From the restaurateur and television personality Alex Hitz comes this cookbook of more than 175 all-time favorite Southern dishes. In My Beverly Hills Kitchen, Hitz blends the home cooking of his mother’s Atlanta kitchen with lessons he learned from some of the world’s great chefs and hosts to come up with classic, satisfying comfort food.

These step-by-step recipes are so clear that anyone can do them. Hitz shows you how to prepare a meal for two or twenty and that quality is achievable on any budget. He reimagines best-loved dishes and adds that little something extra to make them more delicious than you ever dreamed possible. The twelve chapters include such signature recipes as Sweet Potato Vichyssoise, Cold Pea Soup with Mint, Scrambled Eggs with Caviar, Dorothy’s Baked Cheddar Grits, Millionaire’s Macaroni and Cheese, Salmon Pot Pie, Perfect Roast Tenderloin of Beef, Dorothy’s Fried Chicken, Salted Caramel Cake, Apple Pear Crumble, and Molten Chocolate Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream. There are also recipes and stories from Hitz’s famous friends who were known for their simple but fantastic food—Bill Blass’s Sour Cream Soufflé, Nan Kempner’s Bacon Sticks, Connie Wald’s Penne with Vodka Sauce, and Betsy Bloomingdale’s Peach Ice Cream.

Hitz suggests perfect menus for every season and will show you how to make every day a special occasion. He shares his secrets about entertaining, ingredients, and cookware that guarantee the best results and will make a difference as you become a great chef and host on your own.

Comfort food has never been this irresistible—or easy.



 

""It was love at first bite—with my first taste of Silver Queen Corn Pudding I knew Alex Hitz was a brilliant cook and knew I had to try everything in My Beverly Hills Kitchen. There are endless Southern cookbooks, but few really stand out. This one does. It’s Southern food on Alex’s terms, revived, revamped and revved up, grand old plantation recipes (plus a few newer creations) prepared to foodie-pleasing, haute cuisine specs. Charming and wonderfully opinionated, Alex supplies expert directions and expert advice on entertaining. Brought up in Atlanta, trained at Le Cordon Bleu, tested by the realities of restaurant cooking and now purveyor of prepared gourmet food, he takes us from Gruyère-laced Crab Tarts (no crab cakes here), lavish Millionaire’s Macaroni and Cheese and biscuit-crusted Chicken Pot Pie to Dorothy’s ambrosial Coconut Cake. Just promise to make the Corn Pudding first!""

   --Sybil Pratt, Bookpage, Top 10 Cookbooks of 2012