Watson's Chocolates and its Buffalo-style chocolate-covered sponge candy will get their close-up Monday night on the Food Network.

Adam Gertler, host of "Kid in a Candy Store," visited in December with camera crews for a two-day shoot at Watson's Tonawanda production facility and its store on Transit Road.

"That happened because we have a real good customer in L.A. that happens to be the accountant for the production company that does 'Kid in a Candy Store,' " said Watson's President Whitney Watson Beecher. After a vetting process, the show decided to feature Watson's in an episode.

The Buffalo confectioner will share time in the episode with a California maker of jumbo jawbreakers and a deluxe popcorn company in Las Vegas.

After almost 20 hours of shooting the candy-making process, factory and interviews with customers, the finished television product will be about seven minutes. "It was a lot of fun," Beecher said. "Adam Gertler was really funny, easygoing and down-to-earth."

Beecher can't wait to see it, and suspects her father, Jim, will be prominent in the sponge-making segments. His parents started the business in 1946, making her the third generation of Watsons.

The episode, titled "Crunch Time," runs on the Food Network at 8:30 p.m. Monday.

-- Andrew Z. Galarneau