Having lunch with Chef Art Smith is a bit like combining a family dinner, a gastronomic dream and an hour with US Weekly into two hours at a table. DCist recently got the chance to attend a lunch the chef was hosting at his D.C. restaurant, Art and Soul, where he shared some of his favorite dishes from the menu and all the stories of the people he’s cooked for that could fit into two hours.

The first thing we noticed about Smith is that we had a hard time noticing him. If you enter the restaurant and expect to see the chef you saw on Top Chef Masters, you’ll be lost. After being diagnosed with diabetes, Smith went on a rigorous diet and exercise plan that enabled him to drop 85 pounds and reverse the diagnosis. The chef you see now at the restaurant is a tall and trim man in his dark blue chef coat and dark jeans. But Smith’s smile and accent give him away.

In addition to serving as Oprah’s personal chef for years, Smith has cooked for governors, presidents and celebrities from Tyler Perry to Elmo of Sesame Street. He’s a bit like the Dos Equis “Most Interesting Man in the World” of food — he has literally done it all (including making biscuits in a cast iron pan over a campfire in the Arctic Circle). But all of that doesn’t alter his warm, Southern charm. He’s quite possibly the easiest person in the world to talk to at a table.