Supper with Sylvia #2 Chef Art Smith, a Chicago Treasure

Chicagoan of the Year, Executive Chef, Humanitarian and Hall of Famer are just a few of the accolades bestowed upon Art Smith.  Most people know he got his start as Oprah Winfrey's personal chef and skyrocketed into the culinary world cooking meals for presidents, princesses  and heads of state.  Chef Art is often described as a celebrity himself, but there's no doubt he's most comfortable in the kitchen providing much needed food and warmth for thousands of people trapped in the unforgiving circumstances that come with poverty, natural disasters and war.  

The Show Notes
Chef Art Smith's Reunion- Chicago Navy Pier
Blue Door Kitchen and Garden- Chicago Gold Coast
Homecoming- Walt Disney World Florida
Sunshine Diner- Orlando Int'l Airport
Southern Art- Atlanta
Art Bird and Whiskey Bar- NYC Grand Central Terminal
Art & Soul- Washington DC

Common Threads- Charitable Organization

Chefartsmith.com

Supper with Sylvia is produced by Jane Stephens
Audio engineering and music by Donnie Cutting

Check out SupperwithSylvia on Instagram.
Email us at SupperwithSylvia@gmail.com

Transcript

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For world-renowned chef Art Smith, the journey began in a small, humble town in northern Florida and took him into the dining room with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Princess Diana, and even the Dalai Lama. When chef art is cooking, everyone is welcome at the table, whether it's visitors to his many restaurants or on location, feeding a world traumatized by hurricanes, war, and poverty. Together with his husband artist Jesus Salgueiro,

Art is always looking for the next table to serve, whether it's with their own family of four children or with a younger generation of chefs and restaurant workers who find inspiration in the charitable community that they have built. It's my great honor to have Chef Art Smith join me today on this episode of Supper with Sylvia. Art Smith, my friend, how are you? So good to see you. so good to see you. Good evening, Sylvia, my dear.

Well, I have to say, I'm so happy that you're joining me because you have had one heck of a week. So I just want to start with that right off the bat. For people who don't know, I am talking to Art right after his hometown of Jasper has been hit by Hurricane Helene. We've just had Milton. So we are on the heels of a week where Art Smith has been doing what he always does. And that's been

trying to help people. Tell me about these fundraisers that you had this week and why. Well, know, Sylvia, Jesus and I were in Iceland and I'd always wanted to go to Iceland and, it's so scenic and beautiful and we were there and I knew about, there was a storm, but we never really kind of took it very seriously because we.

They usually kind of go out to sea or whatever. And we were in Iceland and I kept hearing something about maybe coming to Florida. then we were in Iceland exactly 10 days and we kept hearing that it was getting close to Florida. And then when we arrived in Florida, when we arrived in the States, we got word that it was, it was headed for the panhandle. And then by the time I got to Chicago.

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It, heard that it was going to hit the big Ben and which was, they did, said approximately it was going to hit an area called Steen hatching, which is actually 64 miles from Jasper. My birthplace, my family has lived there over a hundred years. I'm the only, Smith that has left the area. and, so it was just, you know, I was just kind of me a little bit.

Heartbreaking that I'm not there. I'm in Chicago, my other adopted hometown, and I wanted to do something. And a friend of mine called me and said, Art, I'm with, what really kind of really got me really started was my friend Arlen calls me and says, Art, Jose Andreas, group, the world central kitchen is sending me to Jasper. And I'm like, what?

And I'm like, it's that serious? And he said, yes. And I said to myself, said, because Andreas, who I love and adore is going to Jasper, but their chef isn't there. So I'm saying to myself, you know, I'm their chef. need to be there too. so, but the reality was is that the area in which Helene hit is so vast.

Jose is so overwhelmed with that, that quite honestly, they couldn't do it all by himself. So with the help of Arlen and with the help of another group called Operation Barbecue Rescue, we've been able to feed more people. In fact, when this data is just two days ago, we fed 1100 people. And I still, I still get calls for people telling us, telling me what's going on, what's happened and everything. Sylvia, this is the problem. The problem is, that.

When you have a natural disaster as such, and this is, and this is what's happened, particularly even as far up as North Carolina. Now everyone thinks of places as Florida sunshine, beautiful beaches. I don't want to see it in another beach house. Okay. I don't want to see another multimillion-dollar beach house. I don't want to see a fancy mountain. Beautiful, et cetera, Villa, whatever. Okay. The rowdy is wherever there's wealth, like there, there's extreme poverty.

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We know that. Okay. I worked enough in the Hamptons. I know what's behind that. Okay. I know what's there's a lot of poor people and in that area, there's a lot of poor people and up and also that are a lot. And when you have people there are so close to the poverty line and when natural disaster hits, it is so detrimental and these people cannot get on their feet like

As fast as like people would think they they can't, they just can't. It, totally upsets their world. And I think that we think, okay, the storm's hit and it's over. No, it's not over. That storm continues over and over in their lives. As an American citizen, I feel it's our duty to take care of our citizens. We live in a big noisy world and I'm all about diplomacy, but honey, diplomacy starts at home.

Okay. So let's talk about that because you are boots on the ground. You're talking about, you're feeding all of these people. Explain to our listeners, what exactly you're doing. How does this work? mean, it sounds like an incredible effort. Well, how it works is this. One of the things that, that you do, and I've always done is this is you do it with a lot of friends and you do it with people that you have strategic relationships with. I'm unable to be there, but I have a friend who has.

A facility and a truck and all this, they're able to, I supply the funds. They make the food, they transport it, they distribute it. Simple as that. And, here we go. And, and then, you know, and, and other things like I supply the help and the, and the money to help cut trees and limbs and things of that sort. Tell me about.

Jasper growing up in Jasper. How did that make you the person you are today? the chef that you are today, the philanthropist you are today. come from a family of, really they, they don't give money. get food. Does that make sense? Yeah. You know, they give the offering in the church, but they would never think of like giving money to a philanthropic concern. That's not that.

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That part of their, but they would make food for something and take it. That's just how they do. My mama would make some cakes or some pies or make some cover dishes as they call them and take them. That's their way of doing it. And then all honesty that costs money and they do it, but that's how they, that's how that's their philanthropy. It's food philanthropy. So I grew up with that. Everything was food, food in good times, food in sad times.

We feed you when you're born. We feed you when you die. We feed you when you get married. We feed you. think we even feed you when you get divorced. Okay. We feed you. so food, glorious food, never enough of it. But, Jasper is a small little town. it was historically a town that was, it's, it's had different types of businesses and industries that had made it throughout.

In the years, the town is over a hundred years old and tobacco was a major industry. And tobacco was what my daddy did. And then of course, when daddy said, well, he was, my father was a trip. My father was part politician, little everything. mean, he was just, he said, and he always wanted me be a lawyer or a politician. Okay. He did not like the idea of me being a chef. he said to his son, I told him, says, son, I don't know why you want to work at some kitchen. I said, daddy.

The kind of kitchens I want to work in. I don't think you really have an idea. Cause he didn't realize that I was going to use my, my skills, but she saw, and I was using my skills and my abilities to cook as a way to get to people and get what I want. so you've written how many cookbooks now? Four. that right? I know I it's hard to keep count and let's start with that because as you count, think.

The thing I've noticed about all of your cookbooks are it's about family, it's about comfort, it's about how food connects people. And when I think about you, that's what I think about. You're a connector. But in a world that is so divisive right now, there's, you know, we're dealing with war overseas, we're dealing with the divisive political climate, and you are a connector to so many people from so many different

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backgrounds. I feel like you, when you say that food is a connector, it truly is. And you are perfect example of that. How do you manage or what is it that you think that it is about food that enables you to do that with people from all different backgrounds, with all different beliefs who maybe don't necessarily agree with each other on other things. I think that, you know, people always say they have all these problems and everything and

The best way to handle these problems, quite honest with you, the, the chef art school of handling problems, feed them. There are no angry people, just hungry people. I think that as I was saying about the importance for us as Americans to take care of each other. If you want, if you want people that care about other people, I mean, I travel extensively around the world. You know, I cook for an ambassador in Portugal.

I'm going here. I'm going there. Does people really care about it? Maybe some, maybe no. Okay. because people will, there are a lot of critics who say, why doesn't he just do that in his own country? Right. But why do I do it? Simple. I want people in other parts of the world to see another face of America.

America is generous. America is friendly, kind, funny, engaging. We also are creative. We have the ability to take a mess and organize it. and if we have a mess, she ain't going to see it cause we can hide it. We had been a show business. Okay. and,

You know, it's important. think it's important that, you know, that we, that we get out in the world and people see us. And, and I think that we cannot live under a rock and think that, that that's going, that the world's just gonna go, it's gonna pass us by. We're not going to be affected by it. We don't live in that type of world anymore. And, I don't know. just, it just, it, bothers me. And I think that in these, these very.

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tough times in politics and everything where people are going at each other. Now listen, I have cooked for both sides of fence, Bob Graham, Jeb Bush. You know, I cooked at the white house for President Bush, Obama, Clinton, all of them. And I was there as a cook in the kitchen and I was there with people who'd cooked for all those different presidents, whether they were Democrat or the Republican.

And when you serve them, didn't make any difference that they were Democratic or Republican. All that was important was they were hungry and you were there to serve. that's, since we're on this subject, that, that's something I want to talk to you about because you have cooked for some incredible names that we think of. You've already mentioned a few. I heard you had the security clearance, starting with the governor that allowed you to.

to actually start cooking for other people. And amongst that list I saw was Princess Diana. And I know the list goes on and on and I'm not gonna make you go through it because first of all, there's no way you can remember them all, because there have been so many. But my question to you is, what stands out about any particular person? Like when we think of Princess Diana, she was very kind of secretive, but you actually get to be one-on-one with these people. And I wonder if there's any such celebrity like that or individual.

That has really touched your heart that their story maybe stands out more than others. Princess Diana, I was, you know, I was always a tall when it came to people for statue. You're not to approach them there to approach you. And the way that came about was I was the only chef Scotland yard would approve, to allow to cook for her. And I remember this beautiful turquoise dress she was wearing.

And was beautiful. She was very slender and very beautiful. And she sat at a table. I remember, I want to say it was Phil Donahue, Marlo Thomas. And I think Oprah, no, Oprah was not there at table. And Mayor Daley, more some others. I wish I had friend the others. But as she got up from the table, she saw me and I bowed to her and she smiled.

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And that's all I needed. And that beautiful smile and that beautiful gesture was enough. remember going into this little room and feeding his holiness to Dalai Lama. And, you, and I remember kind of crouching down and presenting him. made this, vegan-styled fried chicken and

I, and, my funniest story, I've read them a second time and I make this like, want to tell you something. Jesus Buddha, Joseph, Mary, that must delicious dirty rice, but tell me something. How do you, how do you serve a holy man? Dirty rest. He can call it dirty. So I called, I said, I I said this holy nuts. This is holy rice, holy rice, but it was.

You know how like when you make dirty rice, usually has like, they use, usually they just chopped chicken liver and all that kind of stuff in it. This one had, when you had porcinis and stuff, which, and, and which gave it that kind of meatiness to it. it's delicious. It's one of my favorite, favorite dishes. And we served that and he just loved it. And, know, my most funniest thing was, brah. my God. This is my funniest story.

She says to me, says, aren't Mr. Mandela is going to come see us. And I said, wow. I said, is Mr. Nelson Mandela? And she said, well, honey, that's the only Mandela I know of. And she goes, I said, wonderful. And I said, what shall we serve him? She said, well, we'll have it, his chef will call you and let you know. Talk to the chef. said, well, he likes oxtail. I was like, done. I'm, I'm all about soul. Okay. And then.

And then he goes like, what about Briani and okay. My friend, shop, you never in the shop, you know him. he, it, South Africa has a very strong, Indian cultural heritage. so the Briani, which is a rice dish that's got all kinds of goodies in it as a spicy. you're serving Nelson Mandela. just spoken to his chef. And I do all this food and everything. And I hear a call.

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call me saying, Ms. Winfrey'd like to see you. like, God, I run over to, do you remember how big Harpo Studios is? So black, I run over and she's, and, and she says, Art, I'd like for you to meet Mr. Mandela. And I'm like, Holy.

I don't get starstruck, but I truly got starstruck. And I went up to him and Mr. Mandela, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm boys, I thought very highly of you and your work and you know, it was so, his light was so bright. I can't really exactly remember exactly what I said or did or whatever. You have to remember too, that the days before there were cell phones and all that.

There was just telephones and no one would ever think about calling someone in the morning on the telephone too early. Okay. But now with cell phones, people will just like pick, we'll just call you like any. So Oprah did not have a cell phone. the rally was is that if you wanted to have a minute, a minute to two minute or whatever with Oprah, you would, you would get her in the morning for breakfast. So when you're making her favorite little egg white omelet with one egg yolk with the food vegetables, that's when you got to say.

Ms. Winfrey, are you this morning? Ms. Winfrey, what about if we do this? That's it. Because after that it was business. Yes. But I was like, I was making her omelet. And I said, Ms. Winfrey, yes sir. Ms. Winfrey, I said, you know, Mr. Mandela, I said, yes sir. She said, he's downright biblical. And she looked at me and said, well, honey, I didn't know where, you were going to Kurtz here, bow to him. And I looked at her and I said, well, at least my basis recovered.

It was truly amazing. It to think that a little country farm boy from Jasper, Florida, tobacco road, you know, it's done all this and it's been, it's been truly, truly amazing. And, know, the adventure goes on, you know, I've had the opportunity. We just did a little, did a little party for Milton, which was great. And I had, King Charles, his chef visit me, which was wonderful. And it was nice to treat him like a King since he's worked 38 years.

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to treat his amazing group of people like princes and queens and royals and everything that he does. And it was great. He loves barbecue and fried chicken. you make the best, you make the best. That's for sure. I have to say, you know, we're talking to all of these big names and you know, you were Oprah chef for 10 personal chef for 10 years. Everyone knows the story, that background story. But while you were in Chicago, you did something else too. That was

beautiful to this day, it still stands. And that's starting Common Threads, which I understand you guys are going to be having an anniversary coming up very soon. So Common Threads is your philanthropic outlet that basically teaches children in underserved and adults areas how to not only cook for themselves, but to cook healthy foods and delicious foods. Tell me how that started. How did that come about?

Well, I'll start with Oprah. Oprah, sent Jesus and I to New York, after the nine 11 attacks to cook for a family, who had been affected by nine 11. The father was making the delivery to, to tower one and when it collapsed on him and we was just making a delivery and the family just stopped when that happened.

And, and then, through the mayor's office and Senator Graham's office arranged for me to do some work at the, ground zero. so the night before at the Parker Meridian, bless her heart. So let me use her kitchen and I baked like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cookies. And then I've had, soos running all over New York, trying to fight.

really beautiful baskets and everything. And he going like, they don't care. There's one good cookies. I Hey sis, every, I don't care. said, you know, poor things. They've been going through such horrors, you know, let's give them something nice. know, and, know, and here, you know, here I'm showing up. we, we packaged beautiful things of cookies and we had all, mean, we had so much and, we went and delivered cookies and, they were, they were so happy.

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And I have the pictures, the pictures are just, and you see the faces of the people, everything. But so anyway, I had written back to the table, which was the New York Times bestseller. And, and then I wanted to write a book called world table about bringing the world back to the table. It was my answer to, to nine 11. I felt that when nine 11 happened, it brought it rather than bringing it, bringing the world together, it brought the world far apart.

Because basically the world was like, were really our friends? Now the world was in those towers, but what, then you, and when he saw the list of people who were in those towers, you know, the thing was, it was just, it's just horrible. And, I'm a big believer Sylvia that a little food can do a lot and you can hand and you can really kind of, I feel like I can cure people with food and I feel like I can calm people with food. So anyway, I wrote this.

little situation up and I wrote for our world as a quilt as people to fabric all joined together by common threads, food, family, music, art, for music is the voice of the world for you can hear its passion, fill its pain, put all this together. And when I wrote my first book, I didn't know it, but Disney bought it. And it was, it was just a strange kind of ABC, you know, Hyperion, I who that was. then someone says that's Disney. So anyway, so I.

went back to Disney and Disney said, all right, we just don't think the America's ready for it. I'm like, I looked at them and I said, the mouse don't live in the house. I said for him, for a company based on imagination and dreams, it ain't happening. And I was so angry with those people. was like, I don't care if I do another thing for y'all, whatever. I shoved it in my desk and then long came these people from Minneapolis. love Minnesota, all those nice educated people up there.

was something called, perspectives and they have something called kids cafe. And I went up there and started helping them with that. And I liked what they were doing. And I said, how could we do something like that, but even be more, do more and not just one location, but multiple locations. And I was telling Jesus about it. And then at that time, Jesus was, Jesus never does anything in a small way. Jesus says, I want to buy this church. And I'm like, my God. said, Hey, Sue's.

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Your name is Jesus, you paint angels and I'm Oprah chef and we buy a church that says crazy. So we buy a church, slide in scene and, and this woman shows up and she says, why did you do all this? She says, well, I said, well, because he says we need to teach kids. And, and through all that, he said, and, after seeing what I saw, I said, well, I saw something, maybe we could do a variation, whatever.

Hey, and taste this has this idea because we wanted to ours on teaching children about how we as humanity are more alike than different through food. Food is our common thread. And, cause we look at each other and we think we're that different, but we really aren't. Okay. So we started, we couldn't use the church church as the best descendant. we.

We went down the street to another little church. opened up. They gave us a big plot of land, the park over here. did a big garden and that was in, my God, 20 years ago. And, we started here in Kenwood Hyde Park and then we started and we had about nine or 10 kids and then, and then we started with a few kids and then started growing. And I started hocking Del Monte tomatoes.

to get money for it. And then I met a man who I didn't know he was. I met him through the storage studios and, was, I went out to do Oprah's 50th and these two great things happened. One, Oprah had fit fried chicken for her birthday. So you know what happened? The whole world ate fried chicken for their birthday. Cause everybody wanted to eat fried chicken after Oprah ate it. And I mean, every star in Hollywood was eating it. And then the other thing went, then I went to Beverly Hills.

He wanted to meet, you know, he, he wanted to meet some of his Venezuelan friends and they were all like, I said, I'm going to go see Charlie said, go see Charlie. So I went to see Charlie and he's a single dad. And I went into his bungalow there at the peninsula and his little girl's running around Lily. And he goes, man, I can't get her to eat. said, well, let me show you something. And I ordered the chicken and the broccoli and she came to me.

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And I said, Lily, try this. I put the broad cleaner mouth. put it in my mouth. I tastes delicious. And she said, chicken. I tastes delicious. And he, he's going like, man, that's, you're amazing. How did you do that? You're just like, how do you, and I said, that's my mother taught me. He goes like, how many do want to teach? And I said, well, I don't know. As many as we can, we only can teach so many because I don't have so much money. And he goes like, I'm the grandson of Walter Annenberg. And I go,

Your grandfather saved PBS. Yes. And I'm like, he gave us $3 million. Wow. Wow. Common threads. Over a piece of broccoli. And maybe some chicken too. Cause that's a great story art. And that's how common threads was able to come about. Cause you have how many locations now? I want to say there's.

There's about nine states. Wow. Nine states now have common threads. That's amazing. So that brings me to children, which is something a lot of people love to tell the artsmith story. remember, let's see, I think the year was 2015. And someone said to me, did you hear about art and Jesus? And I said, no, what?

They said they are about to adopt four children. I was like, what? And the word spread like wildfire. I understand you guys started out as foster parents, but wow. Speaking of kids, since we're still on that topic, how in the world did this happen? Was this something that you and Jesus had planned to have? No. A brood of children. I was with Oprah. Well, when we were in South Africa.

We cooked for a group at orphans and hey, sis, we met a bunch of them. We're like, well, they'd be great. Kept looking at them. They were so cute. We came home and I was, I was traveling with Oprah and he calls me, says, baby, I got something I want to talk to you about. like, I never liked those kind of com, I never liked them. I never liked that kind of thing. I don't like surprises. I'm like Oprah. don't like surprises. So I come home and goes like, how would you like to adopt a kid?

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Okay. Okay. I'm all right with that. we go to, we go to, we go to up in Wacky and to this children's home and we, we start meeting a lot of children. met some very young children who very young. And then we met the second group of children and there were four of them and the head of the, of the, the home there said,

that siblings are the most, the most very difficult to adopt, that people don't want to adopt families. And they had advised to breaking them up. I'm like, I don't want to be part of that story. said, you know, you just can't do that. You can't separate children like that. That's not fair. Cause you know, when we're gone, they have each other depend on, know, and there were just so sweet. And I said,

What else do have to do? I don't know, Sylvia, I mean, you've gotten us prior to children. Yeah. We can't have one cat. We had five cats. We can't have one dog. had four dogs. I mean, now Sylvia, I've got all my birds are like in Siberia. I don't have one bird. I have 12 birds. Okay. You can't hear them, but if I had them out here, you'd be going like, Art, you've got a pet store. Okay. I mean,

We don't do anything in one. So it's all the twos and threes and fours and fives and six, know, like, go home art Smith. And they were six, seven, nine, and 12 at the time. And wow, that was how many years ago? Did I say 2015? So you've got young adults now and yeah, they're, they're doing great. And angel was down the street for me. He he's great. He's he's, he wants to be a computer programmer, developer and

My youngest wants to sell real estate. She's, she's determined to do that. And, and my, my oldest daughter wants to, do, she wants to create a not-for-profit, to help kids. and then my, my other son, he he's trying to decide what he wants to do, but that's okay. Because quite honest with you, he has my middle name. It took me, I was going to be.

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I was going to be an artist. was going to be this. was going to be that. was going to be a lot of different. I mean, our piano player, I was going to be everything until I find Chip, but that's okay because it's, you know, it's- It's all worked out. mean, look at the path you've taken. I want to talk about, let's talk about your foods because I know what some of my favorites are, but I'm curious. What are you the most proud of that-

that you make for people and what always kind of is everyone's go-to. I love your fried chicken. I think it's crazy. I love that hummingbird cake. The first time I ever had hummingbird cake was at your restaurant, Table 52. And I said, what is this? And every time I think about you, besides the fact that I love you and you're this great guy, but first thing comes to mind is if I go to Art's Place, I'm having fried chicken and hummingbird cake.

So what makes it proud is.

I don't serve anything that doesn't have a story. Everything that you talked about all has a story.

cause the story makes it taste better. The fried chicken was Oprah's 50th birthday. The hummingbird cake was Maya Angelou's 75th birthday cake.

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Where did the shrimp and grits come from? came from George and Barbara Bush's celebration of reading dinner.

Everything, everything that you've seen me come out with, there's a story behind it. And, and when you, and then there's some stuff that there's some that's connected to my family. You know, I always say, you know, my mama didn't teach me how to make fried chicken. The Colonel did, you know, I, I, my first job was KFC and, I, I met a lovely woman through, her name was a friend of mine.

named Edna Lewis, a very famous Southern chef. And I learned the art of it from her. that's where, like my mother never would brine chicken or marinate it, which she did. And also the important of the dredge and all that different things. I mean, that's what makes it very special is if you treat it delicately, very preciously, then it's course very good. So, anyway. Well, I can honestly say I've never eaten anything that you have made that isn't amazing.

Okay. So what is your favorite food to make? I love breakfast. Yeah. You're up early. So you like to your day started? If I don't make it, I like going out for breakfast. know, like, then that brings me to this. Is there a favorite breakfast place in Chicago you want to share?

in 11 city diner, many.

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me think somewhere else. Mitchell's. I love it. You're going old school. I love, I love old school breakfast. I don't like, I don't like, I don't like any of that foofy fancy breakfast stuff, but I do, I do love, I do love me a fancy five star breakfast. Okay. You have one in mind. I think the fourth seasons makes a beautiful five star breakfast. Yeah. Plus the atmosphere is wonderful. Okay. Well, what is

The Ritz. Gorgeous. Okay. But what's your go-to restaurant in Chicago? I think we all have one. A place that you know you can go and everybody already knows your name anyway, cause you're Art Smith, but a place that you can go to, you know, the food's always going to be consistent and good and it's kind of comfort to you. Jean Georgietis. That's a good one. I love it. Yeah. I love the history. love the stories. love it and

Gibson's Italia. I love Gibson Italia because I love the view. I always say it's the most romantic view in the city of Chicago. Right. I mean, if you want to, if you want someone to fall in love with Chicago, take them to see flyover or in Jeanne and, Gibson's Italia flyover in Gibson, Italian is most beautiful, enchanting, romantic, with, Chicago. but if you want, if you want people to really get

what Chicago is about in its history. Take them to Gene and Georgietta's because there's no other restaurant in the city. And I think there's only what four or five wooden buildings left in Chicago. I have something. sadly, sadly the owner just passed away too. So yeah, that's really sad. Michelle was, yeah, that's really sad. And they had this amazing young woman from Italy who's making the pasta. Have you had it lately? I haven't been recently and I do love it. you, you, you must go. Okay. We'll go together.

And, yeah. And her pasta is like crazy. And she makes, the, catch of the pepper is like the bomb. the bomb. So, That's saying a lot coming from you. It's, like, it's, it's good or better than Rome. Wow. Okay. We are definitely going. Okay. And I have to say though, I want to let people know I, I, I did a podcast recently with, Monica Aang, a real foodie in Chicago, a food writer.

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And she told me one of her favorite go-to places was Reunion at Navy Pier because she said she was talking about your fried chicken and your shrimp and grits. we were talking about how this whole Navy Pier, a lot of people think of it as a tourist trap and there weren't really any great restaurants there before, but you guys have brought so much to Navy Pier. mean, your food is delicious. Yes, it's a touristy spot, but

The food is solid. It's good. And it's so fun to go because you and Jesus are there very often. So I just wanted to let you know that you guys are definitely on the top of a lot of people's love Monica. She's a sweetheart. Yeah. Have you gotten into the bear? Have you gotten into the whole bear thing in Chicago? The series that has introduced people to Italian beef and Chicago. Is that something you've gotten into at all? You know, I'm really

Anything that's all about Chicago and film and all that I'm really, really, really excited about. God willing the Creek don't rise. was a show that I'm maybe and I just auditioned was big deal. Real big deal. You'll be the first to hear about it. And it's with a big Hollywood a-lister, both of them. no, I'm not that one, but I, you know, my whole thing now is rugby. Cause you know, I got, I bought into rugby.

Yes. And so that's, that's my big thing. Okay. Let's talk about that. Cause I don't want to forget about that. I wanted to bring that up. you opened Sporty Bird at Time Out Chicago. is it? Right. And it's all got that rugby theme. How does a chef go from being a chef and doing what you do to being an investor at a rugby team? How did that come about? It's called turning 64. Honey.

Nothing worse than a stale, stale chef. Okay. I needed to do something to kind of lift me up there and what better was than professional sports. And there is not a chef in America or the world that has ownership of a professional sports team. Right. there you are once again, kind of being that trailblazer. And the best part about it is I bought it with fried chicken money.

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And then it's sporty bird came about with that theme, right? You said it dear. Sporty fried chicken. And then, we're getting ready to launch a, fried chicken. I'm concerned with a university called sporty varsity, which I'm what I'm excited about. Yeah. And we have these robotic delivery system that'll actually, will actually

Deliver it to the dorm rooms. mean, this is a very fancy, fancy Connecticut school. Wow. You're to have robotic delivery servers with delivering your yummy chicken to the, to the college dorms. Wow. Wow. That's pretty special. That is pretty, you've always got something going on. So what do you have? What's the future hold for you right now? What's going on? Well,

As we stand now, we have reunion Navy pier. have blue door kitchen. have Chicago queue. We have sporty bird for those. Some people don't know that with Lady Gaga and family, I have art bird. have 51 locations with live nation, parks, their venues, their theater parts. 51. you imagine? And, and then, and we have Walt Disney world, we have homecoming and, the goal now is to.

put Sporty Bird in sports stadiums and Sporty Varsity in college and universities. That is so great. Just a little bit of stuff. Wow. Potentially, we'll be opening at O'Hare at a new hotel there and Michigan at a hotel. Wow, very exciting. Okay. What a fun conversation I've had with you. I know what I think about when I think of Art Smith and I know what a lot of people think about when they think of chef Art Smith.

But what do you want people to think about you when they say, what is chef's artsmith all about? What's his mission? What's his goal in life? guess, you know, quite honest with you, Sylvia is like, I love feeding people and I love throwing parties. I love feeding people. I love feeding people. love entertaining people. love making people happy. And I, and I love

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I, cause I feel like somehow or another that in turn, don't expect anything for, that I just like, I just like making people happy. Cause that's in my heart. That's what I love. I love to do is make people happy and along the way that it'll in turn, you know, make other people happy. It'll have a triple effect. Well, I think you're doing that. I really, I really do. And when I think about you, I think about art, the friend art, the chef art, the philanthropist art, the giver.

Art the food connector. mean, that just makes up every fiber of your being. And I know that you have helped so many people and I don't know if I've ever had the chance to tell you that I think you're pretty amazing. So thank you so much for doing this. You're very sweet, darling. That's very kind. I love you too. And, and thank you. And, know, it's great, you know, that be recognized and for all your great works and

You know, to me, it's just only the beginning. know, even at 64, I still feel like there's a lot of great things to do and what better city, and you know, I get so sick and tired of people talking trash about Chicago, but I'm with you. There's not a better city in America that do great things then. it's, and look, look at what it's done for us. I mean, right? Yes, absolutely. It's beautiful city. People are friendly. People always want to help each other out. And I'm so happy to call it home as well. And I know it's your adopted home. we are.

We are very fortunate to live here. So Art Smith, thank you so much. You're the best. For more on the adventures of Chef Art Smith, check the show notes. Thanks for joining us for this episode of Supper with Sylvia. I'm Sylvia Perez. This podcast was produced by Jane Stevens with technical support and music by Donnie Cutting.