The second Chris Kanik was named the first-ever winner “Gordon Ramsay‘s Food Stars,” heard that he had won the season, he only felt one emotion: relief.
“Two months of going through Gordon Ramsay hell was the most unique due diligence process I’ve ever been part of. So it was just relief, one of those surreal moments where I go, ‘OK, now it’s time for the real work,’” Kanik told TheWrap.
The “real work,” as Kanik puts it, is central to the formula of Fox’s latest collaboration with the celebrity chef. Unlike other cooking competition shows, “Food Stars” focuses not on chefs but on food and drink industry entrepreneurs. The winner of a series of strenuous challenges walks away with $250,000 and the privilege of calling Gordon Ramsay an investor in their product. It’s this second prize that stands out to Kanik.
“I think Gordon is going to be able to open up a lot of doors for us,” Kanik said. One example he hopes will happen is introducing his product to Ramsay’s Las Vegas base, Caesars Palace.
The CEO of SmartCups, a company to which he has devoted 11 years of his life, Kanik is behind what his company calls the world’s first printed beverage. Encased in a plant-based shell, ingredients for drinks are printed on the inside of cups, turning virtually any cup into a flavored beverage and eliminating the need for plastic bottles. Kanik believes his printed mouthwash would be a great addition to the hotel. But on a larger scale, he’s excited to work with Ramsay due to the celebrity chef’s humanitarian efforts.
“When are you ever going to say that you’re partnered with somebody who is involved in TV, food and beverage and humanitarian efforts at a very high level? I would argue that his partnership and his involvement in SmartCups moving forward will be way more valuable than the monetary investment,” Kanik said. “What I’m most passionate about is the humanitarian impact that SmartCups technology can have on the world, so the ability to reach underserved communities, underdeveloped regions around the world with essential micronutrients and medications in an innovative and sustainably accessible manner. That’s the reason I wake up every morning.”
Getting to this victorious moment wasn’t exactly easy. Though Kanik is thrilled to be the winner of “Food Stars,” he had to “have a conversation” with his wife and kids about what it would mean for him to become part of the public eye after he received his invitation to apply to the series. That invitation came after SmartCups earned a special mention on Time Magazine’s 100 best inventions of 2021.
If the stress of competition and being away from his family wasn’t enough, Kanik was thrown another wrench mid-season: sickness. Around Episode 9, Kanik became very sick, so much so that when it was time to shoot the finale, “I lost 14 pounds.” Adding to the stress, some performer selection mistakes in the circus-themed “Feast Your Eyes” required Kanik to put more of himself into his presentation “than any other contestant.” To accomplish the task, the CEO leaned on his standup comedy past.
“Being so sick, it really tested me and really pushed me. So I pulled out every trick I had, in terms of performance, comedy, every high school drama class that I had taken, to really help me win that that challenge,” Kanik said.
But it all paid off. After Kanik was announced as the winner of “Food Stars,” production surprised him with his family.
“When I saw my family, I just broke down in tears,” Kanik recalled, noting that “30 years” of his life flashed before his eyes. “In the early days of SmartCups, when we launched and [my wife] had cancer, and I was in her hospital room after her surgery. When they removed her thyroid and feeding her ice chips while answering customer emails, all those thoughts just came through my head in that moment.”
Looking forward, Kanik now believes he and his team can go do some good in the world. “I truly believe that there are Nobel Prize-worthy applications with SmartCups technology,” Kanik said.
There’s another, slightly sillier reason why Kanik is so proud of his victory, and it all has to do with Ramsay himself. “How many times can somebody be on stage and have a microphone and bust his chops and make fun of him?” Kanik said. “I’m probably one of the few people on the planet that’s told Gordon to go f— off and have him have him laugh at that.”
Speaking of the more light-hearted side of the show, Kanik does have something to clarify for the viewers of “Food Stars.” Yes, that is his real hair.
“Apparently, my hair cut really angers a lot of people. There’s nothing I can do about that. My wife likes it. My kids like it at this age,” Kanik said. “So if my wife likes it, and my kids like it, I really don’t care what too many people think about it.”
