Hats off: chefs face a labyrinth of challenges in new Hulu show

The out-of-the-box, out-of-the-ordinary cooking competition, “Secret Chef,” pits chef against chef in a blind taste-test-off when it premieres Thursday, June 29, on Hulu.

From executive producer David Chang (“Ugly Delicious”) — himself a renowned chef and restauranteur, having founded the Momofoku restaurant chain — this new, “sly” twist on the cooking competition genre asks 10 chefs, ranging in skill and specialty from professionals to home cooks and social media influencers, to perform in a range of cooking challenges, all performed from the depths of a kitchen unlike any other.

The show, as complex as it is straightforward, isolates its competitors in a secret labyrinth of secluded, underground kitchens, connected only by an ongoing conveyor belt. Each chef gets a kitchen of their own, not knowing who inhabits the other nine. With no guidance from any hosts, mentors or fellow chefs, each contender has only one source for instructions: a mischievous, animated chef’s hat, which appears on screen to task the chefs with increasingly complex cooking challenges. They must rely solely on themselves as they chop, blend and sauté towards the finish line, when their dishes disappear, whisked away on a conveyor belt. But it doesn’t stop there. In another subversion of traditional cooking competitions, this show features no judges – at least, not exactly. At the end of the competition, the chefs will partake in a series of blind taste tests, experiencing each other’s creations firsthand as the conveyor belt moves along –all without knowing the competitor behind the dish. They must rate the presented plates based on food alone, with no knowledge of whether it was prepared by an all-star chef or a hobbyist cook. Only once a winner has been chosen will identities be revealed and the labyrinth unlocked.

Produced by Dave O’Connor (“Abstract: The Art of Design”), food writer Chris Ying and Christopher C. Chen (“Ugly Delicious”) of Majordomo Media, along with Vox Media Studios and Wheelhouse’s Spoke Studios, and helmed by showrunner Patrick J. Doody (“Nailed It!”), this unique new cooking competition show puts food and flavor above all else, upending expectations of chefs and viewers alike when it premieres Thursday, June 29, on Hulu.

“Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” (1957): friends off-screen, Douglas and Burt Lancaster invest their camaraderie into their portrayals of Old West legends Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.

“Spartacus” (1960): Kubrick on this epic about a slave who went up against the Roman Empire … much as Douglas, also a produc er here, went up against Hollywood’s establishment by insisting that blacklisted Dalton Trumbo get name credit for his script here.

“Lonely Are the Brave” (1962): las’ best work is in this Western, about a contemporary cowboy determined to maintain the practices of the old frontier despite considerable opposition.

“The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952): Hardly a glossy picture of the entertainment world, this drama casts Douglas as a producer with – appropriately in his case – a lot of enemies. Turner Classic Movies presents the film Tuesday, June 27, during the last night of its “Hollywoodland” salute to showbiz stories.

“Seven Days in May” (1964): itary coup and political coup puts two career soldiers (Douglas and Lancaster, reunited) on opposing sides, with extreme tension, in a Rod Serling screenplay.

“The Fury” intriguing thriller, with whose son (Andrew as a former