July 12, 2004

We bid him peace. Jeff Smith, better know as The Frugal Gourmet, died Friday at age 65. "He always worked under the premise that you could take the fanciest cuisine and if you dug hard enough you could reduce it to its peasant form .. When it was all said and done, the peasant form was the foundation of all cooking for him." His was my first favorite cooking show.
posted by Koko 20 years ago
  • So sad... I used to watch the Galloping Gourmet as a wee tyke, but Jeff Smith's preface on the culture and history of the food that he was cooking made me connect to food in a way that I never did before. He was a neat guy, not withstanding the accusations of molestation. I wish you peace.
  • He was kind of the Bob Ross of cooking. Just happily making little pictures on his own personal canvas. Oh, yeah. He had a better haircut, too.
  • The influence of this man, along with Julia Child and Jaques Pepin, on the culinary education of the United States can't be underestimated. I mean, you couldn't even buy (bad) french bread before these shows were popular - now you can get the best bread in the world if you live in a decent size city. Jeff Smith, as I recall, brought something new to the kitchen that Child and Pepin neglected, that is, culinary traditions other than generic french/continental.
  • I honestly think he opened the door for all of today's cooking shows. They went from the highly specialized, classically trained shows like Childs' and Pepin's to the more fun and down-to-earth shows now on Food Network. He made cooking seem fun and accessible, the way Carl Sagan did for astronomy and physics. I'd venture to say that Food Network wouldn't exist if not for The Frugal Gourmet.
  • It was a good show. *steps around 400 lb gorilla*
  • DE MORTUIS NIHIL NISI BONUM
  • I loved Jeff Smith as a child. He was one of the only deals in town and his food always looked good and simple. The molestation charges kind of soured me on him though. It's just so creepy.
  • So he was a big pervert who forcibly sodomized some young guys, am I right? But his food tasted good, and he was telegenic, so it's all ok.
  • So he was a big pervert who forcibly sodomized some young guys, am I right? But his food tasted good, and he was telegenic, so it's all ok. He was never charged, so for all any of us know, the accusations were false. Or does "accused" mean "guilty" in your book?
  • No, but when someone settles out of court, that tends to arouse my suspicions. Anyway, who says theres anything wrong with sodomy? Not me, I can tell you.
  • Yes.
  • The way those last two comments crossed over was a gas.
  • There are more reasons for settling out of court than guilt. The fact is, we don't know whether he did it or not.
  • Sodomy between consenting adults? Great. Sodomy with underaged kids...? Not cool. But as Koko states, we will never know if he did it or not.