Kitchen Confidential: "Nigella Feasts" on Food Network

I'm a sucker for food television shows. Especially ones that feature that insatiable British domestic goddess Nigella Lawson, author of such wildly popular cookery books as "How to Be a Domestic Goddess," "Nigella Bites," "Forever Summer," and her latest opus, "Feast."

It's the latter book, with its emphasis on celebratory cooking, that ties into Nigella's latest program, Nigella Feasts, which launched yesterday in the US on Food Network. To know Nigella is to love her. And to love her means giving into fat, butter, sugar, and god knows what else in pursuit of deliciously dreamy foodstuffs. If you can't handle a deep-fried Mars bar, this is not the cooking show for you. But if you've got a yearning for chocolate cherry trifle and lamb with pomegranate and feta, Nigella is the gal for you. My girlfriend, formerly hopeless in the kitchen, was transformed by Nigella's "How to Be a Domestic Goddess." Now she makes a pavlova that would rival her teacher's by comparison.

Both on screen and in print, Nigella's descriptions of ingredients and dishes are sensual and atmospheric and have a way of transporting the viewer/reader right into her kitchen. She also doesn't shy away from getting her hands dirty in the kitchen; in fact, Nigella seems to relish it. The effect is intoxicating: food becomes not just nourishment, not just art, but a full-body experience.

Yesterday's premiere episode ("Crowd Pleasers") was classic Nigella: a spicy beef chili, infused with cardamom and cocoa (seriously) and topped with a golden and cinnamon-scented cornbread topping. (I've made it several times and it's always been sinfully delicious) To follow: a chocolate cherry trifle: a classic English dessert made by layering chocolate cake, sandwiched with cherry jam, lashed with cherry brandy, topped with chocolate custard, sour cherries, and whipped cream. Trifle is a particular favorite in the Televisionary household and an absolute snap to make. I couldn't help but drool after watching Nigella make hers.

Like her previous programs, Nigella Feasts features some trademark Nigella traits: an adorable opening credit sequence (featuring upbeat music and animated kitchen-set drawings), the familiar site of Nigella shopping and rummaging through her overstocked pantry. And that charming end sequence that appears at the end of every episode as Nigella wanders down into the kitchen in the middle of the night to take a taste of her refrigerated leftovers. Familiar? Perhaps, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Nigella Feasts" airs Sundays at 1 pm on the Food Network.