B. SMITH BIO

TV Personality, Restaurateur, Author

B. Smith is the host of B. Smith With Style, a half-hour nationally syndicated television series currently airing in its fifth season in over 200 markets nationwide and 22 countries. She is also the owner of three successful B. Smith restaurants located in New York’s Times Square theatre district, Washington DC’s historic Union Station and the scenic Long Island Hampton Village of Sag Harbor. The B. Smith Restaurant Group was formed in May of 1998 and is in the process of expanding their restaurant holdings.

As a seasoned culinary and lifestyle expert, Smith was recently recognized by Elle Décor magazine as “one of America’s 10 most outstanding non-professional chefs in the country.” She is also the first African-American woman elected to the Board of Trustees of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America. A frequent guest on television entertainment shows, B. has appeared on the “Today Show,” “Good Morning America,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee,” and many local newscasts around the country.

In 1995, Smith broke ground in the publishing industry. “B. Smith’s Entertaining and Cooking for Friends” (Artisan Press) was the first tabletop entertainment and lifestyle book authored by an African-American. Her second book, published in 1999 by Random House, “B. Smith: Rituals and Celebrations” was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award, and it was chosen by Food & Wine as one of the best cookbooks of 1999, and won the American Library Association Black Caucus Literary Award. B. also writes a column titled “Stylewise” for Soap Opera Digest.

Affordable luxury is the cornerstone of B. Smith's lifestyle and design philosophy. In fall 2000, B. Smith made her debut in the home merchandise arena. B. teamed-up with one of the largest wall covering companies in the world, Imperial Home Décor Group (IHDG) to launch an extensive and eclectic collection of wall coverings. The first book features eight boarders and 15 wall designs sectioned into four different global design groups. The collection, with its trans-cultural look, has boarders and sidewalls that can cross coordinate. The wall covering collection can be purchased at home design centers, paint and wallpaper retailers, and specialty stores.

B. Smith’s influence in home style continues to grow with the spring 2001 launch of her first collection of bedding and bath merchandise manufactured by Keeco, a San Francisco-based supplier of handcrafted home textiles. The collection, now available exclusively at Bed Bath and Beyond, offers duvet sets, comforter sets, coverlets, quilts, coordinated sheets, decorative pillows and window treatments. Currently, Smith is working on her second Vogue Patterns Collection to launch in fall 2001, as well as additional home-style categories, collections and licensees.

Active in community and the arts, Smith was a founding board member of the Times Square Business Improvement District and is presently on the board of The Feminist Press. She is also a member of the Metro Manhattan Chapter of the Links, the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA.