Hale Kilinahe: Pith of Pop: How to Boil Water

She is in dire need of some Ritalin. But more on that later.

This show has gone through several incarnations. Way, way back in the day, even before I watched the Food Network, Emeril was the host of this show. He wore a skinny tie and he had no sidekick.

Then, a comedian teamed up with a cute girl chef, and they traded much witty banter. They had great chemistry. They were on for a couple of seasons. The show was, seemingly, cancelled.

A few years later, they brought it back, this time with a Cindy Crawford lookalike and a hot young French chef. Now, it's clear that Cindy wasn't much of a cook, but Frederic, the chef, was a pretty good teacher. He was very patient and thorough and at the end of an episode, you really felt you learned something.

Then, for some reason, they got rid of Cindy and brought on Jack.

Jack talks a lot. During his brief tenure with Jack, Frederic constantly looked as if he wanted to sit on her and tie her up with some kitchen twine and sit her in the corner. She's Rachael Ray, minus the kitchen skills, times ten.

Then Frederic quit and stuck Jack with Tyler Florence.

Now, Tyler's style is to talk a lot while he's teaching someone to cook. But he can't, because Jack just. talks. endlessly. It makes me yearn for Food 911, where Tyler's pupils aren't paid to be funny or entertaining. I like Tyler; I've learned a lot from his shows and his cookbook. But I walk away from this show with a headache.

What I do like about this show is how simple yet fancy the recipes are. They often feature only five or six recipes, but look very elegant.

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update Okay. I got my wish. And I hate it.

Jack sits in the corner and does nothing. And Tyler acts like a jackass. I think he's been taking lessons from Bobby Flay. Definitely shades of Hot Off the Grill on this show. Jack talks too much but she's still too good to get the Jacqui treatment.