Peeled: Everything We Know So Far

If there's one thing that most competition-based cooking shows have in common, it's that meat usually plays a central role. Weather you're watching "BBQ Brawl" or "Top Chef," chances are that most of the chefs competing will wax poetically about their favorite meat preparations, or talk at length about their preferred locally procured eggs and artisan cheeses. When there is a vegan or vegetarian cook on a show, they're typically othered. So plant-based eaters and chefs alike may be happy to hear that there's a new cooking competition show that focuses exclusively on vegan food.

It's called "Peeled," and it will debut on UnchainedTV, which can be viewed on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and online (via Live Kindly). The show was first conceived with a concept episode that aired on YouTube, but now production is in full swing. It's being filmed at the Vegas Vegan Culinary School and Eatery in Las Vegas, and the winner of the show will walk away with $1,000 for the charity of their choice and the title of "Hottest Vegan Chef."

Meet the contestants

"Peeled" will star four vegan chef competitors. There's Jaena Moynihan, a vegan holistic health and wellness coach in training from Phoenix, Arizona; Donald Lemperle, the founder and executive chef of VegeNation, from Las Vegas; Nicole Derseweh, a former Le Cordon Bleu student, cookbook author, and personal chef in Los Angeles; and Sandra Hurtault, a baker from Paris who works as a personal chef in Encinitas, California.

They'll be making history on the very first all-vegan cooking competition show in the US. Though some other shows, like "MasterChef" and "Beat Bobby Flay" have featured plant-based chefs (Tamearra Dyson, a vegan cook, did, in fact, beat Flay), they've usually competed against chefs who cook with both meat and dairy. But on "Peeled," the chefs will be using all plant-based ingredients, from fresh whole produce to faux-meat and cheese products, as well. The show doesn't have a firm release date yet, but viewers interested in vegan cooking should look for the premiere sometime this summer.