Fired up: 'Kitchen Inferno' is heating up Wednesday nights

A contestant and host Curtis Stone as seen in “Kitchen Inferno”

What is it about high-pressure cooking and high-stakes gambling that makes them go so well together?

A slice of 'Life': Vivian Howard blends food, family and community on PBS

Vivian Howard as seen in “A Chef’s Life”

If you're like me and really like food, the array of cooking shows on TV these days is a little slice of heaven. There's something to satiate everyone's desires, be it a culinary competition, a talk-based program or a lesson-based show.

Extreme holiday: Thanksgiving takes an 'outrageous' turn on the Food Network

A turkey as seen in “Outrageous Thanksgiving”

Thinking about Thanksgiving conjures up a lot of different imagery. There's the classic image of pilgrims to the new world sitting down to a feast with their native friends that we all learned about in elementary school -- a perfect children's tale for the ages.

A pint-sized kitchen: 'MasterChef Junior' is a bonafide hit

Chef Graham Elliot judges in “MasterChef Junior”

How can you tell when a TV show is a hit?

Well, there's the usual metrics, I guess. Ratings, water cooler chit-chat, Internet buzz. The first season of Fox's "MasterChef Junior" had all of those things, but consider this little metric: Fox ordered up a third season of the pint-sized culinary competition before it had even begun production of the second.

This means war: 'Halloween Wars' comes to a sweet finish

Contestant Teresa Shurilla in a scene from “Halloween Wars”

Food for thought: Chef Blais uncovers the science behind the food

Chef Richard Blais hosts “Hungry Games”

Hungry? How often do we stop and think about our food? No, not give a passing thought to the ingredients that went into making it or the fantastic skill it was prepared with. I mean really think about it on a deeper level: why do we react to food the way we do?

New season, New England: 'Top Chef' is heading to Boston

Gail Simmons, Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio star in “Top Chef”

Deliciously destructive: 'Cutthroat Kitchen' launches superstar tournament for charity

Alton Brown hosts “Cutthroat Kitchen: Superstar Sabotage”

We all know the old saying: "if at first you don't succeed, try again." Typically, it's meant to inspire us after a failure, to persuade us to pick ourselves up, to dust ourselves off and make another attempt at whatever it was we were trying to do.

Order up!: Ty Pennington and Emeril Lagasse serve what's 'On the Menu'

Ty Pennington and Chef Emeril Lagasse as seen in “On the Menu”

How many times have you sat on the couch watching your favorite show featuring amateur home cooks -- whether it be Fox's "MasterChef," ABC's "The Taste" or any of the many others on the menu -- and longed (and I mean really longed) to try out some of the beautiful dishes being served up?

Fired up: 'American Grilled' wraps up a smokin' hot first season

Host David Guas with fellow judges Danielle Dimovski and John Jamison as seen in “American Grilled”

What could be more American than grilling?