Hulu and David Chang’s newest cooking show, a self-judged spin on the average competition series, will feature a local Santa Monica resident and TikTok personality.
Jazmin Tyler will be featured in Hulu’s new food competition series "Secret Chef." With no professional training, her goal is to show that anyone can be a chef, no matter their background.
Tyler, who is mostly self-trained, grew her platform on social media, primarily on Tik Tok with food and lifestyle videos. Once she graduated from UC Berkeley as a political science major, she decided to step out of her comfort zone and explore her culinary interests. Shortly thereafter, she moved to Santa Monica and now frequently shopping at local farmers markets for fresh produce and meat.
The various places she has lived, including many coastal cities, have influenced her unique culinary style. She grew up and spent most of her life in Los Cabos, Mexico, lived in Berkeley and Santa Cruz.
"We kind of have to make do with what’s like either imported or what grows locally, so that really made me fall in love with cooking local fish, and of course, cooking with a lot of spices like chilis and tomatoes," said Tyler. "And I’m grateful that in the show I was able to incorporate some Mexican fusion into my dishes, so that was really enjoyable."
After the show, Tyler hopes to launch her own company, but her main focus is still her job as a food and wellness content creator on social media where she has almost half a million followers.
"I just want to dive a little bit more into entrepreneurship since this is my first year out of college, so I’m just kind of going with the flow and seeing where life takes me," said Tyler.
The purpose of the show is to eliminate all the biases behind the cooking, putting a spin on the average cooking competition. The ten contestants are placed in separate, isolated kitchens, preparing food that will then be blindly judged by the contestants themselves, hence the ‘secret’ in the show’s title.
"First of all, knowing that regardless of your background, you can cook and second of all, to just appreciate food for what it is without having to worry about like oh, who made this?" Tyler said.
All ten episodes of the competition series will be premiering on Hulu on June 29.
Sienna Bevan
SMDP Intern