Host with the most finds best way to make toast

Following his cringe-worthy sitcom and even more embarrassing toothpaste shilling, it's safe to say Emeril has worn out his welcome. Rachel Ray has Oprah's financial blessing but she also has that creepy Joker smile. How is it that these kitchen clowns have their own big-time cable shows, while the genuinely likable Christopher Kimball is exiled in Saturday morning PBS? Kimball, the founder and editor of Cook's Illustrated, hosts America's Test Kitchen, one of the few culinary shows on television that views cooking as more of a science than an art. Kimball and his equally talented crew won't fancy up their raspberry cheesecake with sprigs of homegrown mint and lemon zest curlicues. They will, however, investigate over a dozen springform pans and twice as many brands of cream cheese. While his colleagues do most of the actual cooking, the gangly Kimball plays kitchen aide, quiz master, and guinea pig, asking a chef how many species coexist in a box of animal crackers or gamely downing Dixie cups of balsamic vinegarette for a taste test. Now that's a cooking show host. Kimball plugs America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook at the Edina Barnes & Noble November 8.