Cooking Channel has tapped TV actress Haylie Duff, best known for playing Sandy Jameson on 7th Heaven, to host Real Girl’s Kitchen, based on her popular food blog-turned-book of the same name chronicling farmer's market trips, dinner parties and other gastronomic excursions through Los Angeles and beyond.
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"Viewers have always come to Cooking Channel for smart, curious, adventurous and authentic personalities," says Michael Smith, general manager of the network. "When you watch Real Girl’s Kitchen, it is easy to see why Haylie is the perfect fit."
The 10-episode season will debut in June, following a premiere on the web-based Ora.TV on April 9. Adds the digital outlet's CEO Jon Housman: "We’re giving viewers an inside look at her kitchen, her favorite foods, and her life, which I think will have enormous appeal."
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So what exactly will Real Girl’s Kitchen showcase? "Each episode is different, and a love letter to Los Angeles," says Duff, whose kitchen chops are self-taught and who advocates an approachable, beginners-friendly culinary sensibility to get viewers hooked on both cooking and entertaining.
"We'll visit my good friend Ernesto [Uchimura] at the restaurant Plan Check to learn how to make the perfect burger, or hang out in Malibu in my trailer at the trailer park at Paradise Cove. It's a loose format. I just want people to go on culinary adventures with me."
