Barbara Smith

restaurateur; writer

Personal Information

Born August 24, 1949 (according to most sources), near Pittsburgh, PA; daughter of William H. (a steel worker) and Florence (Claybrook; a part-time maid) Smith; married Donald Anderson, 1988 (divorced); married Dan Gasby (a television producer), 1992; children: Dana (stepdaughter).
Education: Graduated from John Robert Powers Modeling School, c. 1967.
Memberships: Trustee of the Culinary Institute of America; member of the board of the Feminist Press and the New York Women's foundation; founding member of the Times Square Business Improvement District.

Career

Model, beginning in Pittsburgh, c. 1967; participated in Ebony Fashion Fair, New York City, 1969; first African American woman to appear on the cover of Mademoiselle, 1976; actress, beginning in mid-1970s; retired from modeling, early 1980s; worked as hostess and floor manager at America restaurant, New York City, early 1980s; opened restaurant B. Smith's, New York City, 1986; opened second B. Smith's, Washington, DC, 1994; published B. Smith's Cooking and Entertaining for Friends, Artisan, 1995.

Life's Work

Former model and actress Barbara Smith is the proprietor of B. Smith's, a hugely successful bistro with locations in New York City and Washington, D.C. Smith plans to open restaurants across the country. In 1995 her popularity resulted in B. Smith's Entertaining and Cooking for Friends, the first book of its kind by an African American and the first addressed to the African American community. High praise greeted the glossy guide, which encouraged the author to branch out into other areas of entertainment.

Smith was born on August 24, 1949 (according to most sources), outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her earliest role models were her parents and maternal grandmother. "My grandmother was an extremely strong woman, as matriarchs are," Smith told Contemporary Black Biography (CBB), "but at the same time she was a very loving and warm woman with a great sense of humor and laughter. My parents were exceptional because they were very talented as a couple and they had a great marriage. I was very influenced by what they did. They had beautiful vegetable gardens, beautiful flower gardens. They did all of their own restorations--they were the original Bob Villa [the famed remodeling king and television host] and Martha Stewart [guru of fine living]. It was a beautiful house that we lived in. They did a great job with their God-given talents."

Smith was also influenced by her hairdresser, a woman who traveled and worked throughout the small cities of western Pennsylvania. "As a young girl I saw her as a woman who was very independent," Smith told CBB. "She traveled, she made her own money, she had her own business." Being a stylist was Smith's first ambition. In fact, in the early 1950s this was one of the only areas in which an independent African American woman could thrive.

From a very young age Smith worked hard in the kitchen and garden with her mother and grandmother and as a paper girl. Then, in high school, she became very involved in home economics, studying nutrition, cooking, sewing, and fashion. Moreover, she would take part in any event concerning fund-raising and also worked as a volunteer--a candy striper--at the local hospital. She was a tall, beautiful teenager, and people were always telling her that she should be a model. "And then you eventually want to be one," Smith told CBB with a laugh.

Smith enrolled in the John Robert Powers modeling school in Pittsburgh, attending classes on weekends throughout high school. She reveled in the curriculum, particularly the instruction in grace and poise. She graduated from Powers just before her high school commencement and today considers the experience a turning point in her life. She remembered to CBB, "It was great because I began to watch my weight and change my eating habits. I always was into clothes because my mother was a great dresser and my father was too, so style was always around; but modeling school took it to another level." An African American instructor at the Powers school was particularly encouraging, giving Smith the confidence she would need to excel in the white-dominated field of modeling.

Smith moved to Pittsburgh immediately after high school. "I was told I was too dark and that I would never get a job, but I kept going for interviews," she explained to the New York Beacon. "I didn't give up." Then TransWorld Airlines launched a national search for their first black ground hostess. Smith landed the coveted spot through the modeling agency representing her. She achieved other "firsts" while in Pittsburgh as well, among them being crowned the first black Miss Triad, Queen of the Three Rivers. She also went back to school to learn to teach modeling, which she did for some time. While in Pittsburgh, Smith applied repeatedly to the Ebony Fashion Fair, an annual fashion industry gathering. She was accepted on her third try, in 1969. She moved to New York City in order to participate in the fair and decided to stay.

Smith signed with the prestigious Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and eventually appeared on five covers for Essence (she was only the second model to do so) and one for Ebony. Both publications cater to an African American audience. Smith's big break into the modeling mainstream came in July of 1976 when she appeared on the cover of Mademoiselle; she was the first black woman to grace the magazine's cover.

Smith loved modeling. She traveled throughout the world, living in Paris, France; Milan, Italy; and Vienna, Austria, as well as Los Angeles, California. She took a great many classes during her tenure as a model, including those in acting, singing, French, and German--anything that interested her. "There is no better education I think than being a student of the universe, so to speak," she told CBB. "Modeling is a fabulous business to be in because you are in some of the best locales in the world and there are opportunities to do many things. At the same time, it's extremely difficult, and I would suggest to any young person that they get their college degree so they always have something to fall back on because it's not a business that will sustain you forever."

Smith appeared in dozens of television commercials in the 1970s, but her acting career really took off in summer stock performances in the early 1980s. She also appeared in productions in and around New York City. Still, it was as challenging for a black woman to make her mark in acting as it was in modeling. "That situation has changed, but not entirely," she told CBB. "I probably would have left modeling entirely for acting, but I wasn't very pleased with the kind of roles available to African American women."

From nearly the beginning of her professional career, Smith planned to open a restaurant. She liked dining out, she was fascinated by the business of restaurants, and she felt her personality was suited to such an occupation. "When you're a model," she told Publishers Weekly, "you go to wonderful places where you're introduced to wonderful food, and you're invited to marvelous parties. In the '70s, I cooked up a storm. I liked impressing New Yorkers with my cooking. That's the last thing people expect from a model." She also understood that her modeling career would be greatly limited as she got older. For years she had questioned people in the restaurant business, gleaning as much information as she could about the industry and discussing her plans with restauranteurs. She eventually connected with a company called Ark Restaurants. She liked their management style and asked if, when she was done with modeling, she could work for them and learn the business. They agreed.

In the early 1980s Smith began honing her restaurant management skills. She first worked as a hostess at Ark's America, a popular Manhattan eatery, and then as a floor manager there. After a year she began scouting locations for her own restaurant. With help from a partnership with Ark, B. Smith's opened on November 22, 1986, in Manhattan's theater district. The second B. Smith's opened in October of 1994 in Washington, D.C.'s newly refurbished Union Station train terminal.

As Smith explained to CBB, "For me, a restaurant like B. Smith's is an extension of the fashion and style business. It's entertainment." Indeed, Smith has turned her bistro into a community center; she hosts a play reading series, showcases musical talent, and stages fund-raisers. B. Smith's also mounts weddings and memorials. "You name it," she says proudly, "I've done it in the restaurant."

To keep a restaurant flourishing in Manhattan--where rents are high and fashions change in the blink of an eye--is quite an accomplishment. But Smith wanted to do more. "A few years ago I wondered, 'Why isn't there a book on entertaining that speaks to African Americans?'" Smith told Essence. "I felt we needed ideas that address a new generation--one too busy and creative for staid staples such as expensive caterers or gold-leaf calligraphy." In 1995 she filled this void with B. Smith's Entertaining and Cooking for Friends. Smith ventured in Publishers Weekly, "Martha Stewart set the tone for so many of us. I think what makes my book so exciting is that there has never been one done by an African- American before."

Publishers Weekly contributor Robert Dahlin described B. Smith's thus: "More than 100 recipes, from appetizers to desserts, with 75 full-color photographs ... provide tempting glimpses into Smith's eclectic international and home cooking. There are also lush depictions of parties she has held, both small and large." The project actually began as an autobiography, but as the book developed, it focused more and more on Smith's cooking and entertaining. "You start with what you know best," she told Dahlin. "I've done a lot of parties at the restaurant. And being a model is dealing in fantasy. That's what you do in a restaurant, and that's what people do at home when entertaining guests."

In Essence Smith said, "My book isn't so much a how-to as it's a why not? Why not entertain? Just do it with style and conviction!" Noting how the African American community has grown as a market, Smith remarked in Publishers Weekly, "A lot of black television shows are on the air now. Things have changed. For years we would go to restaurants and not see anyone else black. That's different now. We're out there spending and buying. My book reinforces that idea." In a similar vein, she commented to the Chicago Tribune, "The world doesn't know that African-Americans live like this. They forget that our grandmothers and great-great grandmothers ran the houses of white people--in incredible style."

Over the years Smith has continued to make television appearances and accepts three or four commercial jobs a year. She has been seen on "The Cosby Show" and "The Cosby Mysteries." In the mid-1990s she became a spokesperson for Oil of Olay moisturizers. Having established herself in the restaurant and home entertaining fields, Smith hopes to produce shows for children and women. She also has plans to develop a television show for herself and is at work creating a magazine.

When asked how these myriad projects would affect her restaurant business, Smith responded that the more she's in the limelight, the better it is for her restaurants. She expects the business to continue its growth, with more restaurants opening nationwide. Smith's leisure time is devoted to her second husband, Dan Gasby, a television producer, and his daughter, Dana. Their summers are spent at Sag Harbor, New York, where entertaining is a casual affair. "When we throw parties, we personally prefer to do most of our socializing on the sand," Smith confided in Essence.

Further Reading

Sources

• Chicago Tribune, July 26, 1995, sec. 7, p. 11.
• Essence, May 1987, p. 97; August 1989, pp. 83-88; June 1995, p. 52.
• Gourmet, August 1989, p, 126.
• New York, March 16, 1992, p. 66.
• New York Beacon, March 17, 1995, p. 13.
• Publishers Weekly, February 27, 1995, pp. 38-39.
• Washington Post, July 5, 1995, p. E1.
• Additional information for this profile was obtained through a CBB interview with Barbara Smith on January 4, 1996.

— Joanna Rubiner