Kitchen Confidential

Casting was much more serendipitous. Cooper ended up with a scene-stealing turn in Wedding Crashers, one of the summer's biggest hits, which upped his profile just in time for the debut of Confidential. The actor — who played Will Tippin on Alias for two seasons — was initially hesitant to return to TV. ''Honestly, I didn't want to do a pilot this year,'' says Cooper, who spent a good portion of last season on The WB's beloved Jack & Bobby. ''But then I read the script and I loved the character. It's a much more nourishing experience for an actor than flipping pancakes for Sydney when she walks in the house,'' he says of his Alias time. Brendon, who hadn't settled on a series since his seven seasons on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended in 2003, chose Confidential for his return to TV because it had ''the best script I've ever read in any hiatus.'' Rounding out the cast are John Francis Daley (Freaks and Geeks), Somerville (Friends and NYPD Blue), Yeoman (Troy), and former model Jaime King (Pearl Harbor).

The pilot, shot single-camera-style à la Arrested Development — Confidential's lead-in — alludes to some behavior that would compromise the cleanliness of a kitchen workspace: drug use, oral sex, and accidental dismemberment. Star says he thinks that even under the watchful eye of the network's standards and practices department, the show will be able to stay true to the book's raunchier moments. ''I don't feel like anything's missing,'' he says. ''I don't think the show would have been so terribly different on HBO as it is on Fox.... The show is about the characters, not necessarily just about saying 'You f---ing c---sucker.' I've said, 'You f---ing c---sucker.' So I don't mind going for the broader audience.''' Adds Hemingson: ''We're going to push the envelope, but we're going to do some stuff off screen. I think it's more tantalizing, hinting around it.'' What producers promise not to keep off screen are the cooking scenes. They sent Cooper, Brendon (the neurotic pastry chef), Daley (the newbie line cook), and Yeoman (who plays Bourdain's cocky British sous-chef Steven) to the Fox commissary so that the studio chefs could teach the actors how to look like they actually know what they're doing behind a stove.

Flashy displays with a grill pan aside, the writers say Kitchen won't be Emeril (his Food Network series or his short-lived NBC 2001 sitcom). There will be some sexual tension between Jack and Mimi (King's character, Tanya, is an object of universal desire) and an explanation for why Mimi, a college graduate, is waiting tables at Daddy's restaurant. But Nolita is just the backdrop for what Star hopes will be a more character-driven show. ''Much in the way you can look at Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City as being on a journey, Jack has a journey also,'' says Star. ''He's a single guy in New York with a high-pressure job and still wants a personal life.'' To that end, the show has re-created Bourdain's beloved subterranean midtown after-hours hangout, Siberia (called the Snake Pit on the show), complete with dusty light fixtures and chipped floors.

In the meantime, the real-life Bourdain, who admits to initially ''freaking out'' when he watched the pilot, thinks the show has done an admirable job of staying true to the spirit of his book. And he looks forward to his consulting duties should Confidential become a hit. ''I'm somebody they can call at two in the morning if they wanted to know whether Jack would be having sex on a bag of potatoes or a sack of flour.''

Well?

''Flour is better.''