When I first met Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, it was winter

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, February 4, 2009

When I first met Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet, it was winter at the Pike Place Market and we were both angling for the best avocados. I asked him about mandarin oranges and he snapped at me, shattering my childhood impression of him I had developed watching his show every Saturday afternoon. Say what you will about Mr. Smith (and it better have the word ‘allegedly’), but not many other cookbooks other than perhaps the Joy of Cooking itself have as high a percentage of recipe success. I was reminded of this last week, having whipped out his green chile pork stew, corn timbales, succotash from the cookbook at right, which is organized by region and ingredient and worth it for the corn recipes alone. If you can find a copy, it makes a fabulous gift to amateur and pro cook alike.Oh, that day? He then ran over not just my foot but also my friend’s and one other shopper’s on his way tearing out of Tiny’s Produce. He was a hellcat on that Daytona 3-wheeler.