At the height of Jeff Smith’s fame, seven million Americans tuned in to watch his cooking show, The Frugal Gourmet, and he’d sold about 12 million cookbooks. Then in 1997, he was sued by seven men who said that the celebrity chef and ordained Methodist minister had sexually abused them as teenagers.
Days before his case was set to go to trial, he settled with the plaintiffs for $5.5 million. It was, by today’s standards, a short-lived scandal that’s now being revisited in a new documentary series, I Bid You Peace. The series, named for Smith’s signature sign-off, draws on more than 150 interviews and takes an in-depth look at the disturbing allegations made against the celebrity chef.
“He was brilliant, kind, thoughtful,” John Evans, who knew Smith for 30 years, tells the New York Times. “And a monster.”
Here’s a closer look.
Who was Jeff Smith, of The Frugal Gourmet?
Jeff Smith was born in Seattle in 1939 and graduated from the University of Puget Sound, where he would become a chaplain and begin teaching a course called “Food as Sacrament and Celebration.” In 1972, he opened the Chaplain’s Pantry, a cafe that grew in popularity because of its eclectic fare.
The following year, he was asked to start a cooking show by the local PBS station. His big break came when he appeared on the hugely popular talk show, Donahue, after which he began filming in Chicago. It became one of the country’s most-watched cooking shows, and he sold millions of accompanying cookbooks.
In 1997, after the lawsuit was filed against him, PBS pulled all of his shows, and his cookbook contracts were canceled. Smith denied all the allegations and was never charged with a crime. He died in his sleep in 2004 at age 65.
What allegations were made against Jeff Smith?
In the early 90s, Smith paid a reported $3 million to Clinton Smith (no relation), who accused him of sexual abuse while working at the Chaplain’s Pantry. The secret deal was an attempt to buy Clinton Smith’s silence, but in 1995 he called a local radio show and accused the Frugal Gourmet of being “a pedophile.”
That accusation is what inspired George Heitman to come forward. He sued Smith in 1997, accusing him of using alcohol, threats, and physical force to coerce him into sex when he was employed at the Chaplain’s Pantry as a sophomore in high school.
“I felt very, very trapped. And very confused,” Heitman told the AP at the time. “It was a total nightmare.”
A few months later, six other men filed suit, including one who alleged that when he was 14, Smith picked him up while he was hitchhiking and molested him. Smith’s wife, Patty, was named as a co-defendant in the suits, which claim she knew about the assault and tried to conceal it.
How to watch I Bid You Peace
The series’ five episodes will go live on a dedicated website on Jan. 23. I Bid You Peace promises to shed new light on the case, featuring dozens of interviews and an in-depth look at court papers, revealing the accusations of violent sexual assault and rape, the Times reports.
