In Snack Vs. Chef, 12 chefs will compete, three at a time, for a chance to be in the show’s final round, with a $50,000 grand prize. In the series, hosted by comedians Megan Stalter and Hari Kondabolu, the chefs are told to recreate a beloved snack food in the first round of each episode’s contest, then in the second round they’re asked to create a new snack that has elements of the designated snack for the episode. Food scientists Ali Bouzari and Helen Park are the judges.

SNACK VS. CHEF: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A group of 12 chefs enter a soundstage that’s made to look like a bodega.

The Gist: In the first episode, the snack food that the chefs need to recreate are Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. The idea isn’t just that they have to make a crunchy Cheeto with the right consistency but also create the spicy, bright red cheese powder that covers them. The emulation has to include what they call the “Cheetle”, which is the cheese residue that’s left on your fingers and colors it orange or, in this case, red.

The snacks the three chefs have to create in the second round all have to have that Cheetle-esque coating on them, no matter what flavor it is. In other words, it needs to leave a residue on the fingers, whether it’s a pickle chip or a roll of fruit leather.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The format of Snack Vs. Chef is a weird hybrid of Top Chef and Chopped; only three of the twelve chefs compete at any one time, but the winner of each of the four preliminary rounds goes onto a second round, then the two who win that second round compete for the grand prize.

Our Take: One of the things that fascinates us about Snack Vs. Chef is that the show is asking these chefs to recreate on a small scale something that is produced in massive quantities in an industrial setting. The chefs admit that the recipes for the various snack foods, like Pringles, Oreos, Ho Hos, Gushers and more are insanely complicated. But we love that they’re game to try to replicate them, anyway.

To us, the replication round is more interesting than the second round, where original snacks are created. We loved to see, for instance, one of the chefs create puffy, bendy Cheetos that are purple instead of red; they looked more like litter-encrusted cat turds than like something edible. And we really enjoyed seeing the puffs explode out of the oil while being fried because the mixture had too much water in it. The complex recipes of the snacks lend themselves to a high degree of failure in this round, whereas the second round feels more like a traditional cooking competition round.

Kondabolu and Salter, two very funny comedians, are somewhat subdued here, especially Stalter. She seems to be there more for the enthusiasm she showed on Hacks than for improvising some funny observations. Kondabolu is a little bit better in that regard, but it feels like their funniest lines were left out of the episode. In many ways, Bouzari and Park were shown to be looser and funnier than the hosts, and that does all four of the hosts and judges a disservice.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The next challenge comes tumbling out of the vending machine: Pringles! One of the remaining chefs says to a producer that they “are so hard to make.”

Sleeper Star: We’ll give this to the production designers who not only create snack packages for each contestant — when their package comes out of the vending machine, they’re chosen for that round — but the packaging for the new snacks created in the second round.

Most Pilot-y Line: The contestants not picked for a round have to watch the competition from the bodega half of the set, crammed behind a window like they’re being questioned by the police. It’s awkward and feels like something we’d hate to be around for during an hours-long shoot.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Snack Vs. Chef is awkwardly formatted, and it doesn’t seem to utilize its very funny hosts very well. But the recreation round is a hoot to watch, even if the snacks created don’t look all that appetizing most of the time.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.