Chef Jeff will bring cooking to your television

The owner of Cutie Pie's restaurant hopes to become a television darling when he airs a local weekly cooking show.

In Your Home with Chef Jeff, featuring Jeff Freehof, will run at noon on Saturdays on UPN beginning May 6.

Freehof, who opened Cutie Pie's a year ago in the Publix shopping center in Evans, said he plans to dish out more than just recipes on his show.

"The thing about a lot of those cooking shows is that you have people making things with ingredients that aren't easy to find and with equipment most people don't have," the 44-year-old said.

"My main goal with this show is to have people e-mail me, or come up to me, and say, 'Hey, I made what you made on the show. It was easy,'" he said.

Beyond the meals, Freehof said he also will teach his viewers cooking tips and disclose some trade secrets.

Freehof began cooking while still in high school and hasn't looked back, he said.

While living in New England, he worked as a master chef for many hotels and resorts, was a general manager for the Olive Garden and owned a small chain of pizza restaurants.

The 27-year veteran chef once won "Pizza of the Year" from the National Pizza Association.

In addition to his cooking duties, he writes a regular question-and-answer column for Pizza Today, a national trade magazine.

During Masters Week, Freehof also served as CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz's personal chef, he said.

Regarding his upcoming show, Freehof said his stomach will be full, but with food, not butterflies.

"I'm very comfortable in front of people," he said. "That doesn't bother me at all."

In fact, the upcoming local show isn't Freehof's first foray in front of the camera.

Before moving to Evans about two years ago, Freehof was host of a cooking show titled At Home with Chef Jeff from his native Rhode Island.

To start, In Your Home with Chef Jeff will be filmed in a studio, but Freehof hopes to expand beyond those confines.

"Eventually, I'd like to get a remote crew and actually go to people's homes and work with them in their kitchen," he said. "Then, I really will be in their home."