 |
|
Art Smith cooks up a storm in his Kenwood condo kitchen. |
The owner: Art Smith, formerly Oprah Winfrey’s personal chef, now her executive chef for special events (he recently catered an Oprah party for Barack Obama). He’s a cookbook author, TV celebrity, philanthropist, Florida native, and co-owner of the Southern-inflected Near North Side restaurant Table Fifty-Two, where reservations are harder to snag than a catfish in a mangrove swamp. Where he gets cooking: A 4,000-square-foot Kenwood condo where the dinner parties are legendary. A party for eight in Smith’s kitchen sold at one Chicago Children’s Museum benefit auction for $20,000—twice. Last year alone, Smith raised $300,000 for various charities just by making supper here. Who’s home: Smith shares the place with Venezuelan-born artist Jesus Salgueiro, his life partner."When I first met Jesus I had no furniture!" Smith says. Also occupying the space are two American Staffordshire terriers, one French bulldog, and five Munchkin cats.
Styling: Barri Leiner
 |
 |
1. Eat locally, decorate globally: "My whole life has been influenced by other cultures," says Smith, whose living room features a Thai howdah, or elephant chair 2. from Hyde Park import shop What the Traveler Saw (1508 E. 55th St., 773-955-5055). Asian dining chairs 3. from a now-defunct Bucktown shop handle the overflow of dinner guests from the kitchen. Art for art’s sake: Dominating the living room are dramatic Salgueiro paintings (Salgueiro is self-represented; susejart.com), including panels for an eye-catching decorative screen 4. The largest piece 5. is"one of his angel paintings," says Smith. Hello, Dali:"We bought Dali lithographs like this one 6. in Barcelona, where we went to celebrate my first cookbook, but we didn’t have anywhere to put them, so we made the "Dali bathroom," says Smith.
Styling: Barri Leiner
 |
Chef’s recommendations: All appliances, including a refrigerator that hides behind a Poliform cabinet front 7., are by Viking."Viking makes amazing kitchen appliances. Plus they were extremely generous after Katrina," says Smith. (The company established the New Orleans Restaurant Renewal Fund to help restore the city’s culinary community after the hurricane.) A display of wide-mouth jars 8. from Architectural Artifacts (4325 N. Ravenswood Ave., 773-348-0622) holds flour and other dry foodstuffs; in a former life the jars held bonbons in an Argentine sweets shop. To create a kitchen island 9., Smith and Salgueiro topped two large Chinese end tables with a piece of marble. The floor 10. is covered with travertine marble from Tile Outlet (2434 W. Fullerton Ave., 773-276-2662).
Styling: Barri Leiner
 |
 |
Shelf life:"I love my pantry," says Smith of his wall of open shelves 11., full of party-ready dishes and glassware."I don’t believe things should be hidden away." Sur la Table cookware and Le Creuset pots, both of which he tests for the companies, are on view. Youth movement:Much of the children’s artwork 12. that covers one wall of the kitchen was done by kids in Common Threads, an after-school program launched by Smith, in which celebrated chefs teach kids to cook. He recently also started a scholarship fund to help young people from other countries study cooking in the United States. The large paintings are by Todd Parr 13., a children’s book author and illustrator and creator of the Discovery Kids TV show ToddWorld.
Styling: Barri Leiner
 |
Feed the soul: "I bought the big Mexican cross 14. in Santa Barbara for Jesus. We have a religious icon from Greece here and a Buddha that [local restaurateur] Jerry Kleiner gave us. They’re sitting on a Chinese Buddha shrine table 15.," says Smith."When we were renovating this place three years ago, Jesus was very ill. The doctors kept asking, "Why are you redoing a place he will never move into?’ This little shrine is to celebrate that they didn’t know what they were talking about." Moving on: "We’re looking to buy a larger Kenwood house so we can do more parties. We want to give our new house entirely over to charity for one month a year. It’ll be a showhouse that people can visit during the day, and at night it will be a platform to do parties for charity. "From the kitchen to the table to the community’—that’s our motto," says the chef with the biggest heart in town.
Styling: Barri Leiner