The late chef and TV star
was a hero to Sunny and
so many others. B.’s husband
reflects on her life—and
B. Smith some dishes he’ll never forget.Thankful for
f you ever watched B. Smith with Style
on Food Network, you know that
Barbara Smith did pretty much everythingDan Gasby, and she had left a plan for her
B. Smith product line so it could live on.
“B. was always in motion,” Dan says.
Thanksgiving with B. was a day for family,
Dan says. And she considered the holiday
a time of reflection. “She was a Midwestern
African American girl, and she was thankful for
the fact that she came from small-town America
where you had Black and white people, Jewish
people, Greek people, Polish people and
Mennonites all together.” Regardless of her
fame, he says, she never forgot her roots.
“She was an icon who was real.” —SunnyNOVEMBER 2020 ●FOOD NETWORK MAGAZINE 135
FOOD PHOTOS: RALPH SMITH; FOOD STYLING: JAMIE KIMM; PROP STYING: PAIGE HICKS. B. SMITH PORTRAIT: CASEY KELBAUGH/
THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX PICTURES.SMITH AND GASBY: THE JAMES BEARD FOUNDATION.