Snack Masters (New Zealand TV series)

Snack Masters is a New Zealand cooking competition television show based on the BAFTA-nominated British series Snackmasters. Broadcast by TVNZ 2, it was hosted by Kim Crossman and Tom Sainsbury.

In December 2021, South Pacific Pictures announced that they were making the series for TVNZ, with production due to begin in early 2022.

The series premiered on 20 April 2022 on TVNZ 2, with eight episodes being screened. The series has been referred to as Snackmasters NZ, and also Snack Masters NZ; however, the broadcast episodes are titled Snack Masters.

A second series started airing from 23 May 2024.

Format
Each episode sees two professional chefs compete to recreate a brand-name snack or fast food item. The chefs are given to two days to develop their replicas, which are then presented panel made up of workers involved with the manufacture of the snack. The chef who is decided to have most faithfully recreated the snack wins the competition. During each episode, Sainsbury visits the factory that manufactures each snack, comparing how accurately the chefs are recreating the item.

The show featured stand-alone episodes, following the format of the original British series.

Unlike the original and Australian series, Tom Sainsbury delivers the food items himself with a modified backpack to both teams, but he never sees the contestants until the Cook-off. In season 2, he delivers the items exclusively on a motorbike.

Season 2 was shortened to 6 episodes. The Thursday 7:30pm timeslot on TV2 would be replaced by Gladiators.

Season 2

 * (2nd) - 2nd appearance in the show

Critical reception
The show garnered mixed reaction from the media. Writing for Stuff, food writer Emily Brookes commented on the skills of the chefs, but was critical that they were, due to shooting constraints, all Auckland-based., except ep.3 of season 1, which was based in Wellington and Levin. She would have preferred that they were given the opportunity to innovate and create, rather than just copy.

Awards
For the 2022 New Zealand Television Awards, the show was nominated in the category for Best Format Reality Series, but did not win.