Entertainment

QUICHE AND TELL – HOSTS MAY NOT EAT MEAT, BUT THEY DO TAKE THE CAKE

“Dweezil & Lisa” [ ] (three stars)

Tomorrow night at 10 on the Food Network

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A heaping helping of cutie-pie is on the menu at the Food Network with the debut of “Dweezil & Lisa.”

He’s Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, and she’s Lisa Loeb, the earnest guitar- strumming folky known for wearing glasses that are, you know, kind of dorky, but not really, because she’s kind of, you know, pretty.

They’re a lovely couple and the Food Network is welcome to use the following, enthusiastic quote in their ads: “‘They’re adorable!’ says Adam Buckman of the New York Post.”

Their new show consists of them traveling around the country playing music and eating in fun and funky restaurants.

In Friday night’s premiere, they stuff themselves at three Atlanta restaurants: Watershed, owned by their friend, Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls; Gladys Knight & Ron Winans’ Chicken & Waffles soul food restaurant (where Dweezil orders the specialty, chicken and waffles, a dish dubbed “The Night Train”); and the Varsity, known as the nation’s largest drive-in restaurant.

In short, “Dweezil & Leezil” spend about a day-and-a-half gorging on fried Southern food, but somehow remain thin – which is some achievement since Lisa cannot stop saying how much they both love food.

She’s the more loquacious of the two, and also a vegetarian who admits to sneaking bacon into her salads. Despite that guilty pleasure, she turns up her nose at the meat on display at a butcher shop.

Dweezil, who is not a vegetarian, nevertheless says visiting a butcher is like visiting a morgue – which seems to run counter to the eat-anything-and-everything philosophy of a network on which “pork fat rules!” (according to Emeril).

The half-hour “Dweezil & Lisa” breezes by rather quickly, its speed aided somewhat by jumpy hand-held cameras and quick-cut edits accompanied by thumping music.

These elements signal that the show has been designed for younger viewers, whose eyes and brains are thought to be better attuned to this kind of stuff than older folks (a notion that’s widely accepted in the TV business, but never really proved).

Anyhow, to sum up: Somewhere between spicy and bland, “Dweezil & Lisa” is an easily digested cook’s tour.

Feel free to quote me.