Kraken Congee Appear on CNBC's Restaurant Kickstart

[Image: via CNBC]

Seattle pop-up Kraken Congee will be featured in Restaurant Kickstart, an upcoming reality show from CNBC. In the series, Texas chef Tim Love and MasterChef judge Joe Bastianich vie to back participants, who are given $7,500 and two days to write a business plan, prep, and, per the show's press release, "test the concept on the public." At the end of each episode, Love and Bastianich decide whether or not to "put their own money on the line to make someone's dreams come true." Kraken owners Garrett Doherty, Irbille Donia, and Shane Tyler Robinson flew to LA to film an episode. "It's kind of like Shark Tank meets restaurant wars from Top Chef," Doherty tells Eater.

So what's it like to actually be on a reality cooking show? "It was really strange," Doherty says. "We didn't really know what to expect and we had nothing to compare it to. We were just all scared shitless about not fucking up. I think we did our pitch three times." He adds: "There's a lot of crying, I'm just going to tell you now."

Scouts for the show found Kraken on Facebook. After asking the guys a series of questions, "we just went from there," Doherty says. Filming spanned a couple of months this past January and February. "It's a chance for us to go from our one night a month pop-up to maybe making it into a real space and venue. That was the biggest draw for why we wanted to go."

If the congee pop-up walks away with any backers won't be known until their episode airs this July; prep with a trailer that's peppered with team Kraken.
· New CNBC Food Shows Include Joe Bastianich and Tim Love's Restaurant Kickstart [EN]
· All Kraken Congee Coverage [-ESEA-]