A new plant-based cooking competition show is on its way, thanks to the founders of vegan search platform vKind. The food show, called Peeled, came about after a standalone episode on vKind’s YouTube channel was met with raving reviews.
Drawing inspiration from other reality cooking competitions, such as MasterChef and Beat Bobby Flay, Peeled aims to provide vegans with more representation.
“As a vegan and a foodie, I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cooking shows,” said Star Simmons, vKind founder and Peeled creator.
“Peeled allows vegans and vegetarians to enjoy cooking shows again, and gives plant-based culinary arts a platform to be taken seriously.”
Panel of all-vegan judges
Each episode will feature classically trained chefs competing against each other in front of a panel of all-vegan judges.
The season one contestants – chefs Sandra Hurtault, Jaena Moynihan, Nicole Derseweh, and Donald Lemperle – will complete different culinary challenges in a bid to be named the “Hottest Vegan Chef.”
Each episode, the chef with the lowest scores will be “peeled off,” or eliminated, leaving the remaining contestants to progress in the competition. The final winner will be awarded a large cash prize to be donated to a charity of their choosing.
The Peeled squad
A team of well-renowned vegan professionals have been confirmed as judges, including chefs Chris Tucker, who appeared on season four of The Great American Baking Show, and Josie Clemens, who was a contestant in season 20 of Hell’s Kitchen.
“Competing in Hell’s Kitchen was a great experience, but not at all hospitable for a vegan chef like me, who would otherwise never opt to cook anything that wasn’t entirely plant-based,” said Clemens, who is now a co-creator of Peeled.
“I was thrilled to learn that vKind would be producing an all-vegan cooking competition. Signing on as co-creator was a no-brainer for me.”
Other judges include Sophie’s Kitchen CEO Dr Miles Woodruff, and CEO of VegTech Invest Elysabeth Alfano.
Meanwhile, chef and motivational speaker Babette Davis, along with journalist and fitness professor Dr Shabnam Islam, will host Peeled’s first season.
The growing ‘VegEconomy’
Peeled is also an opportunity to promote vegan businesses, Simmons explained. “We’re especially excited to provide vegan brands a new platform to showcase their products in front of an audience hungry for vegan alternatives,” they said.
“We roll out the green carpet for businesses of all sizes contributing to the VegEconomy.”
Peeled is being filmed in Las Vegas, at the Vegas Vegan Culinary School and Eatery – said to be the nation’s first completely plant-based cooking school. The show will debut on September 24 with a red carpet remiere at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) in Los Angeles.
Peeled will launch 24 hours post-premiere on Unchained TV, which is available for free on Amazon Fire, Roku, and Apple TV.
Reception
Like its YouTube debut, the upcoming series has been met with excitement from much of the vegan community.
Its announcement did receive some criticism, however. Early advertisements of Peeled marketed the program as the world’s first vegan cooking competition show. (In fact, VegChef Brazil has been airing a similar project online since last year).
New York-based chef Charlise Rookwood, founder of Vegan Soulicious and host of The Black Vegan Kitchen, told Plant Based News (PBN) that the claims made by Peeled “saddened” her.
Such marketing “seems rather disingenuous,” Rookwood said, noting that all four of the program’s contestants are white.
“[Peeled’s] lack of diversity is one of the main reasons I refused to promote it,” Rookwood said.
Especially “considering Tabitha Brown’s new vegan cooking competition will be featured on a mainstream media channel in August, a full month before Peeled,” she added.
Indeed, on August 11, a new cooking competition show featuring only plant-based meals aired on Food Network. Called It’s CompliPlated, the new series is hosted by Brown and sees chefs creating dishes that cater to various dietary restrictions.
“This show is about to change the way we all see food,” Brown shared on Instagram. “It’s for everyone and I can’t wait to take you all on the journey with me.”
‘Peeled’ responds to criticism
Following conversation on social media about the program’s diversity and its claims of being the world’s first vegan cooking competition show, Peeled issued a statement on the matter.
“Upon reflection and consideration of valid concerns about the accurate representation of which project was ‘the first’ were brought directly to the attention of vKind by individuals not affiliated with Food Network who had seen our initial marketing, we were able to take a step back [and] recognize our error,” reads the statement, which was sent to PBN.
Consequently, the vKind team “elected to rebrand Peeled as ‘The Ultimate All-Vegan Cooking Competition Show,’ in an effort to keep the conversation accurate and centered on ending animal exploitation.”
Speaking on Peeled’s representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities, creator Simmons said: “We set high standards when casting to ensure we had the best competing chefs we could find, given our constraints.”
“Being a grassroots campaign with limited resources, looming deadlines, and challenges presented by COVID-19, we made every attempt to create a richly diverse production, resulting in over 60 percent of the cast and crew being members of marginalized communities,” they added.
“We couldn’t be more proud of our accomplishment; our only regret was not being able to showcase BIPOC vegan excellence the way we had hoped with the original casting. Should the production of Peeled continue under our care, we commit to doing so at each opportunity moving forward,” Simmons said.
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This article was originally published on March 16, 2022. It was updated on August 1, 2022 to rectify the false claim that Peeled will be the world’s first vegan cooking competition show, and to include comments made about the program’s lack of diversity. It was updated again on August 17, 2022, to include statements issued by Peeled in response.
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This article has left out the fact that the peeled hosts are both women of color. I think this article is lacking proper journalism where all the information and evidence is provided to actually showcase where diversity is present in the Peeled production. PBN’s journalistic approach on this article continues to fuel a discussion of lack of diversity & inclusivity when the journalist herself fails to address these key female figures and their contributions to the vegan movement and this production. Why did they not interview Chef Babette or Dr. Shabnam for a statement? It is proof that this article is incredibly problematic and does not hold itself to the standard to which PBN Stands as the reputable news source they truly are.
It is always difficult when we insert the obvious, and refuse to acknowledge that diversity is and always has been an issue. It saddens me to see that, in a world where kindness, diversity and consideration of all living things, we still see a “privileged” few who get to speak out for a multitude of ethnicities who are so vast in numbers, it is impossible to accept that this kind of representation is even close to what a true vegan competition should look like. I agree with Charlise and find it frankly insulting to ignore the work of Tabitha Brown as if she is not visible. Have we not learned from past mistakes???
“Peeled” will continue to get backlash without doing their proper research before making such claims to be the “the first and only 100 percent vegan competition cooking show”. This is disrespectful to all the vegan chefs and might I add vegan chefs of color who are working diligently both behind the scenes and on the front lines to add diversity to such a white washed vegan community. Veganism is not a trend but a lifestyle. It is a colonizer mindset to rush to claim to be the first of anything. As Chef Charlise Rookwood of Vegan Soulicious stated above, the incredible Tabitha Brown will be coming out with her new vegan competition cooking show before “Peeled”. It’s not a good look to have such negative feedback before the show has been shown on mainstream media. Do and be better.
Unfortunately, the comments here are of course incorrect. Tabitha’s show was not vegan from the shots of the dead lobster to the bacon cheeseburger. Not to mention the judges that were not vegan. Peeled is the only 100% vegan all-cast cooking completion with the following stats which represent all communities, not just one. That is the problem with our society we think it’s all about us vs them instead of unity across the board for all groups that face discrimination in some way.
We surveyed the entire cast and crew of “Peeled” and discovered the following:
20% of camera-facing talent (2 out of 10 cast) represent the BIPOC community, with 50% of the entire above-and-below-the-line crew being composed of BIPOC individuals.
20% of camera-facing talent represents the LGBTQIA+ communities.
20% of camera-facing talent represents adults aged over 60.
70% of the entire cast and crew are women.
Wow, I am surprised that Vegans in the community are not excited about a fully vegan cooking show. I am happy that Tabitha Brown got a show on the Food Network as it helps the movement. I met her once at an event and she was so kind. But I watched “It’s Compliplated” and I was let down. The show didn’t have vegan chefs on it and it was about “picky” eaters. Now another show is coming out and the host like Tabitha Brown is African American (Chef Babette Davis) and they have a Desi host (Bangladeshi) and people are still getting upset? I am upset that Tabitha’s show didn’t have vegan chefs. Why are we tearing down something that is supposed to highlight Veganism in a good way? I think people who are writing about BIPOC issues before a show airs is ridiculous. I waited until after watching “It’s Compliplated” to state, that was not a Vegan cooking competition. I hope they make adjustments on Tabitha’s show because my whole family watched it together and 20 minutes in, they left and I carried on. My LGBQT+ friend told me they have a transgender contestant on Peeled and they were soo excited because they are rarely ever represented. So why don’t people wait to see the show before they say things. The Vegan Community is supposed to be supportive of each other. I will keep watching “It’s Compliplated” because I know they track views on a show, and they will keep it going if enough people watch it. Thats what we need to do in this community. It’s not easy to make a show people but it is easy to watch one! So I hope people watch “Peeled” and support them!