For that matter, did everyone and everything smell of smoke all the time?
Definitely not. There is usually no need to put food in contact with anything that smokes.
Let's take wood fired stoves and ovens as an example. Here's one of the simpler ones being fired:
After the oven has been heated and the fire has died out, the cinders are scraped away and whatever one wants to cook is placed inside:
The same goes for cooking ranges: these days there is usually a cast iron top separating pots and pans from whatever is being burned. Here's a picture of a modern one, but the principle is the same.
