Renowned chef, author, and host Alex Hitz visited Columbus this October as the keynote speaker for the 2018 Columbus Botanical Garden Gala, bringing with him his new book, The Art of the Host. Mr. Hitz is recognized by the cosmopolitan elites as an authority on Southern-French cooking as well as event design and entertaining, and his impact on the hospitality industries has been nothing short of indelible.

By Scottie DeClue

Alex Hitz speaks the language of Southern-French cuisine, and he speaks it fluently. He has trained at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu en Paris, he has prepared meals for the Reagans and the royals, he writes, he reads, he shares and he has flare, and he is the “best host in the world,” according to the Wall Street Journal. When it comes to entertaining, Alex Hitz has literally written the book –two, actually. And this October, Mr. Hitz came to Columbus to debut his second publication, The Art of the Host, at the 2018 Columbus Botanical Garden Gala.

Southern at birth, Mr. Hitz learned the playbook of Southern hospitality while growing up in his Atlanta home, which his socialite parents often opened up to venerated guests. In his first book, My Beverly Hills Cookbook, Classic Southern Cooking With a French Twist, Mr. Hitz writes that Saturday lunch in his parents’ home might see the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Coretta Scott King, and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter enjoying a savory plate of the Hitz’s classic Chicken Country Captain, a mouthwatering Southern tradition that he says “is the perfect thing to serve when you’ve got lots of company.”

Lots of company –or comp’ny as they sometimes say down here– is a familiar occurrence for Mr. Hitz, as he is a champion of extravagant event design and coordination, services for which he lists on his website alexhitz.com and also talks about in his books. Often, he will even entertain at his own home. Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn writes in Departure that “He is the consummate entertainer… It is his role as host that Hitz inhibits most completely… he built his dream house in the Hollywood Hills overlooking the Pacific, complete with a state-of-the-art kitchen, where he regularly cooks from anywhere from 2 to 100.”

But Mr. Hitz’s childhood house in Atlanta and his current homesteads in Hollywood and New York are not where he founded his technique and passion for French gastronomie. That passion blossomed during his childhood while he spent the summers at his second home in the Dordogne departmentin southeastern France. Resting between the famous Loire Valley and the Pyrenees mountain range, Dordogne is a place well-known for its rich cuisine. Travel to the region, and one might fall in love with its famous delicacies like duck breast, foie gras, black truffles, cassoulet, cabécou cheese, and walnuts. A good study of the culture and taste of the regions, Mr. Hitz has captured the essence of the south of France and the southern United States, and brought the two together in a marriage that has produced a formidably distinguished flavor. Curious to meet the cosmopolitan behind the Country Captain, SVM spoke with Mr. Hitz about his books, his style, and his inspiration.

Alex, you were invited to speak at the 2018 Columbus Botanical Garden Gala. What did you share with your audience this year? I shared with this fantastic audience how it came to be that I to do what I do. It is a really outlandish and weird story, but it’s a lot of fun.

You’ve published one book, My Beverly Hills Kitchen. Now, you’re working on your second one, Art of the Host. Yes, my second book, Art of the Host, is coming out next year. The Wall Street Journal says I’m the “very best host in the world,” so we’re gonna’ show em’ how that’s done.

What’s the book going to be about? It’s a menu book. It’s like rooms-to-go for people who want to have guests at home. It’s what to serve for any occasion, and I’ll be giving readers the occasions and what to serve for them.

Your culinary style – it’s quite clear from your writing and your image that you really embrace your Southern heritage. When you cook at home for your private guests, do you explore other culinary styles? No. My schtick is classic Southern with French. That’s the language that I learned, and I speak it fluently, and I’m not going to go learn another language. Let other people do things that they can do better.

Hypothetical scenario: it’s a Sunday during late fall. And your friends are coming over for brunch, but you don’t have much time. What’s the meal that quick and easy to make that’s sure to impress your friends? You know, in my new book, there’s a section that refers to cooking for that particular occasion, which I refer to as the “B word” and use the letter B in quotations. Because I don’t love that word ‘brunch.’ So, in Art of the Host, there are almost twenty recipes that could be served for that ‘B’ occasion. If you want to have something that’s fantastic every single time, there’s a recipe from my first book that works great –it’s my French scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. Serve that, and everybody is gonna’ go crazy. It will knock them off their socks.

Speaking of French cuisine, you’ve spent a lot of time in France. My mother and stepfather bought a house in France when I was two years old. And every time that we had some time off from school, my mother would haul us over there. So, I grew up just as much in Europe as I did in America.

Where was that? What was it like? It’s the southwest part of France, called the Dordogne Valley. The food was so much different in those days than America –it was totally different. I remember the wonderful markets, and being able to go there and get anything. You know, the French would spend their days planning the next meal, so that was alway fun. They have this unique art of living, and they truly live their lives.

Some people compare cooking to a performance like a ballet, others call it artistic in nature. What’s your philosophy on cooking? What do you enjoy? To me, food is everything. It’s sociology, it’s culture, it’s history, it’s art, it’s any sort of creativity. And, it’s like music because it exists in time. So, if you’re having people for dinner, that’s like a performance that you’re starring in every single time.

ALEX HITZ