Now it's time to turn our attention back to the vending machine
to see which lucky chef will be recreating that Kit Kat.
[Francis] Please.
Lauryn B!
[cheering]
Why me? [chuckles]
This is probably the one thing I didn't want to do
because it's so difficult for so many reasons.
Ooh!
Kris!
[cheering]
[Kris] I've never made a Kit Kat before, so I'm just gonna have to impress myself.
This chef is about to throw down.
Kevin!
[cheering]
When I see that Kit Kat, I'm excited.
I've been making chocolate since I was 14, so I'm feeling comfortable and confident.
To make a good Kit Kat,
you gotta be good at choreographing destruction.
So wafers are tricky any way you slice 'em.
You have to bake something that's thin and crispy,
but doesn't bubble or get burnt.
And then you gotta cut that delicate thing into tiny little planks
without it shattering.
They should be three distinct layers
in four portions presented as one piece.
Each piece should break cleanly apart from its neighbor
without damaging the little wafers inside.
If you temper your chocolate right, it'll help you out
by lining the trenches between each piece
with rows of perfectly-organized fat crystals
that'll help guide that clean snap.
All right, you'll have two hours to make your Kit Kat.
The recreation starts now.
[all cheering]
[Francis] All right, guys. All right.
[Hari] The Kit Kat Challenge is all about texture and timing.
First, the chefs will have to create a tasty-yet-durable wafer
that can withstand cutting, stacking, and being encased with chocolate.
We got the three layers here.
It's a good amount of chocolate-to-cookie. You need the perfect mixture.
There's little layers of chocolate in between.
[Hari] Getting the perfect outer layer of chocolate that's both snappy and glossy
will all depend on how the chefs temper it,
which is a heating and cooling process
that pre-crystalizes the cocoa butter in the chocolate,
resulting in a satin gloss and hard snap.
[Lauryn] The snap.
I think that's what they're gonna look for.
At the end of the day, it's chocolate. and it's something I can do.
[contestants cheering]
[Lauryn] This is why I do CrossFit right here.
[Kevin chuckles]
-[applause] -[chuckle]
What is the hardest thing about this challenge?
Step one, make your batter for your wafers.
You have to make these wafers wicked crispy and then also shape them.
And that's tough.
[rock music playing]
So, we're gonna get started on the batter for the wafer.
We're doing two cups of flour,
cake flour that is not AP.
Cake flour is a bit of a lighter flour,
which I think is gonna make my wafer less dense.
We'll see how this works.
I've been channeling Willy Wonka since the first grade.
As a kid, I was making homemade peanut butter cups
and different types of chocolates,
knocking on doors of neighbors and selling it to them.
Now as a chef,
I'm literally a mad scientist when I walk into the kitchen.
I forage a lot of my own ingredients,
working with small family farmers.
I've made everything from drone bee larvae to cricket tarts.
Definitely something you haven't seen in the snack world.
And as you can see, my batter is thick. But you know what? It's all good.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
[funky music playing]
I want a wafer that's smooth and consistent.
So, this cake flour is gonna go a long way to helping me lighten up this wafer.
Additionally, instead of using butter and having animal fat,
I'm using grapeseed oil.
It has high smoke point, but has neutral flavor.
So it's not gonna change the taste.
The goal is to have a light crispy cookie that gives me that snap I'm looking for.
[Kevin] I'm a pastry chef by trade.
That was what I wanted to do with my life.
I wanted to open up my own bakery.
That was my dream.
When I graduated college at 22, I was like, "With what money?"
So I ended up opening up a restaurant consulting firm,
specializing in concept development and early stage planning.
Whether it's bakery, Michelin-starred restaurant,
fine dining or fast casual, I'm the person that takes your restaurant to next level.
I work on other people's dreams and turn them into a reality.
With this competition, I get to pursue my dreams.
Okay, that's good.
I'm going to do a traditional stroopwafel.
I'm gonna do a cross between thinner wafer cookie and sugar cookie.
My culinary point of view is a bit of everything.
It's kind of what I'm curious about at the moment.
I went to Institute of Culinary Education
and worked at a number of professional kitchens,
both pastry and savory.
Being here, I'm surrounded by so many amazing chefs.
And I want to show that I can hold my own in the kitchen,
because I know I can.
I know food, I know snacks, and I can win this competition.
[Megan] You guys, moment of truth. She's putting it in the press.
[contestants cheering]
Yeah!
Interestingly, it looks like all three contestants
have a slightly different thickness to their batter.
Lauryn B's is fairly thick, almost like a sourdough starter.
It looks like Kris's is maybe a bit thinner.
[Helen] Slightly thinner and slightly paler in color.
[Ali] And I think Kevin's might be fully pourable like a crepe batter.
-I'd say that's the best way. -I'd do it that way.
Are you worried the thick batter won't have the crunch?
-Yes, definitely. -Totally.
Oh.
Just staying calm.
[Kevin makes screeching sound]
I have that compulsive need to just check it and check it.
I put a little bit too much in there, but it's gonna be fine.
It's very hard to sit here and wait.
I'm impatient.
[playful music]
It is like a pancake.
And that is not what we want.
I put too much batter.
This time, I am smoothing a thin layer on the waffle griddle.
I have it on a high heat.
I'll make it work.
[Lauryn] That's great color.
Yeah.
[Megan] Ooh, her wafer looks good.
My wafers look great. They're really easy to cut.
It has to be that right structure
because you're going to layer them and you need to slice them.
So you want structure that will hold up when you do that.
It'll harden as it cools.
So it's good to cut it as soon as it comes out,
because it's a lot easier and it doesn't break. [chuckles]
This is how I wanted it. That's perfect.
Let's throw this pancake away. [chuckles]
It is so important to win this first challenge because
if you win the first challenge, you have that breath of fresh air
with ease going into the next challenge.
Wafers.
[laughing]
[contestants cheering]
Thank you.
So what's next is, I'm going to be tempering my chocolate.
When you get chocolate at home, it's already tempered.
That's how it keeps its freshness.
What we're doing here is rapidly melting it and cooling it
to basically bend and shape and change the way we want it to.
So, think about chocolate like having a whole family of magic elves inside.
What I ask them to do is rearrange
and give me the sheen, shine, crackle and crunch for this recipe.
One hour left.
One hour heard.
I've noticed that when I use chocolate,
I burn it pretty easily.
One of the reasons why a lot of people burn chocolate at home
is because it's already completely dried.
So that's why, typically, you see
chefs working with a bowl on a pot of water on the stove.
-[Helen] A microwave. -[Ali] In a microwave.
Any kind of direct heat source for chocolate is rolling the dice.
It's primed to burn as soon as it gets too hot.
Yeah.
I have the food processor out still because that's how I'm gonna process
my leftover cookies
that we'll mix with milk chocolate and put in the center of the layers
to get that nice crunch,
which helps in terms of texture with the silky chocolate.
I want to devote as much time as possible to getting them set.
Hello, Mr. Kevin.
-We came over to play. -Hey.
What's going on over here?
-Everything and nothing at the same time. -[chuckles]
What is this? What's happening with the...?
We'll blend up those crispy waffle centers.
They'll go into this bowl and take a swim.
Then I'm gonna take my finished wafers,
brush those with this mixture and seal those together.
Chill it, cut it, make Kit Kats.
You'll eat them, sit there, and judge me.
-That's about right. -We're just the hosts.
We make judgments, but they don't count.
Okay.
[whirring]
[Kris] So, my filling is gonna be perfect.
What I see is that the chocolate is re-wetting the wafer.
So it might not have that snap,
but it might work to my advantage because
it's going to keep my Kit Kats together.
That's my biggest wish now.
I'm making three layers.
It's the moment you're like, "This is harder than it looks."
Like, "Oh, these cookies are not as fat as I wanted."
"They're gonna crack when I cut 'em."
But we're gonna see what happens.
With experience of being a pastry chef, I feel this is my challenge to lose.
So, the pressure's on and I don't want to mess up this opportunity.
Whoop!
Honestly, this next step where I chill it and have to cut it
is the part that I'm most nervous about.
I mean, honestly, Kevin's Mr. Chocolatier over there.
And so I felt like going into this, he kind of had it in the bag,
but there's really only so much I can do.
I won't get into my head about it.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Kris] Right now, I am enrobing my whole wafers together.
And I'll use the chocolate as a glue.
Chill it and slice it.
Let's get this in the blast chiller.
Thirty minutes left.
[Francis] Whose look the best so far, you think?
Kris, probably.
[Kevin] When you cut anything hard,
to get a clean beautiful slice of this is gonna be a bit of a challenge.
[Danny] Oh, no!
Wah-wah.
[Lauryn] Moment of truth. Pray for me.
It broke a little bit.
Ooh, it's not working.
[Danny] Oh, Kev!
Is it good or bad? What's happening?
None of it is good.
Ugh!
Aah!
It started in such an organized manner.
[chuckles]
[exhales]
It's okay. We're all with you.
I think what's helping me in this moment keep my sanity
is we're all struggling.
I feel really good about the fact that I'm not freaking out
when I should be freaking out.
-To the left. -What's up, stack chef?
Just don't look this way.
If you have breakage issues, what's your plan to deal with that?
Honestly, I'm going to try to enrobe them the best that I can.
Hide them from view?
Are you measuring it against original? Because, again, accuracy.
I was kind of eyeballing it. I know some are a bit larger than others.
If only there were some Kit Kats we could refer to for measurement.
-You are right. -Thanks, Lauryn.
-Thank you. -See you in a bit.
I think the name of the game is the least bad Kit Kat at this point.
Which I'm okay. I can play that game.
[rock music playing]
You have 15 minutes.
It's down to your chocolate.
You haven't tempered it properly, it will fall apart.
[Kevin] Based on my experience,
using a mold is the only way to get perfect Kit Kat crunch I look for.
There was no other option in my book.
Also, I might be thinking about how I can hide some of my mistakes.
I don't have Kit Kat wafers that are perfect and good.
What I'm hoping now is that I'll cover this, cut it,
it's gonna taste good.
We'll see.
So, I'm trying to make a thin layer of chocolate at the bottom of these.
You want that group of four,
so you can break them apart and share them.
There are molds, but it seems too easy.
I'm just like, "No, let's make it hard."
So, I choose a cake pan.
I'll get these in the blast chiller. They'll set and then I'll separate them.
So, I'm just setting my base for my bars.
I won't use the molds. Too much work.
[contestant 1] This looks much harder without the mold.
Let's see.
[contestant 2] Look at that temper, though.
It's working.
Those 13 years of chocolate tempering experience paid off.
If they don't flip it over, it will look pretty.
Five minutes remaining.
[Lauryn] Come on, baby.
I expected popping them out to be a bit easier.
[Kris] It is not going good for me today.
Nope. Y'all, my chocolate is stuck.
[tense music playing]
Gotta be honest, did not see that one coming.
Mm. I haven't used one of these in so long.
One minute left, chefs!
[tense music rising]
[Lauryn] I'm gonna run this around the edges.
[Francis] If you blowtorch your chocolate, you're destroying your temper.
[Lauryn] Okay.
[Megan] Thirty seconds.
Go!
It's down to the wire.
[tense music builds]
[Kris] It just looks like a disaster.
Okay, everyone. Time is up!
[horn honking]
-Whoo! -[Megan] Get it on the plate!
-Oh, hi. -Hello, Kris.
-Hi. -Will you tell us about your Kit Kat?
Ooh, yeah, it looks crazy. It was a train wreck over here.
My process for keeping it together was,
I enrobed the top and the bottom in chocolate.
Wild thick.
-[Kris] Right. For sure. -[Megan laughs]
But it made it to the plate.
[Kris chuckles]
-Temper on the chocolate's not bad. -Okay.
[Helen] The chocolate came out nice and snappy.
But it's a shame you didn't use the mold.
You could've taken the mold as your guide.
Then all kinds of craziness and scraps could happen inside,
and we could've maybe gotten that same texture.
It would've held it together. I should've used the mold.
[crunch]
The flavor of them isn't bad. They taste a little cornstarch-y.
[Kris] Mm-hmm.
But my number one cardinal sin is serving us a soggy wafer.
Which you did not do.
It's nice and crispy.
My main problem with it is the toughness of the wafer itself.
Almost more like a cracker than a wafer.
Hi.
-Lauryn B, tell us about your Kit Kat. -Yes.
So, it's kind of a Kit Kat.
I was pretty happy with how the wafer came out.
Then, in terms of setting them, I should've used a mold.
That would've turned out a lot better.
It was just... I feel I kinda lost my mind and here we are.
-"I lost my mind." -[laughing]
This will feel harsh.
-I swear I'm not meaning to. -It's okay.
It feels like the pre-makeover version of a Kit Kat.
[Helen] Early prototype.
-Okay. -In the concept phase.
[Ali] I buy that it's shareable,
but the snap is just not there.
I think what happened was you lost the temper of the chocolate.
Mm-hmm.
[crunch]
-But the flavor's really nice. -[Lauryn] Okay.
I enjoy the taste of it.
The inner filling is delicious,
but I get some coarse bits of chopped-up wafers.
I should've ground them a lot more. There were some larger chunks.
Then there was more of the air gaps.
I like the air gaps.
It's air that's part of the crunchy.
You know how you had your grids neatly lined up?
On a Kit Kat, they're actually going in opposite directions,
but on the same wafer.
-[Lauryn] Okay. -It's okay to have them off.
If you have them on top of each other, then it's dense.
-All the bones are there. -Okay.
-Honestly, I'll take it. [laughs] -Yeah!
-Kevin. -Hi.
[Megan] Tell us about your Kit Kat.
[Kevin] So, we have a tempered chocolate.
Inside, I have a crisp rice wafer.
I did my best to get it snappy and tempered correctly.
[Ali] These are really nice.
Thank you for using the mold. Great tempering for a milk chocolate.
The chocolate came out nice and snappy.
The end.
I'll take it.
The bottom layer of chocolate is a little thick.
It's a little snaggle-toothed inside.
-[Helen] Yep. -Just a touch. [chuckles]
I think you nailed the slightly nutty toasty flavor of a Kit Kat.
The proportion of the chocolate is a bit distracting.
I also didn't get a ton of cream filling in between the layers.
Yeah, I think the layers are wonky, but the wafer tastes good.
Thank you.
Kevin, thank you so much.
Thank you, guys.
Great work, chefs.
-Great attempts all around. -But there can only be one winner.
[Megan] Congratulations...
Kevin.
[applause]
You had our favorite Kit Kat today.
Your visual appeal and the chocolate work that you brought was amazing.
Thank you.
[Kevin] Though I have one win under my belt,
I'm going into next competition
excited and ready to present my own snack.
I showed you I know how to create someone else's.
It's time to show mine.
[Megan] Great work, Kevin,
but you'll still need to impress our judges in the second round.
You'll be judged by the combined performance for both dishes.
Only one of you will walk out of this ring of fire
and one step closer to $50,000.
It's time to show us your artistic side.
One of the most popular aspects of the Kit Kat bar is its shareability.
This next round, you'll make your original snack
that, like a Kit Kat, can be shared.
The intention of this challenge
is to bring a snack that can stand alone as its own thing,
but be intentionally shareable.
It should be a single unit
that can be broken into at least four pieces.
It must be solid enough to stick together without falling apart on its own,
but easy enough to take apart intentionally.
[Hari] You will have a two-hour limit for this challenge.
The Snack-Off Challenge begins right now.
[contestants cheering]
What do each of them have to do to win this round?
I want to see snacks that are intentionally shareable
in their version of it,
not their version of something that exists that's shareable.
Right now, I'm just setting up.
What I'm making for my snack challenge is a protein bar.
It will be broken in four segments.
But what's unique about my style is that I used
various and different and exotic ingredients,
one of those being crickets.
[crickets chirping]
[Kris] Crickets are our next sustainable protein source.
It has more iron than spinach.
I want to create this fudge cricket protein bar
that will be split up into four different sections.
The bar will be enrobed in a keto dark chocolate.
Crickets are delicious. We're just gonna add a solid layer.
They provide earthy umami flavor.
It's pretty ambitious, but I feel like the judges will be impressed with this.
The last round was... It was a complete mess.
I have to get it right this time because I'm on the chopping block.
So I'm hoping these crickets will save the day.
So we are making a yeast-risen stuffed bun with four different flavors.
It will give you sweet, loosely based on the flavors of a sundae.
As a kid, I used to go to this ice cream shop with my dad.
While its name was not Lickitysplitz, that's what he called it.
I wanna pay homage to that with the name of the snack.
I'm making soft milk buns stuffed with four different fillings,
inspired by the sundae I used to eat with my dad as a kid.
You'll get some strawberries, cherries, nuts, caramel,
all glazed with a homemade icing and fresh homemade sprinkles.
I think my dad would be proud and excited to have a Lickitysplitz.
First, we'll get the main dough of the recipe.
So, milk, water, butter, and then a bit of honey, yeast likes sugar.
I'll get that cookin' and goin'. We got a lot going on for this challenge.
I'm swinging for the fences. Go big or go home.
Oh!
[smacks lips] That's not in my recipe.
I feel like when I'm snacking, I always interact with family and friends.
I'm the girl that always brings games to the party, so...
I'm trying to make more than a snack. I want to make a game.
Growing up, we always had game night every Friday.
So, I wanted a snack that was not only shareable,
but very interactive.
I'm making Crackers With Friends.
There's two flavors. There's honey sesame,
and then I'm doing a spicy gochujang.
And I'm going to top them with letters,
so you can make words with your crackers.
I gotta beat these guys
which makes me a little bit sad, but I'm excited to show what I have.
One and a half hours left, chefs.
Mm!
-Y'all wanna try some crickets? -[chuckles]
[Lauryn] Uh...
-You're like, "Nah." [laughs] -Do I?
Don't freak out.
There won't be eyes, antennas, and wings inside of this bar.
When you get these type of fruit and nut protein bars on the market,
they're really just kind of bland, so we're jazzing it up.
The base of my protein bar is the most important thing to get right.
I'm adding my Medjool dates.
This is going to be the binder.
This is a keto milk chocolate made with monk fruit extract.
Black cocoa is gonna add to the color of the bars,
almost like a fudge brownie,
but with crickets.
Crickets will give it that nice earthy flavor.
It's all gonna form a dough.
This is my redemption from the Kit Kat bar.
I want my bar to taste like a chewy fudge brownie.
But it's coming together as you can see. It's protein bar already.
All right, pun intended, I'm bugging about Kris's dish.
I see that.
And, uh, I don't wanna eat cricket.
[laughs]
[crickets chirping]
-[Ali] Hi, Lauryn B. -Hi, how are you?
What are you kneading?
It's a cracker dough.
I'm making two crackers. This first one has gochujang in it.
It's like a spicy savory umami bomb.
I want that balance of flavors.
A spicy sweet situation.
-This could be a little spicy. -Uh-oh!
The second one I'm doing is like a honey sesame
with a bit of orange zest,
and white cheddar and sesame oil.
I'm using parm and cheddar because everyone loves cheese.
Is there Parmesan, white cheddar, and orange in one...?
-All under one roof? -Yes.
I've never seen that flavor pairing.
All right, well, here we go. [laughs]
-There's nothing to win with this. -Nothing at all.
I've literally never had cheddar and orange.
Sometimes opposites attract, though.
Sometimes.
[dynamic music playing]
[contestant] Look at Kevin. He's being all fabulous over there.
[Lauryn] Kevin, how's it going?
It's going great.
What exactly are you making?
I'm making stuffed buns that each have different filling.
[Lauryn] Master at pastry.
I start my filling which is gonna be strawberry and cherry heat-proof gel.
They're paired with chocolate. Milk chocolate with candied peanuts.
Dark chocolate with caramel.
In each one, we have a fruit puree, a lemon juice, a simple syrup.
Both of them, I'll boil at the same time, so they have the same chance to set.
Everything I'm doing here is to make sure this gel is hard.
I wanna make sure I can cut it and fill it,
and it goes in my recipe the way I need.
I'm so ready to win this thing.
And the $50,000 wouldn't hurt either.
I don't want anything to burn or get stuck.
If I stop stirring, something would congeal on the bottom.
It won't be cute.
It's the difference between something delicious and disgusting.
It's looking good.
We're gellin', girls. We are gellin' and we're gellin' good.
Hey, Kris.
-Hey, how's it going? -Good.
What you doing with dowels?
So, I'm creating my splits for my bar so it can break.
It's gonna be a snappable cricket protein bar
with fresh Acheta crickets.
You talking Acheta domestica crickets?
-Acheta domestica crickets, yes. -[Ali] Oh.
Where are the little guys? Little bugs?
Let's taste some.
I wouldn't mind if Ali tried one now, to be honest.
-They're roasted and dried. -You see whole bodies.
And they're not... They are, of course, not alive.
-So... sure. -It's delicious.
It tastes like a sunflower seed.
Sunflower seeds are also kinda prone to rancidity.
Are you 100% positive you got good crickets and good sunflower seeds?
I am 100% positive.
We're so excited to see these bars. I can't wait to meet your little friends.
-[Megan laughs] -[Kris] Thank you.
Thirty minutes left, chefs.
We're talking a network sitcom. That's how much time you got.
I have both my doughs done. I have them rolled out.
Right now, I'm cutting the strips of the crackers.
The most important part for me is just making sure they are perfect rectangles,
because I got docked on my shape of my Kit Kats,
but the flavor was there.
So, let's be perfect this time and get flavor and the shape right.
I'm hoping Helen sees what I'm doing.
-[whoosh] -I'm measuring everything just for her,
and I want them to be perfect because I want that redemption.
We're getting there.
Okay, I'm gonna start filling these now.
I make four buns per serving.
Each one will be filled with a different flavor.
This is the moment everything comes together or it all falls apart.
I need to make sure all four flavors come through strongly,
they all stand alone, but they taste great together.
The technique I'm doing started in very fine dining restaurants.
It's called sac a'doro. It's to fold a dough to encase a filling.
As they bake, they stick together and you can pull them apart
'cause there's a seam.
The key to making this look like a snack is everything looks the same.
They're the same outside, but on the inside, we're all different.
That's what counts.
[Kris] We're gonna make them into logs.
One log holds 40 grams of cricket protein.
This just looks wrong at first, right? [chuckles]
That's what protein bars look like. [laughs]
But I'll give you something more elevated.
I'm gonna go ahead and cut a couple letters.
This will take me the longest.
I need about 30 yellow letters.
Then I need about 30 gochujang letters.
I'm making more than a snack. I'm making an experience.
I want it to be kind of like Scrabble or Words with Friends.
People want the whole package in one thing.
They want it to be interactive.
They want it to bring all these different flavors and cultures
and people together, and this is it.
And, you know, if they don't wanna play, you just eat them.
[contestant] This is still anybody's race.
[pop music playing]
[Kevin] As long as the icing works, we're in good shape.
I don't know if I'm happy with that.
It's too grainy.
Trying to decide if I have time to make another icing.
I think I can do it. We're ditching it. It's ditched.
You have ten minutes.
[Kris] We're gonna take out these dowels.
I was going for a little indent, a breakable brownie.
It's giving me just that.
We're gonna dip the bottom in chocolate, like so.
You just want a bit of crickets.
I definitely don't wanna go home
because I have more snacks to show to the judges.
I hope these cricket bars give me one hop to the finals.
And I'll cut out a bit more letters.
Cutting out the letter A is not fun.
A lot of letters aren't working.
Every time I punch out A, it is not coming out.
It is taking so long just to punch out these letters.
Lauryn, how's it going over there?
[laughing] It's going. My dough is pretty delicate.
I even get to the point where I decide I'm gonna leave blank blocks.
It can be a Choose Your Own Adventure for the letter.
But, really, it is my shortcut to stop cutting out letters.
I'm close to putting them in the oven.
Then they'll bake for just eight minutes.
I'm over these letters. Let's do this.
It's crackers with letters on them.
So you can break them apart and trade and make words with your friends.
-Do they look cool? -They do. It's really awesome.
Apparently, I love to cut things really close.
[muttering] In the 11th hour, somebody has had to remake their frosting.
[Ali] It's not what you wanna do.
I like taking the initiative to try to fix it.
This might be premature, but if he wins this round...
[Helen] Yes.
...I think he's my favorite to win the competition.
Whoa.
I'm trying my frosting.
This is hopefully more of the consistency and flavor I'm looking for.
Two minutes left, chefs.
[tense music builds]
[contestant] Get those out.
If I don't get a good bake on it, it's the whole snack.
So, there won't be a snack.
This versus this? This is the winner.
Ugh! [laughs]
[tense music rising]
Thirty seconds.
[contestants] Five, four, three, two, one.
Okay, everyone. Stop cooking!
Your time's up!
[applause]
[contestants cheering]
-Thank you. -Yeah.
Lauryn B, tell us about your snack.
I'm the girl that shows up to the party and like, "Let's play some games!"
So this is great because the snack is the game.
So, the idea is there's two stacks of crackers.
One is really spicy. One is more mellow in flavor.
So you break them apart and then use them to play word games.
Mine says "toes."
Mine is "smoit."
[Lauryn laughs]
Flavor of the gochujang one is incredible.
It's really tasty.
It's, like, deeply savory.
The honey sesame one is cool too, but together, they're really nice.
My primary concern.
-They're a little bit underbaked. -Okay.
If these had been baked four and a half minutes longer,
this might've been one of my favorite things to eat in a long time.
Yeah, I would agree that I appreciate the flavor,
the depth of flavor of the red pieces.
The yellow is confusing.
Okay.
But I do like the texture of the yellow better than texture of the red.
For me, the shareability that I find particularly addicting is it...
I don't know why, but, like, seven-year-old Ali was obsessed with,
"Oh my God. It told me where to break it."
It's a simple thing that I'm very happy about.
Lauryn B, thank you for sharing them with us.
Thank you.
-Kris, tell us about your snack. -Yeah.
So what you have here is the Hopgate Bar.
Why is it called Hopgate?
Because it includes crickets.
So, this will be your introduction into eating insects.
What you have here is a four-segmented fudge brownie cricket protein bar.
This bar is fully keto.
It's made with Medjool dates.
It is set with a cricket praline at the bottom.
Gotcha.
This is so much better than I expected it to be.
Thanks for that.
I think there are some protein bars that feel like punishment.
This definitely falls into... I'd enjoy having this as a snack.
-Yes. -Hari, what do you think?
Yo, man. Indians love cricket, but this is not what we mean.
[laughing]
Mine has a lot of crickets.
I have clumps of crickets on the sides and stuff.
It's enough to say, like, help people acclimate themselves
to the protein of cricket.
Yes.
But I got punched in the face by cricket several times.
You got the full load.
And I also wish the chocolate went all the way around.
I got so scant chocolate and so much cricket.
-[Kris] So much. -So much cricket.
It is difficult to read as shareable because
I think you want so many things going on,
that, like, the one thing we needed is getting lost in crickets.
Okay.
Kris, thank you for sharing your snack.
Thank you.
Kevin, tell us about your snack.
What we have here is Lickitysplitz.
A sweet milk bun filled with four flavors,
loosely based on my favorite childhood sundae.
A strawberry gel with a rosé chocolate,
a cherry gel with a white chocolate, a candied peanut with a milk chocolate,
and caramel with dark chocolate.
All that is iced and topped with homemade electric pink sprinkles.
Share it, tear it, rip it. You know, slip it to your friend.
The first two, the peanut and the chocolate, were stellar.
I really enjoyed it.
I think the fruit flavors were disappointing for me.
For the cherry one,
I kind of would've rather had nice sweet and sour cherry jam in there.
I think we were all surprised and impressed at how cohesive it looked,
but how perfectly it broke at each of those junctures.
It's the beginning of a shareable idea.
It also, for me, is really lacking seasoning in the bun.
It's not sweet. It doesn't have any salt.
It tastes very almost too neutral.
But it's more shareable than I expected.
Like, "Please make this not look like brunch yesterday."
And it doesn't.
Thanks for sharing this with us.
Thank you very much.
[Kevin] I feel great about the way my Lickitysplitz tastes.
I have a good chance of winning this.
Without further ado, it's time to crown a winner.
[Kris] I'm definitely nervous.
I wanna make it to the finals because I have more than crickets up my sleeve.
The magical vending machine will show us who the judges have chosen.
Both Kevin and Kris's creations are amazing, but I love my crackers.
And I really hope that the judges do too.
[Megan] The chef who had the most winning combination
of snack recreation and Snack-Off creation was...
[suspenseful music builds]
Lauryn B!
[Kris] Yo! Yes, Lauryn!
[Megan] You're moving on to the finals.
Lauryn B, in the first round,
while the final product looked wonky, your flavors were spot-on.
And you brought it all together in the final round
with amazing flavor and perfect shareability
that was a delight for us.
Thank you.
I can't believe I won. [laughs]
I'm so excited. I'm so happy.
I, like... There aren't words.
All right, chefs.
Only three of you are left to compete.
Danny, Luna, and Lauryn J.
If you thought figuring out how to recreate a Kit Kat was hard,
just wait until you see what our vending machine has in store next.
Vending machine, let's go!
[upbeat music builds]
[product thuds]
[all screaming]
[closing theme music playing]