Tastemade, PepsiCo Pit Creators Against One Another In A “Grub Match”

The Super Bowl is right around the corner, and two companies are using the biggest snack day of the year as an excuse to pit chefs and videomakers against one another. Multi-channel network Tastemade has teamed up with PepsiCo to host V, a food competition that asked its participants to devise recipes that use the latter company’s products.

For the Grub Match, Tastemade enlisted three of its creators–Jimmy Wong, Kate Quinn, and Joel Gamoran–and matched each of them up with a pair of students at the Culinary Institute of America. The culinary trios were then asked to face off against each other in a cooking competition, and as with Iron Chef or Chopped, a selection of secret ingredients were involved: The teams had to use PepsiCo’s snack foods and soft drinks as the bases of their respective dishes.

The Grub Match was recorded across three videos, with one

on each participating creator’s channel. In the end, it was Gamoran’s team, powered by Doritos, Rold Gold pretzels, and Sierra Mist, that emerged victorious. As their prize, the three winners received Super Bowl tickets, and Tastemade plans to follow them as they attend the biggest game on the football calendar.

“We wanted to take things to another level, and these creators have legions of followers who are hungry for authentic content,” Pepsi EVP of global communications Jon Banner told the Wall Street Journal. “We get the benefit of their network and followers, and they know how to make content that is inherently shareable.”

As part of the Grub Match promotion, Tastemade also invited viewers to submit their own PepsiCo-powered Super Bowl snacks. The best recipes are available on the project’s website.