B. Smith (1949-2020) built a food and lifestyle empire. She launched restaurants, wrote cookbooks, had a line of household products, and even hosted a talk show.
B. Smith (1949-2020) built a food and lifestyle empire. She launched restaurants, wrote cookbooks, had a line of household products, and even hosted a talk show.
Food has been a unifier for millennia, not just gathering people together to share a meal, but acting as a warm introduction to new histories and traditions. This February on Womanica, we’re celebrating Tastemakers - the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past. The impact of chefs like Pig Foot Mary, Mama Dip, and Georgia Gilmore stretch far beyond the culinary scene - uplifting their local communities and inspiring those who came after them.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hi! I'm Chef Kia Damon.
I'm a Florida born chef, writer, host and recipe developer. I served as an executive Chef of New York City restaurant Lalito at the age of 24 and became Cherry Bombe magazine's first Culinary Director at 25. Since leaving I've founded Kia Feeds The People, a budding mutual aid effort. I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we're talking about Tastemakers. We're celebrating the Black chefs, cooks, and food historians who created new foodways and preserved important culinary stories of the past.
Today we’re talking about a woman who built a food and lifestyle empire. She launched restaurants, wrote cookbooks, had a line of household products, and even hosted a talk show. She lived by the motto: Whatever you do, do it with style.
Let’s talk about B. Smith.
Barbara Elaine Smith was born on August 24, 1949, in Everson, Pennsylvania. Her father was a steelworker and her mother was a part-time maid with a love for decorating.
As a child, Barbara had a knack for entrepreneurship. She enjoyed hosting lemonade stands, doing her paper route, and fundraising. Barbara also joined her father, a Jehovah’s Witness, in going door to door selling magazines. She often said that this experience taught her how to talk to people.
Straight after high school, Barbara started modeling. In 1969 she won a spot at the Ebony Fashion Fair and traveled around the country. It was during this big break that she decided to go by B. B landed print and TV commercials, and even became the second Black woman to grace the cover of Mademoiselle magazine.
B.’s modeling career led her to her next venture: restaurants. When she traveled for work she ate a variety of cuisines, but whenever she returned to New York she craved the Southern food she grew up eating as a kid.
In one of her cookbooks, B. later wrote, “I learn something from every bite, whether I have prepared it or not. What better way to satisfy one’s curiosity than with food?”
B. decided to learn the ropes of the restaurant business on the job: she worked front of house, back of house, and coat check. Along the way she took notes of what she liked, how she would run things differently, and even how she planned to decorate..
In 1986, B. opened her first restaurant in Manhattan’s theater district and called it, well, B. Smith’s Restaurant. She paid meticulous attention to every detail: from who she partnered with, to who she employed, and what feeling she wanted people to have when they walked in the door.
B.’s restaurant became a place to see and be seen. ESSENCE Magazine once called it, “where the who’s who of black Manhattan meet, greet and eat regularly.” Building off her success, B. opened two more restaurants, one in Washington D.C and another on Long Island.
And she didn’t stop there. B.’s business grew to encompass product lines of housewares, cookbooks, a magazine, and a nationally syndicated TV show: “B.Smith With Style”. She became a household name and soon people began to call her the Black Martha Stewart. In response to the comparison, B. once said:
“Martha Stewart has presented herself doing the things domestics and African Americans have done for years. We were always expected to redo the chairs and use everything in the garden. This is the legacy that I was left. Martha just got there first.”
In 2014 B. publicly announced that she had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. Over the next few years the disease progressed quickly. B. and her husband, Dan Gasby, co-authored a book called “Before I Forget” that chronicled their experience, and offered practical advice for navigating the disease. As her health deteriorated, B. and her husband withdrew to their home on Long Island.
B. died on February 22, 2020. She was 70 years old.
All month, we’re talking about tastemakers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!