Today I'll be returning to the subject of protein bars. The ones I'll be talking about are candy bar-ish, while purporting to be healthy snacks. These are both from Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch line--their chocolate chip cookie dough kind, and their mint chocolate chip variant.
I had to look up who Robert Irvine is, which just goes to show that I don't watch the Food Network channel.* Anyway, Robert Irvine was born in England. In his late teens he joined the country's Royal Navy, becoming a chef for a military ship. After his service time was over, he became a celebrity chef. While he's appeared as a guest on several cooking shows, such as "Iron Chef," he's best known for hosting several different programs, mostly on the Food Network. Probably the best remembered ones are "Restaurant Impossible" (2011-16), and for his two seasons of "Worst Cooks in America." He also had a stint as the host of a regular (i.e., not cooking based) talk show on the CW channel in 2016, but this one seems to have been short lived. He's also owned at least two restaurants. One, which was within the Las Vegas Tropicana hotel and casino, lasted from 2017-24, and the other, Fresh Kitchen, still exists, operating within the U.S. government's Pentagon building. Irvine also has an ownership stake in a Pennsylvania-based distillery, named Boardroom Spirits. It sells Irvine's vodka, and Irvine's dry gin, among others. And he's written, to date, six books--"Mission: Cook!" (2007), "Impossible to Easy" (2010), "Fit Fuel" (2015), "Blend Anything Machine Recipes" (2015), "Family Table By Robert Irvine" (2018), and "Overcoming Impossible" (2023). Staying on the written word, since 2016 Irvine has his own digital magazine, the creatively named "Robert Irvine Magazine," which is still active. He's made some other notable biographical claims as well, such as that he earned a degree in food and nutrition from the U.K.'s University of Leeds, that he's a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, he helped make the wedding cake for the Royal union of Charles and Diana, and that he was employed as a chef at the American White House. Some folks questioned these accomplishments, but Irvine maintains that they're true. More relevant to this blog post, Robert Irvine started Fit Crunch in 2012 in a partnership with Bakery Barn. The company was owned by Irvine's Pervine Foods, LLC originally, but it was acquired by 1440 Foods in 2024.
Fit Crunch makes various kinds of protein bars. Some, like the two I sampled, are part of their baked bar line. Other bar types include wafer bars, and Delight bars. Customers can also buy several kinds of protein powder. Somewhat surprisingly, the company's wares contain some of the common "controversial" ingredients. As in, some of their products have soy, and some contain gluten. All of them contain dairy, and several also contain nuts. And, although Fit Crunch's official website notes that their bars aren't technically made with any declared GMOs, they admit that some of them are produced with genetic engineering, whatever that specifically means.
Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch high protein baked bar, chocolate chip cookie dough flavor: The bar measured about 3.5 inches by 1.5 inches (or about 9 cm. by 4 cm.). It had a very rough-looking appearance, with many bulges and nuts barely covered by the outer coating. The color was a dark brown. The flavor was very chocolate-y, and the texture was crunchy. It was really tasty--it was like a good candy chocolate bar. I don't recall detecting much of a cookie dough taste, but it was so good otherwise that I didn't care. So it didn't taste like a typical disappointing healthy snack, it tasted like a fun, decadent candy. I'd recommend this highly. My only very minor complaint was that it was a little messy to eat, as it was starting to melt in my hand quickly.
Chef Robert Irvine's Fit Crunch high protein baked bar, mint chocolate chip flavor: This one was the same size and shape as the previous one, and also had a rough outer appearance and a very dark brown color. The only real difference was this bar had white streaks going across it. The texture was once again crunchy. The taste was pleasantly bold--I could detect both the chocolate and mint flavors. So I really enjoyed this kind a lot, too. I would strongly recommend this one as well. It was a bit melty, like its kin, to pick out and identify one tiny nit.
In case you're wondering, I looked up Robert Irvine's books on Amazon, to check out the general consensus on them. And with one exception, they're well regarded. "Impossible to Easy" had a rating of 4.3 out of 5, both "Fit Fuel" and "Mission: Cook!" were at 4.4, "Family Table" was at 4.5, and "Overcoming Impossible" was a robust 4.7 out of 5. The exception was one that wasn't as well publicized, and seemingly was a smaller release, called "Blend Anything Machine Recipes" (2015). It only had a 3.0 out of 5. Although, this was only based on one review, so that should be kept in mind. (All the well rated ones had a good number of reviews, some over 100.)
* Which makes sense, because why would I? I hate cooking, and most competition/reality type programs, so there's nothing there for me. It'd be like if I voluntarily watched a network devoted to knitting, or NASCAR, or Medieval romantic poetry.
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