| Born | January 22, 1939 Tacoma, Washington |
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| Died | July 7, 2004 (aged 65) Seattle, Washington |
| Cooking style | Gourmet |
| Spouse | Patricia "Patty" Smith (1966- ) 2 children |
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Jeffrey L. Smith (January 22, 1939 – July 7, 2004) was the author of a dozen best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show which began in Tacoma, Washington around 1973 and aired on PBS from 1983 to 1997 (as produced by member station WTTW Chicago), and numbered 261 episodes.[1]
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Jeff Smith was born on January 22, 1939. He graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1962 and from Drew University in 1965. He started off as a United Methodist minister whose first food-related venture was the Chaplain's Pantry, a deli and kitchen supply store near downtown Tacoma, where he offered cooking classes to the public.
Soon after launching the show in Tacoma, he received a cooking show on a local PBS member station (KCTS) in Seattle. With an appearance on the Phil Donahue show in 1983 and a move to Chicago, his career took off.
Smith wrote many books about food and cooking, including The Frugal Gourmet (1984), The Frugal Gourmet Cooks With Wine (1986), The Frugal Gourmet Cooks American (1987), The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines: China, Greece, and Rome (1989),The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors: Recipes You Should Have Gotten from Your Grandmother (1990) and The Frugal Gourmet's Culinary Handbook: An Updated Version of an American Classic on Food and Cooking (1991), and many more that he wrote with his assistant Craig Wollam.
According to The Seattle Times obituary, Smith was known in the industry as a "food genius". Kathy Casey, the Times's food columnist said that "he knew more about food and culture than anybody I know in the food world." She also mentioned that Smith had been a generous philanthropist, donating both money and time to charitable causes and helping individuals get started in the food industry, even after his retirement. However, he was not without his critics. Chicago food and wine columnist William Rice wrote, "I've tried to cook his stuff, and let's say it was hit or miss. Some things worked and others didn't." A 1992 [2] Harper's Magazine article entitled "P.C. on the Grill" ridiculed him as condescending, ill-informed, and for "cloth[ing] consumption in piety." Smith reportedly wept on the air when discussing this article, which he called "so profoundly hurtful I didn't know what to do."
The theme music for The Frugal Gourmet was a portion of the famous Water Music by George Frideric Handel, specifically the Bourrée movement of the Suite in F major (HWV 348).
Smith met his wife, Patty, when he was a graduate theology student and she was a senior sociology major at Drew University in New Jersey.[3] They married in 1966 and had two sons.[3]
In 1997 seven men filed suit against Smith alleging that he sexually abused them when they were teens. Six of the plaintiffs alleged that the abuse occurred in the 1970's while they were working for Smith at the Chaplain's Pantry; the seventh plaintiff alleged that he was sexually assaulted in 1992 at age 15 while hitchhiking.[4][5] Smith denied the accusations but his alleged actions had been the subject of much talk around the city of Tacoma for years.[6] Smith was never charged with a crime but in 1998 he and his insurance company settled with the plaintiffs out of court a few days before the trial was to occur.[7]
Smith died in his sleep in July 2004 of natural causes. He had heart disease. He was survived by his wife Patricia, and sons Channing and Jason, as well as daughters-in-law Yuki and Lisa.[8]