Due to my tender age, I know Brian Boitano mainly as a fire-breathing superhero who saved the world in "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut."  What I didn’t know was that he won a gold medal in men's figure skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics ("Cool Runnings" also happened there) and more importantly, he loves to cook. The next generation may just know him best as a host on Food Network.

"What Would Brian Boitano Make?" is highly entertaining, akin to watching an excitable friend make you a fabulous dinner. Boitano is a natural host, inventing unpretentious, easy and intermediate-level recipes he cooks out of his beautiful and well-equipped San Francisco kitchen. The occasional awkward moments of a fledgling TV personality are broken up by occasional animated asides, such as Boitano running from a gooey monster of goat cheese too much softened to be rolled into balls. The point is, he knows it has to be chilled for it to be rolled into balls and coated with crushed pistachios for his Sun-Dried Tomato and Goat Cheese Skewers. His affinity for bacon, which shows up in his Bacon Corn Muffins with Savory Cream Cheese Frosting and Bacon Bourbon Apple Tarts, adds a major plus to the show. Who doesn't respect a man with the ability to incorporate crisp, smoky bacon into as many dishes as possible? I'm just waiting for him to chop zucchini with a freshly sharpened skate.

With four episodes so far, "What Would Brian Boitano Make?" is a refreshing, if not low-budget, deviation from the occasional monotony of over-seasoned Food Network hosts. Whether he's traipsing around San Francisco's food shopping havens in a skintight Elvis skating costume or inventing any number of cocktail-shaker-related dances, Boitano has won the culinary gold. As far as his reinvention goes, why not a sincere and enthusiastic cooking show whose theme song is a slightly modified version of the "South Park" original? Watch out, Ted Allen, Brian Boitano’s got a knife.

"What Would Brian Boitano Make?" Sundays at 1 p.m. Eastern on the Food Network.

Photo credit: Food Network