Do not read this story unless youve seen Wednesdays season one finale ofGordon Ramsays Food StarsonFox.
Was the creator of Fat Milk more deserving?
Or should he reward the guy who wants to hydrate folksandsave the environment at the same time?
Fox
Kaniks Smart Cups eliminate the need to bottle and ship liquids.
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DEADLINE I saw stories on you and your technology back in 2020.
Why did you have to go on a Gordon Ramsay show to get money?
Credit: Greg Gayne/FOX
CHRIS KANIKIts taken quite a bit of time to develop this technology from scratch.
Our equipment is patented, one of a kind.
We have quite a bit of capital invested into the development of Smart Cups.
The one element that were missing is commercial success.
And 99.9% of the people walking this planet have no idea that Smart Cups exists.
Thats why I went on the show.
I needed that platform, and I wanted to expose Smart Cups to millions of eyeballs.
DEADLINE How do you get the dried ingredients to stick to the bottom of the cup?
KANIKThe largest food companies have tried to reverse engineer it and have failed miserably.
It does a nice job of adhering on surfaces.
DEADLINE And you said the cup itself is plant-based, right?
We dont make the physical cup, so I want to be clear on that.
We source the cups from a supplier.
But were not limited to the cups that you currently see our product in.
We can print on recycled material.
Lets put it this way, we havent found a material that we cant print on.
DEADLINE Have you gotten to the point where you could imprint alcohol?
KANIKThats actually how this started with me, thinking about making powdered alcohol.
I was at a Taco Tuesday.
I took a napkin and started writing out a protocol.
The next day I blew up my kitchen.
Thats what led me to the printing technology.
DEADLINE Did you ever consider going onShark Tank?
KANIKThey reached out but I was still in the testing phase.
DEADLINE Were your fellow contestants aware of how far along you were with Smart Cups?
Did they think Ramsay may have injected a ringer into the show?
KANIKA lot of the contestants were aware of that.
I walked into the show and realized very quickly that I had far more experience.
I mean, Ive been around the block.
Ive passed Fortune 500 audits.
Ive worked with multinational companies, public companies.
Everybody had a company, everybody had a product that they were trying to expand on.
Some of them were very impressive.
DEADLINE So did Gordon ever yell at you?
KANIKYou want a funny story?
I love the Idiot sandwich stuff that he does.
I was just gonna pull it out and ask him to call me an idiot sandwich.
But he never did, he never yelled at me.
He was always very professional and respectful.
I think he recognized that I was a professional myself.
I never engaged in any drama on the show.
He said, come on, were gonna be business partners.
I said, just do it for my kids.
So he called me an idiot sandwich shortly after he announced the winner.
So that made my day.
DEADLINE You were very emotional in the finale.
Two months away from my family.
It was draining emotionally, physically, and mentally.
I remained stoic throughout the entire competition.
I threw in humor here and there, but I was very stoic throughout it all.
I was thinking about the late nights, the events that Ive missed.
All those events just flooded my brain.
KANIKUCLAs Institute of the Environment and Sustainability published a paper on the impact of our technology on the environment.
We also implemented our automated production line to take on enterprise business.
Theyre planning on launching March of 2024.
So its been a pretty exciting couple of months here for us.
DEADLINE So is yourreality TVcareer over, or are you going to tryThe Amazing Raceafter this?
KANIKUh, I will never be a contestant again.
However, if I get an offer to be a judge, thatll be a different story.
