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.

I'm not crazy about this show, even though I like most of Tyler Florence's shows. It must be hard to play dumb about all the cooking questions when you know you've been basically taking cooking lessons from the best cooks for quite some time. But I did like the comedienne girl better. While Jack (odd name for a woman) is not unlikeable, she's relatively mundane and really doesn't add much to the show. But she's not as bad as Jacqui Malouf was on Hot Off the Grill ;)
Posted by LEV at December 3, 2004 11:21 AM

From my and my wife's observations of Tyler Florence on his other shows, he comes off as very patient, and that he truly likes being around people, while talking about his passion for cooking. While you or I might find this hyper little girl (Jack) nerve grating if we had to work with her, Tyler really appears to enjoy their interaction. We know he's a great chef, but do we really think he's a good enough actor to make it seem he enjoys her when he doesn't? I've been studying kinesics for decades, and based on only what we see on the show, I would not in the least be surprised if those two ended up romantically involved. I also don't think she's as dim as she lets on. I think she's being forced to play a character by the producers, as well as the fact that her dim act offers Tyler more chances to explain certain techniques in greater detail as if he's teaching it to his underacheiver sidekick.
Posted by Jeffrey Head at December 31, 2004 11:37 PM

I love Jack Hourigan! She is so funny and the comments she makes always make me laugh. If you really listen to her, maybe you'll find her truly entertaining.
Posted by Katie Smittern at January 8, 2005 03:22 PM

Okay - this show now gives me a major headache. Now they have Jack just sitting drinking a cup of coffee, asking questions, bending and trying to see what Tyler is doing way over there with the food! Apparently, they are trying everything to keep this show on the air. They keep changing chefs - when they need to gag Jack. But I have to admit - I do feel sorry for her - having to sit in the corner and watch and not do anything. It's crazy.
Posted by Jenny at January 23, 2005 08:14 AM

I've seen this new format, and I think I actually like it better than the older format. She's not quite as distracting being off to the side like that, at least imho. She really doesn't add a lot of value to the show however, it's kind of like Jacqui Malouf on HOTG. I would rather watch a 1/2 hour of this show than 5 minutes of the BF Contessa :)
Posted by LeV at January 29, 2005 04:46 AM

I haven't quite made up my mind about the new format just yet. Tyler Florence is a very informative cook and it is refreshing to see 'calmed' down a bit. God I thought at times she was going to jump on him and rip his clothes off. She reminds me of a coed invited over for something more than just dinner. Besides that I still like the show, I thought she probably broken a foot or something.
Posted by Ray at February 5, 2005 05:22 AM