Jeff Smith

Born

1939-01-22

Died

2004-07-07

Birthplace

Tacoma, Washington, USA

Biography

Jeffrey L. Smith (January 22, 1939 – July 7, 2004) was an American chef—known as The Frugal Gourmet—, television host, and author of various cookbooks. From 1965 to 1972, Smith was a chaplain at the University of Puget Sound. At the university, he taught a course called Food as Sacrament and Celebration. In 1972, he left the university to open and run Chaplain's Pantry Restaurant and Gourmet Shop, a deli and kitchen supply store in Tacoma, where, until 1983, Smith and his students offered cooking classes to the public. Smith began his television career in 1973 at KTPS in Tacoma on the show Cooking Fish Creatively, which ran until 1977. It was then renamed The Frugal Gourmet. Smith's wife Patricia has been credited with originating the nickname. His popularity soared after an appearance on The Phil Donahue Show. In 1983, Smith moved to WTTW in Chicago, which began national distribution in 1984. In 1991, Smith moved The Frugal Gourmet to PBS station KQED in San Francisco. The show aired for 11 seasons, with a total of 261 episodes produced. It was the most watched cooking show in the US; viewership in 1992 was 15 million viewers. In 1997, seven men filed a civil lawsuit against Smith, charging him with sexual abuse. Six of them alleged that they were molested as teenagers in the 1970s while working at the Chaplain's Pantry in Tacoma; the seventh claimed that he was assaulted in 1992, at age 14, after Smith picked him up as a hitchhiker. Smith denied the allegations, and no criminal charges were filed, but he and his insurers settled for an undisclosed amount in 1998. The litigation ended his television career, though he continued his writing and charitable work.