Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Frugal Gourmet was a cooking show that aired on PBS from 1988 to 1997. Each show focused on different regional American, immigrant American, or world cuisine. The host of this show was Jeff Smith, a United Methodist minister, and author of a dozen cookbooks. Known affectionately as "The Frug", he asserted that "frugal" gourmet cooking does not mean "cheap", but choosing your ingredients and using your resources efficiently. He graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1962 and from Drew University in New Jersey in 1965. His show became the highest-rated cooking show ever produced. His public career came to an end when two of his male assistant chefs brought charges of sexual harassment against him. Although he was proven innocent of the charges, he could not recover his reputation. The Philly Soft Pretzel incident Smith did a show focusing on Philadelphia foods, like Scrapple and Cheese Steaks, and demonstrated a Philly Soft Pretzel to his own embarrassment. A Philly Soft Pretzel is NOT the familiar pretzel shape, but rather loaf-like, and vendors buy loaves of 20 to break one off for sale. He also showed a Cheese Steak on a round kaiser roll. Some people stopped watching him altogether, and some PBS channels dumped him. Jeff Smith is happily retired and living in Seattle, Washington. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.