Jeff Smith was the chaplain at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington from 1966 to 1972. In 1965, he taught a cooking class called ”Food as Sacrament and Celebration". In 1972, he opened and ran a restaurant called the Chaplain’s Pantry. In 1973, a local PBS television station KTPS-TV offered him his own cooking show, called "Cooking Fish Creatively". "I had a producer who couldn't produce, a director who couldn't direct, a technician who couldn't tech, and I wasn't so good, either", according to Smith. The show received two Emmy nominations. The show won a 'Best of the West' Award for Educational Television in 1976. After several seasons it was renamed "The Frugal Gourmet". The name change was suggested by his wife, Patty. 