Maybe it was all the years apprenticing in the kitchen under her mother, aunts and grandmother. Or, perhaps it was winning the presidency of her home economics club. Or family trips where she often tried new foods. Yes, yes and yes. B. Smith, or Barbara Smith, says everything she did has had an effect on who she is today—restaurateur, author, furniture designer and multimedia queen.
It all started shortly after moving to New York in 1969 to become a model; the western Pennsylvania native began throwing dinner parties. "Everything my mom made at home, I made in New York. But the city also expanded my taste for food. I would go to the Lower East Side for Indian food and Japanese food. I sampled so many different foods from different countries, but the mainstay of my cooking was American cuisine done with a southern twist."
Her recently released third cookbook, B. Smith Cooks Southern-Style, features some of those traditional southern recipes remixed into lighter, healthier fare. The first African-American woman to grace the cover of Mademoiselle magazine and one of America's most celebrated non-professional chefs, Smith has made it look easy. But it hasn't been.
"When I first got to New York, I would eat out alone a lot and wouldn't get treated the same way as when I was with other people. It was the same early on when I wanted to get in the restaurant business. I was a woman in a male-dominated industry," she said.
"So I asked an acquaintance to work in his restaurant opening day. I wanted to learn the business. I didn't go to culinary school. I wanted to see the front of the house and understand the back of the house. I modeled in the daytime. I realized the kitchen wasn't the place I wanted to be. Anyone who wants to open a restaurant should get as much education as you can. It looks a lot easier than it is."
After opening her first restaurant in 1986, Smith said the initial months were tough. Time not spent honing in on the New York restaurant's look and feel and the taste of the food to hiring the right people, helping out when the staff was shorthanded and, when necessary, playing cop.
"This area was the avenue of lost souls, filled with pimps and prostitutes and people on drugs," she said. "I had to be tough but gentle enough to tell them they can't be here. One time I saw a person take a painting out of the men's room and I went after him."
Things are much better now. With her husband as her partner, Smith expanded to include two more restaurants— Long Wharf in Sag Harbor, N.Y., and Union Station in Washington, D.C. First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have dined at the D.C. outpost.
"I met my husband in the first restaurant. Having him as a partner has helped because you can't be in all the restaurants all the time," said Smith, who has included the recipes for popular items in the restaurants into her new cookbook. "Because I was a model and loved food, I had to be cognizant of food. Therefore, with the cookbook, I want to accommodate people's diets."
Smith began offering healthier fare years ago, with a tofu-based rib paired a Vidalia-onion barbecue sauce in the D.C. restaurant. The cookbook also features unique recipes such as root beer pulled pork and Swamp Thang (crawfish, scallops, fish, on a bed of collard greens with Dijon mustard) as well as foods (jerk grits, grilled okra and tomato salad) that pay homage to her Southern and Caribbean cuisines, her favorites.
Next on the horizon for this busy entrepreneur is a Florida vacation. But true to her entrepreneurial roots, it won't be all fun in the sun. "My husband and I are going for a vacation, but will have our eyes open for a restaurant location, possibly somewhere around Palm Beach."
To learn more about B. Smith, her restaurants, books and home collection, visit www.bsmith.com.
