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| Art Smith, Chef to Stars, Turns to His Neglected Hometown | Art Smith, Chef to Stars, Turns to His Neglected Hometown |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| JASPER, Fla. — When you are pushing Art Smith’s red pickup truck out of the North Florida mud during an excursion to find donkeys descended from a pair his father once gave his mother as an anniversary gift, the impulse is to look around for a camera crew. | JASPER, Fla. — When you are pushing Art Smith’s red pickup truck out of the North Florida mud during an excursion to find donkeys descended from a pair his father once gave his mother as an anniversary gift, the impulse is to look around for a camera crew. |
| As his Venezuelan-born husband, the artist Jesus Salguerio, mutters about Mr. Smith’s driving skills, and the four children the couple adopted a couple of years ago run through a field like free-range chickens, the only logical thought is that this must be reality television. But it is, in fact, Mr. Smith’s new life. | As his Venezuelan-born husband, the artist Jesus Salguerio, mutters about Mr. Smith’s driving skills, and the four children the couple adopted a couple of years ago run through a field like free-range chickens, the only logical thought is that this must be reality television. But it is, in fact, Mr. Smith’s new life. |
| Last August, the chef who spent much of his career cooking for Oprah Winfrey and two Florida governors before he started a small but lucrative collection of Southern-themed restaurants moved his family from a 5,000-square-foot Chicago apartment to this tiny town he couldn’t wait to leave as a child. | Last August, the chef who spent much of his career cooking for Oprah Winfrey and two Florida governors before he started a small but lucrative collection of Southern-themed restaurants moved his family from a 5,000-square-foot Chicago apartment to this tiny town he couldn’t wait to leave as a child. |
| Mr. Smith, 56, is a golden retriever of a man who drops names like napkins and who networks like a movie mogul, skills he is bringing to bear on what seems an improbable quest: reviving a town of about 4,000 whose biggest employers are a phosphate plant and a nursing home. | Mr. Smith, 56, is a golden retriever of a man who drops names like napkins and who networks like a movie mogul, skills he is bringing to bear on what seems an improbable quest: reviving a town of about 4,000 whose biggest employers are a phosphate plant and a nursing home. |
| The plan is to open a commercial bakery, a farm store, a restaurant and a school for meteorology, agriculture and cooking, all with the help of Walt Disney World, the heiress to the Red Stripe beer fortune, some government officials and a lot of cake. | The plan is to open a commercial bakery, a farm store, a restaurant and a school for meteorology, agriculture and cooking, all with the help of Walt Disney World, the heiress to the Red Stripe beer fortune, some government officials and a lot of cake. |
| From all appearances, it is a wild ride down a country road that is either going to end in a spectacular crash or, as one supporter described it, turn into “what Dan Barber did at Blue Hill, but more country.” | From all appearances, it is a wild ride down a country road that is either going to end in a spectacular crash or, as one supporter described it, turn into “what Dan Barber did at Blue Hill, but more country.” |
| “Honey, is it crazy?” Mr. Smith asked. “I don’t care. If we want to build a kinder country, we need to bring some kind of change to these rural, outlying areas.” | “Honey, is it crazy?” Mr. Smith asked. “I don’t care. If we want to build a kinder country, we need to bring some kind of change to these rural, outlying areas.” |
| Jasper, the biggest town in one of the poorest counties in Florida, is a 15-minute drive from the Georgia border and a short hop off Interstate 75. Carloads of families gun past the Jasper exit to Disney World, which is three hours down the highway. | Jasper, the biggest town in one of the poorest counties in Florida, is a 15-minute drive from the Georgia border and a short hop off Interstate 75. Carloads of families gun past the Jasper exit to Disney World, which is three hours down the highway. |
| Disney is key to his plan. Early this summer, Mr. Smith is to open a 200-seat restaurant at the resort called Homecoming: Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine. Disney, which is essentially his landlord, promotes it as its first foray into “farm-to-fork cuisine.” The design was inspired by turn-of-the century Florida architecture. The menu will have dishes like deviled eggs, chicken and dumplings, and kale salad with pecans and Georgia cheese. | Disney is key to his plan. Early this summer, Mr. Smith is to open a 200-seat restaurant at the resort called Homecoming: Florida Kitchen and Southern Shine. Disney, which is essentially his landlord, promotes it as its first foray into “farm-to-fork cuisine.” The design was inspired by turn-of-the century Florida architecture. The menu will have dishes like deviled eggs, chicken and dumplings, and kale salad with pecans and Georgia cheese. |
| The showpiece will be Southern cakes. He is planning 12-layer cakes, Key lime poundcakes and moonshine cakes, homage to a grandfather who was a moonshiner and whose body is buried in a little family graveyard filled with thistles and grasshoppers a few miles from the former tobacco farm the Smiths still own. | The showpiece will be Southern cakes. He is planning 12-layer cakes, Key lime poundcakes and moonshine cakes, homage to a grandfather who was a moonshiner and whose body is buried in a little family graveyard filled with thistles and grasshoppers a few miles from the former tobacco farm the Smiths still own. |
| If the plan comes together, the cakes will be made by people who live in and around Hamilton County. Mr. Smith pitched the idea of linking Jasper jobs and the restaurant to Disney executives in a meeting at which he served a hummingbird cake, the Southern cousin of carrot cake, made with pecans, pineapple and bananas. | If the plan comes together, the cakes will be made by people who live in and around Hamilton County. Mr. Smith pitched the idea of linking Jasper jobs and the restaurant to Disney executives in a meeting at which he served a hummingbird cake, the Southern cousin of carrot cake, made with pecans, pineapple and bananas. |
| “You know how we use cake for everything here?” he asked. “I told the mouse, how would you like it if every slice of cake you serve helps save a small Southern town?” It didn’t hurt that during his undergraduate years at Florida State University, he interned in a Disney World kitchen. | “You know how we use cake for everything here?” he asked. “I told the mouse, how would you like it if every slice of cake you serve helps save a small Southern town?” It didn’t hurt that during his undergraduate years at Florida State University, he interned in a Disney World kitchen. |
| The cakes will be baked inside what is now a shuttered 60,000-square-foot complex that once held a poker room and a 500-seat court for jai alai, the Basque sport that in its American heyday attracted thousands of fans and gamblers. His dream is to expand it into a commercial bakery that sends out thousands of cakes and biscuits across the South. | The cakes will be baked inside what is now a shuttered 60,000-square-foot complex that once held a poker room and a 500-seat court for jai alai, the Basque sport that in its American heyday attracted thousands of fans and gamblers. His dream is to expand it into a commercial bakery that sends out thousands of cakes and biscuits across the South. |
| The Hamilton County Development Authority has bought the complex for $1.5 million, with the agreement that Mr. Smith will work his magic. He estimates it will cost $3 million to open the bakery and turn the rest into a country store selling organic produce, a gallery featuring his husband’s art and a restaurant. On the 38 acres that surround the building, there will be a farm and catfish ponds. | The Hamilton County Development Authority has bought the complex for $1.5 million, with the agreement that Mr. Smith will work his magic. He estimates it will cost $3 million to open the bakery and turn the rest into a country store selling organic produce, a gallery featuring his husband’s art and a restaurant. On the 38 acres that surround the building, there will be a farm and catfish ponds. |
| Much of the money is expected to come from a group of young California filmmakers who like to invest in economically challenged areas (and who prefer to be anonymous). | Much of the money is expected to come from a group of young California filmmakers who like to invest in economically challenged areas (and who prefer to be anonymous). |
| “We’re going to make it look like a Cracker Barrel with better food, honey,” Mr. Smith said. | “We’re going to make it look like a Cracker Barrel with better food, honey,” Mr. Smith said. |
| The other piece of his grand scheme is the Reunion Florida Garden and Kitchen School, which he plans to open this fall in a restored antebellum mansion he bought from the local community college in nearby Madison for $450,000. Students can take online courses or train to work at the bakery. | The other piece of his grand scheme is the Reunion Florida Garden and Kitchen School, which he plans to open this fall in a restored antebellum mansion he bought from the local community college in nearby Madison for $450,000. Students can take online courses or train to work at the bakery. |
| The philanthropist Charles Annenberg Weingarten, a supporter of Mr. Smith’s educational charity, Common Threads, is giving the school $250,000 because he believes food is a way to restore dying communities. “Rural, small-town America was the backbone of Americana values,” he wrote in an email. “Now, these towns are closed, run-down and consist of one street with fast food.” | |
| If it all seems too much to pull off, remember that Art Smith is a man who has cooked for President Obama and the British royal family, whose children received formal baptismal blessings from the pope and who is friends with Lady Gaga and Jeb Bush. | If it all seems too much to pull off, remember that Art Smith is a man who has cooked for President Obama and the British royal family, whose children received formal baptismal blessings from the pope and who is friends with Lady Gaga and Jeb Bush. |
| “He is a force of nature, and if anyone can make all of these pieces come together, it’s him,” said Adam Putnam, a former Republican congressman who is now Florida’s commissioner of agriculture. “Nobody is going to tell Art no.” | “He is a force of nature, and if anyone can make all of these pieces come together, it’s him,” said Adam Putnam, a former Republican congressman who is now Florida’s commissioner of agriculture. “Nobody is going to tell Art no.” |
| Indeed, it’s easy to get caught up in Mr. Smith’s web. | Indeed, it’s easy to get caught up in Mr. Smith’s web. |
| “Art is like the Pied Piper,” said Susan Levin Turner, a Jasper native who owns the restaurant Food Glorious Food in Tallahassee and is one of the South’s cake authorities. She is serving as baking consultant and cheerleader for Mr. Smith, helping him focus. That is a considerable task. | “Art is like the Pied Piper,” said Susan Levin Turner, a Jasper native who owns the restaurant Food Glorious Food in Tallahassee and is one of the South’s cake authorities. She is serving as baking consultant and cheerleader for Mr. Smith, helping him focus. That is a considerable task. |
| “Everybody wants to jump on the bus,” she said, “but we need to make sure the bus is ready to go.” | “Everybody wants to jump on the bus,” she said, “but we need to make sure the bus is ready to go.” |
| Margie Geddes, the millionaire heiress of Red Stripe, the beer her husband pioneered in Jamaica, has already claimed her seat on the bus. She first met Mr. Smith in Tuscany. She began spending time in Jasper after her daughter, Lisa St. John, a nature lover who wanted a quieter, gentler place to raise her children, bought a Greek Revival house around the corner from the Victorian farmhouse where Mr. Smith moved his family. His mother, Addie Mae, lives a couple of blocks away in the house Mr. Smith grew up in. | Margie Geddes, the millionaire heiress of Red Stripe, the beer her husband pioneered in Jamaica, has already claimed her seat on the bus. She first met Mr. Smith in Tuscany. She began spending time in Jasper after her daughter, Lisa St. John, a nature lover who wanted a quieter, gentler place to raise her children, bought a Greek Revival house around the corner from the Victorian farmhouse where Mr. Smith moved his family. His mother, Addie Mae, lives a couple of blocks away in the house Mr. Smith grew up in. |
| Ms. Geddes bought the abandoned soda fountain and other buildings in Jasper with the intention of building a gym and maybe a juice bar as a way to help revitalize a town she said is “at the bottom of the barrel.” | Ms. Geddes bought the abandoned soda fountain and other buildings in Jasper with the intention of building a gym and maybe a juice bar as a way to help revitalize a town she said is “at the bottom of the barrel.” |
| “People are hungry for basics again,” she said in a phone interview from her home on Grand Cayman. “They want that village feeling, the feeling of knowing your neighbors and life lived on front porches. Jasper takes you back to the front porch.” | “People are hungry for basics again,” she said in a phone interview from her home on Grand Cayman. “They want that village feeling, the feeling of knowing your neighbors and life lived on front porches. Jasper takes you back to the front porch.” |
| A small Southern town with conservative Christian roots is not exactly the kind of place one may expect to embrace a man who once staged a mass gay wedding at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, married his own partner on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 2010, and then renewed his vows during a wedding for gay and lesbian couples on “Top Chef.” | A small Southern town with conservative Christian roots is not exactly the kind of place one may expect to embrace a man who once staged a mass gay wedding at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, married his own partner on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 2010, and then renewed his vows during a wedding for gay and lesbian couples on “Top Chef.” |
| “They just accept Art for Art,” said Ina Thompson, a town commissioner in Madison, who owns an office supply and shipping store there. “The fact that he is gay doesn’t matter. Even if it does bother them, they’re not making it known.” | “They just accept Art for Art,” said Ina Thompson, a town commissioner in Madison, who owns an office supply and shipping store there. “The fact that he is gay doesn’t matter. Even if it does bother them, they’re not making it known.” |
| To be sure, in both Jasper and Madison, Mr. Smith is greeted like a returning hero. A gas station clerk applauded Mr. Smith’s significant weight loss, which was prompted by a diabetes diagnosis and achieved with the help of his personal trainer, Noah Sanderson, who has moved to Jasper. Mr. Smith hopes Mr. Sanderson will help lead a fitness revival among residents. | To be sure, in both Jasper and Madison, Mr. Smith is greeted like a returning hero. A gas station clerk applauded Mr. Smith’s significant weight loss, which was prompted by a diabetes diagnosis and achieved with the help of his personal trainer, Noah Sanderson, who has moved to Jasper. Mr. Smith hopes Mr. Sanderson will help lead a fitness revival among residents. |
| Mr. Smith is the area’s most famous resident since Lillian Smith, the author whose best-selling 1944 novel, “Strange Fruit,” touched on themes of racism and interracial romance. His speeches at the local chamber of commerce sell out. They still talk about the Christmas cookie contest Mr. Smith had at the mansion in Madison, and the party he gave when the girls’ high school basketball team won the state championship. | Mr. Smith is the area’s most famous resident since Lillian Smith, the author whose best-selling 1944 novel, “Strange Fruit,” touched on themes of racism and interracial romance. His speeches at the local chamber of commerce sell out. They still talk about the Christmas cookie contest Mr. Smith had at the mansion in Madison, and the party he gave when the girls’ high school basketball team won the state championship. |
| “Everyone thinks we’re Jesus come to save the town,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s hard.” Still, the attention feeds him. | “Everyone thinks we’re Jesus come to save the town,” Mr. Smith said. “It’s hard.” Still, the attention feeds him. |
| “He loves all that celebrity chef stuff, but that man gives more than he receives, believe me,” said his husband, Mr. Salguerio. “I see so many people with more celebrity than him who don’t give back nothing.” | “He loves all that celebrity chef stuff, but that man gives more than he receives, believe me,” said his husband, Mr. Salguerio. “I see so many people with more celebrity than him who don’t give back nothing.” |
| That his restaurants aren’t always well regarded by critics and other chefs doesn’t matter that much. | That his restaurants aren’t always well regarded by critics and other chefs doesn’t matter that much. |
| “My mission is to use the business to fund the good stuff I want to do,” he said. “At the end of the day, do I want to be known for some award-winning restaurant or that I turned a town around and helped make it sustainable? That’s better than any damn Beard Award.” | “My mission is to use the business to fund the good stuff I want to do,” he said. “At the end of the day, do I want to be known for some award-winning restaurant or that I turned a town around and helped make it sustainable? That’s better than any damn Beard Award.” |
| But the Jasper project has deeper layers. | But the Jasper project has deeper layers. |
| “My mother said at 4 years old, I said I wanted to leave this place,” he said. | “My mother said at 4 years old, I said I wanted to leave this place,” he said. |
| Mr. Smith recalls growing up with the kind of quiet suffering many gay and lesbian teenagers still endure in small Southern towns. | Mr. Smith recalls growing up with the kind of quiet suffering many gay and lesbian teenagers still endure in small Southern towns. |
| Driving along a back road in his truck, he shared a story from high school. He played trombone. One day, two boys who suspected he was gay shoved him into a recital room and bullied him in awful ways. The incident ended with the boys urinating in his trombone case. | Driving along a back road in his truck, he shared a story from high school. He played trombone. One day, two boys who suspected he was gay shoved him into a recital room and bullied him in awful ways. The incident ended with the boys urinating in his trombone case. |
| But as for many gay sons of the South, home is home. | But as for many gay sons of the South, home is home. |
| “You still love your home and you want to go back and improve it,” he said. “My best revenge is that I got successful.” | “You still love your home and you want to go back and improve it,” he said. “My best revenge is that I got successful.” |
| Recipe: Key Lime Poundcake | Recipe: Key Lime Poundcake |