1. She is living proof that there is room on the Food Network for a woman who could, in all likelihood, pick up and carry Giada De Laurentiis in her pocket — but who can still rock her outfits.
2. She genuinely believes that viewers at home can competently follow along as she braises chicken thighs, bakes profiteroles, quick-boils green beans and shocks them, roasts almonds and adds them to a pan of onions and bacon and mushrooms to form a quick sauce, all in the space of twenty minutes.  That kind of optimism is just darling, and makes us think we actually could do all that without buggering it up.
3. There is every indication that she would be a hell of a lot of fun in person.
4. Her hands look like someone ran them through a lawnmower, slammed them in a car door, or used them to work diligently in a kitchen for twelve years.
5. As a sous-chef on Iron Chef America, she was often more interesting than the actual competitors, and gave us the opportunity to gossip about whether Alton Brown had a crush on her.
6. She will salt the ever-living Christ out of everything, and never apologize.  In fact, we get the feeling that if you don’t add enough salt to stuff, you’ll have to apologize to her — which is awesome.
7. She never, ever makes you feel bad about accidentally dropping things onto your stove-top, into the wrong pan or just entirely on the floor, because she does it on her show ALL THE TIME and never edits it out.
8. There is encouraging evidence that each of her early catch-phrases, particularly using “EARRRRRRL” instead of the word “oil”, are all fading into the background as she finds her stride.
9. She talks to her food as though it was her friend, to which both of us can relate, and which prompts us to wonder whether (as we do) she also hears it answer.
10. She is a fun, slightly weird, entirely likable and totally welcome addition to a world of TV chefs who are increasingly 90% TV and only 10% cook.  It’s nice to have someone reverse the trend a little.

Choosy Beggars TV Criticism Rating-o-matic-tron Verdict:  WATCH.