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Jeffrey L. "Jeff" Smith (January 22, 1939 – July 7, 2004) was the author of several best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show which began in Tacoma, Washington in 1973 as Cooking Fish Creatively and later moved to WTTW in Chicago, and Natan Katzman's A La Carte Communications, where it aired nationally on PBS from 1983 to 1997.
Over the course of his career he published numerous best-selling cookbooks, 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), The Frugal Gourmet's Culinary Handbook: An Updated Version of an American Classic on Food and Cooking (1991), and others, written with his assistant Craig Wollam.
Smith was regarded as a "genius" by some, and a "tyrant" by others.Blake, J (10 July, 2004). Jeff Smith, 1939 - 2004: "Frugal Gourmet" was popular on PBS. Seattle. Retrieved 15 October, 2013. Kathy Casey, a Seattle Times'' food columnist and longtime friend of Smith's, described him as a knowledgeable and generous man who "...knew more about food and culture than anybody I know in the food world." She said he donated both money and time to charitable causes and helping individuals get started in the food industry, even after his retirement.
Smith also had his share of detractors. Irena Chalmers, a faculty member at the Culinary Institute of America and president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals, once described him as "the Frugal Gourmet, who is neither".Critics Turn Up the Heat Over Frugal Gourmet's Style, Endorsements : Cooking: TV host Jeff Smith lambasted by food aficionados who say recipes aren't his--and aren't affordable. The popular author bites back (23 August, 1992). Los Angeles Times archive. Retrieved 16 August, 2013. Chicago Tribune 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." Newsweek writer Laura Shapiro criticized him as "a prime example of prominent cooks who may compromise their integrity by being paid to recommend food products and kitchen ware." She cited The Frugal Gourmet Whole Family Cookbook as "...especially shocking ... the cookbook as infomercial". In a 1992 Harper's Magazine article, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison ridiculed him as "...a purveyor of patronizing poppycock ... conveyed with the kind of mock anger that is always a mask for real anger." Smith brushed aside such criticism: "Not many people read Harper's," he said. "That's a very small audience." He continued, "People criticize me for enjoying good food when I use the word frugal. Frugal doesn't mean cheap. It means you don't waste your money. They haven't read my books. They don't know the meaning of the word."
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