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Cover Story
Cooking!
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The kitchen skills that emerged ,
j i»»ii^fO|Mtefcfser^»^eadidiAwithasideof
i as ms for her choddst ted velvet
| Rjr three decades, she irreverent grandmothers day job
>3fhas been char of a music journalist, cowering the oountry
I muse seas that she loves so deeply. She writes a regular col
• umn for CMTs website, umtumam, and broadcasts daily
reports ftom her homein Madison, Term., to an Indianapolis
country radio station.
Until her culinary achievements made headlines, her
greatest fame was for coining the cerm “outlaw” to describe
the 1970 s musical movement that emerged out of Nashville,
Tenn., and included Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and
Kris Kriseoffcrson. During the “good ol’ days,” she never
knew who would drop by for dinner. Singers Keith Whitley,
Tbmpall Glaser, and Waylon Jennings and wife Jessi
Coker were among those who enjoyed her hospitality.
The late bluegrass legend Bill Monroe loved
her coconut pie, late songwriter Harlan Howard Jjjb
couldn’t resist her macaroni and cheese, and singer wffi}-
Ricky Skaggs eats tier cdlaid greens right out of Bug
the pot. The late author Shel Silverstein dubbed
her now-fonxxis dessert “The World's Best Banana
Pudding." Country singer Andy Griggs, 31, has a <4ll
weakness for tier scalloped (xxatoes. “I cant get ' N BB§F
those scalloped potatoes off my mind,"
he says. “I’m dreaming about tliem.
Have you ever dimmed alxxit
|K.inr.' I low Ixranking."
“Cooking is as creative as anything
you can do, whether it’s writing or
rhyming or whatever,” says Hazel
Smith, who also is a successful
songwriter and music journalist.
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Country singers Andy Griggs (left) and Jeff Bates were delighted to have lunch with Smith at her Madison,Tenn., home.
Gxintry singer Jeff Bates says his favorite Smith dish
is chicken and dumplings. “Hazels cooking reminds me
of going hack to Mamas and sitting down at the table
and eating a meal cooked with that special ingredient
that only mamas know how to cook with: love," Bates
says. “Seriously, it immediately takes me back to my
childhood. She'll love you, feed you, make sure you don’t
leave hungry and even line you out if you're getting a
little exit of hand."
Despite the attention, Smith still refuses to make a
fuss with fancy fixings. "To me, it wasn't like how those
French cooks try to make everything look beautiful,’’ she
says. “I think it’s OK to make it kxik pretty,
. but to have it taste good is more
important than the way it locks.
I never have been one to put a
bunch of flowers on the table. I
fill up the table with food."
Word of her kitchen talents
P spread, and eventually famed
‘ chef Emeril Lagasse had to
taste for himself Smith cooked
lor him in her home, and he
began booking her on
his show. In 2001,
she published .1
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Chef Emeril Lagasse, Smith and singer Brad Paisley on the set.
cookbook, Hot Dish: Hazel’s Cookin' uitlo Country Stars ,
a collectitxi of favorite recipes from entertainers such as
Shania Twain, Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson and Keith
Urban. Smith currently is compiling a list of her most
beloved recipes for a second cookbook.
Although she enjoys the fanfare, the divorced mother
of two doesn’t see what the fuss is all about. It seems as
for back as she can remember, she knew how to cook
because cooking was a form of survival. “In the country,
it you didn’t cook, you didn’t eat," says Smith, who was
raised without running water or electricity until she was
a high school senior. “Women just learned to work and
ctxik if you lived in the country. It was something that
just came naturally.
“My mother told me that she stood
in a chair wlien my grandmother was
sick and my grandfather taught her
how to make biscuits. She made
B the best biscuits. My daddy had
to have biscuits for breakfast and
k combread for lunch, and then he
would crumble up combread in
buttermilk for supper. The main meal
was tlx- lunch, but we called it dinner.
We had breakfast, dinner and supper.”
Page 12
•American Profile
I Photo courtesy of Hazel Smith