COEUR d'ALENE - Put a little pizzazz in this year's holiday cooking.

Because if you're tired of boring Santa Claus cookies and baked hams, there's nothing like a celebrity chef to put a little pop in your Christmas kitchen.

Mega-cook, author and 'Today Show' regular Jon Ashton is coming to Coeur d'Alene to do just that.

"This is the next level of an expo, said Jennifer Alexander, sales manager at the Coeur d'Alene Press, host of the inaugural Relish Cooking Show and Expo, featuring Ashton. "People can come to get some new ideas for cooking right in time for the holidays or they can get some Christmas shopping done or find new ideas to revamp or decorate their homes for the season."

Fifty vendors will be on hand to offer cooks and shoppers a variety of timely gifts and recipes, and prizes will be given away.

The event, expecting around 1,000 people, is from 5 to 9 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Greyhound Park and Event Center.

But the star of the show will whip up some masterpieces in front of the cameras beginning at 7 p.m., a craft of cooking that involves audience participation.

Those who buy V.I.P. tickets can mingle with Ashton from 5.30 to 6:30 p.m. before the studio lights come on. The in-house chef for Relish magazine as well as the T.V. show will sign autographs of his cook books then, too.

"We're putting a great show together," Alexander said. "It's going to be a great time to snack on different foods or splurge on a cocktail."

Doors open for the general public at 5 p.m.

This show is presented by Great Floors, along with Granite Transformations and Super 1 Foods. Tickets go on sale Nov. 9, when Ashton will fly to Coeur d'Alene. They'll kick off the official day with a supermarket dash at Super 1, where three yet-to-be-determined local celebrities will race around the supermarket with a grocery list of a healthy meal the chef will give them. First with all the ingredients wins.

"It is unlike any other live cooking show you've ever seen," Alexander said. "Chef Jon combines culinary moxie, British charm, passion for food and side-splitting humor to create a highly-entertaining show."