Jeff Smith, the host of the popular The Frugal Gourmet snuffed it on Wednesday due to a heart ailment. He was 65.
A shame his last few years were clouded in controversy.
Indeed. I always enjoyed his show, and it’s a shame he fell into disgrace. Maybe he deserved to be disgraced; but I still liked his show.
I remember seeing his show when I was a lot younger, usually while waiting for Justin Wilson’s Louisiana Cooking to come on. What disgrace are you guys referring to? I don’t remember any kind of controversy, but I was tuned out with no TV for a couple years.
He was accused, but never convicted, of inappropriate behavior with underage boys.
IIRC, he settled out of court.
It’s hard to believe he was only 65. I thought he was 60 twenty years ago.
Wow. Too bad. I used to watch his show with my mom when I was very young–around 5 or 6. When I saw the thread title, my first reaction was, “well, we all have to go sometime,” thinking he was over 80. I didn’t realize he was so young.
I remember that my sister as a toddler used to sit and be fascinated by him, for some reason. I don’t know WHY, you’d think it would be boring, but she loved it.
Me too. If he was only 65 now, that means that when I started watching him, he was only about as old as I am now.
I need a drink.
I heard the story on NPR on the way home. Maybe I mis-heard? Nope. He really was only 65.
My wife and I were big fans of his PBS show (I’m pretty sure I’ve still got a bunch of them on tape somewhere in my collection) and I’ve got most of his cookbooks. I remember when he went off the air because of the scandal, and wondered what had ever happened to him.
And I was also surprised at his age; I had thought he was in his sixties when he was doing the TV show.
He was the Mr. Rogers of TV cooks. Very nice, frequent guests, but no puppets.
Except for when Elmo dropped by, that is.
I hope he’ll be buried in a place of honor next to Julia Childs.
Don’t tell HER that - she’s not dead yet!
He nearly ran me down once while speeding through the Pike Place Market on one of those electric scooters that handicapped folks use. This was in '98 or '99, so I guess he’d been in less-than-great shape for a while.
I used to watch him all the time and have all his cookbooks. I stopped watching when he started bringing all these kids on to the show to cook…something about the way he talked to them was stagey and forced, and the recipes weren’t as interesting. Soon after that the scandal started, but that was around the time that everyone was accusing everyone else of sexual abuse, and for some reason I got it in my head that one of the kids from the show had accused him. I thought it was all so very sad. I still use a lot of his techniques and recipes, and my mother really loved the show back in the days when he emphasized the Frugal part more than the Gourmet part.
A sad loss indeed. I use his cookbooks regularly, especially Our Immigrant Ancestors and THree Ancient Cuisines.
I will make some of his guacamole in his honor for lunch tomorrow.
Too bad. I genuinely enjoyed his show, especially in those years when not many good cooking shows were aired. He really filled a niche for creative, “do-able” recipes, geared toward honest ingredients and basic techniques. I still think of his “hot pan/cold oil” adage for making cast iron nearly nonstick. He also seemed to have so danged muchfun futzing around in the kitchen. I could be way off base, but he was the first TV chef I remember going to farmers’ markets, mom 'n pop ethnic restaurants, etc. to demonstrate the possiblities.
I also really, really liked his overall ethic of food: use the best fresh ingredients you can, humble food can be good food, and sharing food with others can make the humblest fare taste even better. Dining as sharing bounty instead of showing off.
The scandal was troubling, much less reports of less-than-gracious behavior behind the scenes. It could just be that he was much better at cooking than being a personality. I have no idea how much, if any, of it was accurate. He gave me some valuable insights into treating food and guests respectfully, so that’s ample reason to be grateful for his life.
Veb
I, too, grew up with his show. I had one or two of his books, and mimics his style of cooking, which is not really a style, per se, but just how he cut veggies and laid out his ingredients ahead of time. To a young bachelor who didn’t pay enough attention to what mom was doing in the kitchen, he was a godsend. I’ll miss him.