As fashionable as it’s become to credit purveyors on restaurant menus, you might draw the line at plugging your grits man. But that’s what drew our attention to Anson Mills, the ne plus ultra of the southern staple. Unlike the grocery-store variety, Anson Mills grits (and their Italian cousin, polenta) are coarsely stone-ground, fresh-milled, and hand-mixed from organic heirloom corn in South Carolina. The result cooks up fragrant, creamy, and chewy, and since the “live” corn germ is not lost in the process, full of lovely fresh corn flavor. Charlie Trotter, Thomas Keller, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Bill Telepan, and Tom Colicchio are fans, as is Marco Canora, whose menu at Hearth gives Anson Mills a shout-out.