It's been a little more than seven years since producer Darren Star spiced up the sitcom landscape with "Sex and the City," an Emmy magnet from HBO that, at least temporarily, raised the bar for TV comedy writing.

Happily, Star is dishing out sophisticated fare again this fall in "Kitchen Confidential," a winning FOX comedy series airing Mondays after the critically acclaimed "Arrested Development."

Loosely based on celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain's book of the same title, the series focuses on talented chef Jack Bourdain (Bradley Cooper), who is looking for a second chance after his earlier runaway success foundered on a lifestyle of booze, women and drugs.

In last week's pilot episode, Jack unexpectedly snagged that second chance at a top New York restaurant, where he hastily assembled a motley crew of past colleagues, including Steven (newcomer Owain Yeoman) and Seth (Nicholas Brendon, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), along with klutzy but enthusiastic young pastry chef Jim (John F. Daley, "Freaks and Geeks").

Jack's opening night proved rocky, partly due to the kitchen hijinks of his gifted but irreverent colleagues as well as more dubious "help" from lovely but ditzy hostess Tanya (Jaime King) and waitress Mimi (Bonnie Somerville), who would love to see Jack fall on his face. If Jack ultimately managed to snatch victory through his sheer talent, his success clearly is going to have be won again meal by meal.

Star, who changed the first name of the main character to make it clear Jack was a fictional homage to the real Bourdain, says a glitzy restaurant makes a rich backdrop for the kind of sophisticated, character-driven comedy he's serving up here.

"People eat out more today than they ever have before," he points out, "but they have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. For that reason alone, there's a lot of curiosity about what happens in a restaurant.

"All great TV starts with great characters, and Anthony Bourdain's character was what directed me to the book. The book distinguishes itself, not so much in what you learn about a kitchen but because you're attracted to this guy who is very, very flawed."

While "Kitchen Confidential" is fundamentally an ensemble comedy, the show is anchored by Jack, a role that required an actor who could tread a fine line between being charming and driven. Star immediately thought of Cooper, who had gotten his first TV acting gig via a guest role on Star's "Sex and the City."

The actor was in New York guest-starring with Angela Lansbury and Alfred Molina in a high-profile "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" episode when he got the "Kitchen" script. Cooper admits he resisted the idea of signing on for another series after longish commitments to "Alias" and "Jack and Bobby." Then he read Star's pilot script.

"I thought to myself, 'I have to do this,'" Cooper recalls. "In the first pages of the script, it said, 'From the age of 8, he always knew he wanted to be a chef.' Literally, when I was a kid, I would go downstairs on Sunday morning and make my whole family breakfast. I was, like, 9. My mother's Italian, so I grew up in a very Italian environment, and I would take everything in the refrigerator. I would cook all day long on Sunday, trying to make lasagna out of anything, just anything I could think of -- every dish pulled out, a real mess.

"I was obsessed with being a chef. Even when I was in the first grade, my friends would come over and I would cook something for them. It was really crazy."

Cooper even worked in a restaurant during his teens as a prep cook, learning how to chop and witnessing first-hand a world in which a talented chef commands the respect and awe of a major rock star, although in Jack's case, he's a rock star who is painfully aware of how easily success can turn to disaster.

"To play a guy who is so conflicted is phenomenal," the actor says. "In the pilot, I [lie] to everyone to get what I want, and yet somehow it's redemptive. Jack was a drug addict and now he's sober. Can he pull it off, open a great restaurant again? To play a guy who is constantly struggling is a great opportunity for an actor."

"I don't think Jack's redemptive quality comes from the fact that he's just a good chef," Star says of Cooper's character. "I think it comes from the fact that he's trying to turn his life around and sincerely make a change. This guy is getting a second chance and he's trying to make his life work again. I think, quite honestly, Jack cares about the people who work for him in a big way. But the way he operates is 'whatever it takes,' sometimes."

Star likens the creative process behind "Kitchen Confidential" to the challenge of putting together a first-rate gourmet meal.

"There's an alchemy in both,"he says. "There's a magic that happens when you make a great dish that is greater than the sum of its parts. Everything melds together in a way that you can't necessarily plan on, you can only hope for.

"With a great show, you have a great cast and you have great writers. It all comes together. It's an art, and you just hope the magic is going to happen. You do your best to make it happen, but until it's out there, you don't know what's going to happen."