar & Grill, visit highlandsbarandgrill.com.