WORKING -- Lanney Smith

-- Story by Andrew Glazer; photo by Sean Hiller

HE IS

Serving gumbo and good times.

RECENT RECRUIT

Smith recently returned to Southern California -- where he lived for a

stint a few years ago -- from the bayou of Lake Charles in Louisiana,

where he was raised by his “auntie.”

He started cooking at the Riverboat Restaurant on the Newport Harbor only

three weeks ago, but the restaurant’s owner, Clayton Shurley, said he

already is pleased with his find.

“He really makes people happy and comfortable and makes excellent food,”

he said.

Smith, 38, has cooked for U.S. senators, Tina Turner, blues man B.B. King

and the Rolling Stones. He was even the team chef for the Phoenix Suns.

TELLING STORIES

Last week, Smith told a bewildered group of buttoned-up customers how he

wound up in Orange County:

“Clayton grabbed me in the neck with a fish hook when he was fishing down

in Louisiana, and he brought me with him.”

But he admitted his tales aren’t always true:

“I like telling lies and serving food and doing whatever I can to make

people happy.”

DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL

Smith speaks with a friendly Southern drawl, tells a good story and stews

his own soup stocks with shrimp shells, chicken bones and lots of spice.

But don’t ask for his secret gumbo recipe, which has been in his family

for 125 years. He’ll only cook the gumbo on Tuesdays, when the restaurant

is closed and no one else is around.

“I’m not giving up that recipe,” he said, smiling.

GATORS, SNAKES AND BEARS -- OH MY!

Smith has been frying fish and other fauna since he was 11 years old. He has cooked antelope, moose, elk, alligator, rattlesnake, pheasant, deer,

rabbit, crawfish and bear. He said they all tasted delicious.

“If it breathes, flies, crawls or swims, I’ll cook it,” he said, puffing

out his broad chest.

STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE

Cooking is his passion.

“I believe if you give people good food and make them feel good, then

they’ll overcome their problems,” he said.

But there was a period in his life when grief nearly drowned his passion.

In 1992, Smith’s wife died suddenly of a brain aneurysm. At the time, he

was cooking for the Suns in Arizona.

He took off his chef’s hat for two years, nearly immobile with sorrow.

“I had to find myself,” he said. “I prayed to God ‘Send someone to love,

to give me strength and encouragement.”’

ANSWERED PRAYERS

He found happiness once again last year, when he met his fiance,

Jacqueline McNeal.

He was appearing on a cooking show in Anaheim. McNeal’s daughter, who was

in the audience, thought the two would be a good match and called her

mother to the set.

“He seemed like such a nice guy,” McNeal said. “And he could cook!”

Six months later, he proposed to Jacqueline during Sunday services at the

Friendship Baptist Church in Fontana.

“He said ‘I can’t give you a mansion on the hill, but I can love you for

the rest of my life.”’

LOUISIANA DREAMING

Although extremely happy with his new job and fiance, Smith said there

will always be a part of him in the bayou.

“I miss alligator hunting, fishing, going into the bayous in my boat and

catching crawfish,” he said, his eyes drifting upward. “I miss watching

the deer and the fawn running side by side in the fog.”

Leaning over the Riverboat and gazing into the harbor, Smith quipped:

“I’m still hunting for alligators here, but haven’t had any luck.”