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An accomplished chef, cooking show host and cookbook author, Valerie Bertinelli is the first to admit she has a few things to learn about baking. In fact, she's looking around for a place to take a course. Which makes her role as judge, mentor and co-host of Food Network's "Kids Baking Championship" a pretty fortuitous gig for her. "They just get better and better," she says of the competition series' youthful contestants. "They're amazing. I can't believe these kids are 11 and 12 years old. I mean, the things that they know, I'm learning stuff from them. It's actually really exciting and fun for me because I learn more and more watching them bake. Because baking is a different animal than cooking. I've always been intrigued by it and it's fun to be around it and watch people be so good at it." In the series, which opens its fourth season Monday, Jan. 1, Bertinelli ("Valerie's Home Cooking") and co-host Duff Goldman ("Ace of Cakes"), an accomplished baker, put a dozen competitors ages 10-13 through their paces with decadent dessert challenges designed to determine the best young baker in the country. The winner gets a $25,000 grand prize, a feature in Food Network Magazine and the title of Kids Baking Champion. But winning a contest such as this takes not only talent, but also poise. Culinary competition series are full of adult chefs and bakers who melt under the pressure of battle and the heat of TV lights, but Bertinelli says the kids during the run of this show have seemed to be immune to such woes. "Even Duff says they're so much easier to deal with because they're right there," she says. "Their emotions, their feelings – they're right there and you don't have to dig for what's really going on and they're frankly willing to just listen. ... They're not afraid to be embarrassed, put it that way, or make mistakes." cutline BY GEORGE DICKIE Bertinelli picks up a few pointers on 'Kids Baking Championship' What book are you currently reading? "We just had book group last week and our new book is 'Dorian Gray,' so a little Oscar Wilde is what we're going to be reading. We're doing a classic this month. And beyond that, I'm always reading cookbooks and I'm always looking at new cookbooks." What is your next project? "My cookbook is out and I'm very excited about it. It's the same title as my show, 'Valerie's Home Cooking,' and it's more recipes of how I grew up, why I love to cook, what recipes mean to me. Each recipe has a meaning to me and I write the stories before it." What did you have for dinner last night? "I had salmon with some tzatziki and a salad. A baked salmon." When was your last vacation, where and why? "(Laughs) I don't remember. It's been a while, but I am going to go to Italy in May and do a course called Tuscan Women Cooks. I'm going to go to Tuscany and learn more Italian dishes from the women that cook in Tuscany, so I'm looking forward to that. So that will be a vacation. So my next vacation is in May. Yay, me!" Page 8 January 1 - 7, 2018 On or Off-Site Catering All Occasions Dine under the glow of gas lanterns Breakfast and Lunch Meals also available Open Tuesday through Saturday

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