The sixth episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars Season 2 was all about the magic of chocolate. And that meant that both teams needed to create their very own chocolate candy in order to present to Mars!
Each team had to come together to not only create their chocolate confection, but also create a name for their treat, write a jingle, design the packaging, and of course create a pitch for the executives from Mars. And they only had 24 hours to make this all happen.
The interesting thing about this challenge was the fact that Gordon Ramsay‘s team decided to stick with the idea of the solar system. They basically did a play off of the Mars brand name, and decided to make an elevated dark chocolate treat called Joopz. The name of the chocolate was a play off the planet Jupiter.
The reason this was so interesting because it was smart. It was maybe not the most out of the box idea, but at the same time they had a vision and they ran with it. And I think that was the best part of this episode, the fact that both teams really committed to what they were doing and went for it.
Sadly, Lisa Vanderpump’s team was not as successful in their creative endeavor. While they did come up with a unique candy bar, they had to pivot because their marketing was wrong. You’re not allowed to market to children under 13 and they didn’t think about that. They were thinking about marketing to kids when the reality is you really need to market to the adults.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Lisa’s team that lost. When the Mars executives made their determination, they decided that they would only order 5000 bars from Lisa Vanderpump’s team, whereas they would be interested in potentially ordering 25,000 bars from Gordon Ramsay‘s team.
Honestly, it makes perfect sense to me that the executives would prefer the Gordon Ramsay chocolate. There was something very interesting about what they came up with. Not only did the chocolate itself sound delicious, but they really thought about their marketing. They did a good job coming up with interesting packaging as well.
While I did like the idea of the chocolate bar from Lisa Vanderpump‘s team, I don’t think they executed it well. Not only did the executives feel like this bar was way too sweet, but their marketing didn’t really work in the long run. And that’s why they lost.
During the grilling after the loss, it was hard to determine who might end up going home. And even when Lisa said that it was between Maria Laura and Erica, it felt like a bit of a surprise. Ultimately, it was Maria Laura who was sent home, and we don’t really know if that was the right decision or not in the long run.
What did you think of this episode of Food Stars? Were you surprised by the chocolate creations? Do you think the right team won?