Meet the Hosts

To Chef Art Smith, food is love best shared with family and friends at the dining table. Art has long been known for serving up comfort food, but today, his name resonates far beyond the kitchen. Art is a New York Times best-selling author, a contributing editor to O magazine and the Oprah Winfrey Show, and a judge for the Food Network's Iron Chef America. Art's biggest fans can also catch him on The Today Show and Good Day Live. All credentials and celebrity ties aside, Art's main focus is bringing families back to the table for dinner.

A native of Jasper, Florida, Art earned his business degree at Florida State. Following his studies, Art took began working as executive chef for Governor Bob Graham. He went on to cook for families all over the globe before coming to Chicago, where he began teaching at Williams Sonoma. Soon, Art was selected to serve as an event chef for Martha Stewart Living magazine. In 1997, Art began serving as a special event chef for Oprah and Stedman Graham. In August of 2007, Art launched the internationally acclaimed organic foods restaurant "Table" located in the heart of Chicago.

Art has received two James Beard Foundation Awards. In 2007, he received the award for Humanitarian of the Year. Art's second cookbook, Kitchen Life: Real Food for Real Families (Hyperion, 2004), received the prestigious 2001 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for "Best Family and Children's Cookbook." Art's most recent book, Back to the Family (Thomas Nelson), debuted in March 2007.

Art currently lives in Chicago with his partner, renowned artist Jesus Salgueiro, along with their three dogs, five cats, and 15 fish.

What's a good tip for new cooks?

While you're preheating your stove-top to cook a thick piece of beef, poultry, or fish, preheat your oven at the same time. After you've developed a nice golden crust on your meat of choice, transfer it to a baking sheet and stick it in your already-heated oven. While your food is baking, you can make an easy pan sauce by adding wine, citrus juice, or broth to the skillet you used for browning your meat.

Do you have any cooking disaster stories?

One holiday season, my college roommates and I decided to make a variety of holiday candy. We bought all the ingredients to make fudge, peanut brittle, peanut clusters, and caramel, and started making everything in the tiny kitchen of our even tinier apartment. Not only was the kitchen too small, it wasn't well-stocked. With so many treats being prepared at once, the first batch of peanut brittle was scorched. We ran out of spoons, bowls, and pans, and began to improvise with whatever we could find. It all worked out well in the end, though. While delivering the holiday treats, I met the man who would become my husband.

If you could have anyone to dinner, who would you have?

My family. A great dish to cook would be the Harvest Pork Roast—it serves a crowd, tastes great, and most of the work is done before guests arrive.

What special touches do you add to make your meals delicious?

I love hot chili sauce. It can have a very overpowering flavor, but I put some small amount of it on or in almost everything I eat.

Do you have any cooking disaster stories?

I once worked as a prep cook in a seasonal restaurant. One morning, I was cooking 60 pounds of ground beef in a very large pan. When I adjusted the pan's placement on the stove, a small amount of grease spilled onto the pilot light. My arms and face were quickly met with a wall of flames. Luckily, I walked away with a slightly burnt nose and singed eyebrows. I certainly learned my lesson. Trying to move a pan full of grease and beef around open flames is not a good idea.

What's a good tip for new cooks?

Find your own style. Techniques will be very similar from chef to chef, but most good chefs create their own way of doing things. Don't get discouraged if your food doesn't turn out exactly like your favorite chef's. Just keep trying until you're comfortable with and confident in what you've made.