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March 28, 2024, 08:45:56 PM

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Snackmasters series 3

Started by Jerzy Bondov, April 07, 2021, 08:14:47 PM

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Jerzy Bondov

I've just noticed they've put four more episodes of this masterpiece on All4. KFC, Wagon Wheels, Shreddies, Snickers.

It went down quite well in the guilty pleasures thread but it really deserves its own thread. If you haven't seen it, it's Fred Siriex off First Dates challenging fine dining chefs to recreate junk food and snacks. Two chefs face off with their efforts judged by some bigwigs from whichever company they're imitating. Meanwhile Jayde Adams goes to the factory to see how it's really done.

It's great fun to watch the chefs getting competitive, spending thousands on mad equipment and so on. Here's a nice post Blue Jam made in the guilty pleasure thread:

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 12, 2020, 01:06:36 PM
It's not really a cooking show, it's more about the chefs trying all sorts of food science tricks and expensive gadgets while the show's resident "Snack Expert" (Jayde Adams, who is also a lot of fun and very enthusiastic and watchable) goes round the factory being shown the real tricks of the trade and the proper big industrial-scale machines to show us exactly how wrong the chefs have got it.

The main thing that makes this watchable is how the chefs get very, very competitive and get deadly serious about trying to recreate the taste, texture and appearance of some junk food, doing actual research and even spending crazy money just so they can take a big trophy with "SNACKMASTERS CHAMPION: QUAVERS CHALLENGE" engraved on it back to their posh restaurant.

Also when Fred tells the chefs who they'll be competing against they'll say something like "Oh wow, I love his food, he's a big mate of mine, this'll be interesting" while you can tell they're really thinking "What, that prick who poached my top sous chef in 2018, just as we were going for our second Michelin star? Right, I'll show him"

Best of all, I have just realised the current series is actually the second. Yep, there's an entire three episodes of series 1 left to watch. That's tonight's viewing sorted, looking forward to watching two Michelin-starred chefs going insane trying to recreate Pickled Onion Monster Munch.

mothman

I was a bit uninspired by this week's starting ep (KFC Zinger burger and Supercharger Mayo, with bonus of a piece of original recipe chicken.
Spoiler alert
Bit of a swizz, the winner being picked on the basis of his original recipe chicken - and, granted his mayo was closer - given that it was just meant to be a bonus and his Zinger wasn't as good.
[close]
And, both chefs and their entourages were a bit too into the bantz, suspect they're utter cunts to their underlings when there aren't cameras around...

Blue Jam

YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY!

This masterpiece certainly does deserve its own thread. It has even surpassed Ramsay's Hotel Hell as my all-time favourite bit of Guilty Pleasure Gold.

mothman

I fucking love Shreddies. More than forty years, still my favourite cereal. I actively have to avoid having them all the time so I don't go off them. And after tonight's episode, I really want some! According to my FitBit app a 40g bowl is calorifically similar to 40g of my go-to diet cereal, Fruit & Fibre.

Anyway, good one tonight. Shock ending though.
Spoiler alert
I did think it was odd how the French guy suddenly turned it round. And more in hindsight now it's obvious that we never saw his gelatine-cushioned mold actually work. I did wonder momentarily if they'd let them try the crack-then-cook method once they knew it was done that way round!
[close]

dissolute ocelot

Not sure I want to destroy the mystery of how Shreddies are made? They're spun from the buttocks of Hovis-eating spiders, aren't they?

mothman

Probably. Sure you get to see inside the factory where they're made but it looked like a setup. I reckon the actual magic happens in a part of the building they didn't let the cameras into.

GMTV

Shreddies felt a bit less of a fair challenge. It wasn't really flavour related, more how it would be possible to recreate the production process either by hand or with cheap mechanical domestic equipment. It appeared there were a few steps in that process they had almost no chance of replicating.

I think I prefer the episodes where they have to try and recreate a particular flavour, with maybe only an element of trying to work out the process which isn't central to the success of the copy.

Jerzy Bondov

Yeah I enjoyed the KFC one because it was more about the flavours than the method. Also I want to get in that big steel drum full of raw chicken and marinade and just go round and round until I'm all sticky and red and thoroughly deceased

paruses

Can't believe I missed this thread. Watched KFC last night. As mothman said it seemed an unfair result. Thought the Yorkshire chef was OK but Tom Aiken seems like a humourless prick and I found him unpleasant to watch.

I do like how the judges spin their industrial scale highly processed food as some unattainable elixir that the best in the world cannot reproduce - it's just cayanne pepper in a bog standard mayonnaise, the mouth feel of chocolate is from sticking loads of vegetable oil in etc.

Wagon Wheels tonight and they've got an asian chef on who are always more fun plus looks like his wife gets involved too so that's a bonus

mothman

I can't even remember who won that one! Snickers has to be the highlight of this series.

paruses

Quote from: mothman on May 01, 2021, 11:48:55 AM
I can't even remember who won that one! Snickers has to be the highlight of this series.

Spoiler alert
Tom Aiken
[close]
on account of
Spoiler alert
his 11 herbs and spices portion - which he quickly spin into "it's the closest anyone has ever got to recreating it" - not exactly what the lovely Ira said.
[close]

Very much looking forward to the s
Snickers one.

paruses

Wagon Wheels excellent. Why are the asian chefs more fun and relaxed about it? And I knew his wife would be good value. Good episode all round and I think they did well.

Watched Shreddies tonight. Mixed feelings on it in terms of a challenge as it was fucking impossible. Daniel Clifford said it several times and was a bit rude to the Shreddies man in the factory I thought - but he was right that it couldn't be done by a human. Claude Bosi excellent value for money and I really felt for him. My viewing partner pointed out that this episode really showed how unpleasant the Tom Aiken one was (well, the bits with Tom Aiken in - the other guy was alright).

paruses

Did snickers last night. Didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would. The fish guy seemed to not really be interested in the challenge - his pastry chef did most of the work and I think Fred was pissed off with him. The other chef was OK. Thought she had a very dry sense of humour but was chosen to fill the role of the one who takes it too seriously. Also thought she was robbed as the panel said hers tasted better. Plus she's obvs not used to losing and looked pretty gutted. Interesting she put a variant on the menu despite predicting hipster would and he was all "yea not arsed mate. Trophy mate" (but in his thick Cornish accent).

In short I didn't like the hipster one who seemed more into Grammable photos and the one from Wolves was robbed.


mothman

Winning tosspot's pastry chef, we'll see more of her, predict that right now. Photogenic, relaxed and casual and funny in front of the camera, somebody will have taken notice.