From Oprah Winfrey to Lady Gaga, Chef Art Smith staying well connected
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 Chef Art Smith (left) and pop star Lady Gaga (right) prepare a Thanksgiving meal during ABC's "A Very Gaga Thanksgiving." (ABC) |
Before teaming up with Joe Germanotta on the yet-to-open restaurant, Joanne, in New York, Table Fifty-Two chef Art Smith teamed up with Germanotta’s daughter, Stefani — a.k.a. Lady Gaga — on the ABC special “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving.”
Smith, whom Gaga introduced as her “favorite chef in the whole world,” appeared on the cooking portion of the 90-minute special Thursday. The “Top Chef Masters” alum and former personal chef for Oprah Winfrey made fried turkey and waffles alongside Gaga.
“The first thing he ever made me was fried chicken and waffles,” Gaga said of Smith during the special, “and I went into a coma that was so incredible that I really think I levitated off the Earth and fell asleep.”
Smith said the feeling was mutual. He famously lost 85 pounds and claimed he shed much of the weight dancing to Gaga’s hit song “Bad Romance.”
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“I loved every minute,” Smith said of his segment in an email Saturday. “To be asked was such an honor. And it was even more of an honor to take her family’s recipes and allow them to inspire our cooking together.”
During the special, which averaged 5.4 million viewers, Smith incorporated Gaga’s grandmother’s cranberry sauce and her aunt and uncle’s spiced pecans, among other items. And, in typical Gaga fashion, she wore a Kentucky Derby-worthy hat and a yellow Valentino Couture jacket while cracking eggs. The 25-year-old singer did, however, take the jacket off to whisk the waffle mixture.
“I think I need Mr. Valentino to design a new chef jacket for me,” wrote Smith, who watched the special with family at a resort in Sea Island, Ga. “My blue jacket needs an update with the fashionable company that I’m keeping and my new sexy.”
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