Paul Smith’s deeply engrained love of both cooking and West Virginia can be traced back to his childhood, standing alongside his grandfather helping to stir the sauce for the large Sunday dinners so common among Italian families who had settled in the coalfields.

From those beginnings, Smith’s passions for food and his Appalachian home have taken him on a culinary journey that he is proud to share with his community. After graduating from Charleston Catholic High School, Smith immersed himself in learning the hospitality industry and the finer points of great cuisine. With his BA from West Virginia State University, he formally trained at New York’s prestigious Culinary Institute of America and CIA’s Greystone campus in Napa Valley, California, where he studied pastries and wine and graduated as valedictorian.

Smith has worked around the country -- from The Ritz Carlton Resort in Naples, Florida to the world-renowned Biltmore Estates in Asheville, North Carolina to The Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Florida. Taking the tastes and techniques of every stop along his culinary journey, he longed to return to his roots and tell these culinary stories through the traditions and flavors of Appalachia. When the Mountain State pulled at his heartstrings, he returned to West Virginia where he served as the Executive Chef at the University of Charleston and also served as an advisor to multiple food and hospitality businesses in West Virginia.

Today, as Corporate Chef for Buzz Food Service, Smith has multiple restaurants in Charleston, West Virginia’s capital: Barkadas, The Pitch Sports Bar & Grill, and 1010 Bridge Restaurant & Catering, which quickly gained a reputation as one of the state’s premiere dining destinations. Named West Virginian of the year in 2023, Smith won the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast in 2024, the first West Virginia chef to do so.

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