During summer 2022, I was hired as a cast wrangler for Spoke Studios' new cooking show that would be premiering (and, as of June 29, 2023, has premiered) on Hulu. My job was to transport the cast between their hotels and the studio, and then to make sure they were in the right place on or off set while they were at the studio—as well as comfortable and taken care of.
This job on the set of Secret Chef introduced a unique challenge: since the chefs identities needed to be kept secret, they couldn't know who was on set at any given time. This meant that I and the other cast wranglers could not run into each other with our assigned cast members. The level of communication between the 10 of us cast wranglers was extreme. We each had walkie talkies with surveillance earpieces that were to be worn all day (12-16 hour days were normal) to use to communicate our locations with each other. Every move our cast member made was broadcast to the other wranglers so we could know how to keep the cast from running across each other—to the point that we waited with our cast members around corners just to get the all-clear for them to use the restroom. I can proudly say that the cast did not run into each other once and the surprise you see on their faces during the in-show reveals is genuine.
Additionally, I had to be on top of the shooting schedule for the day to know when and where my cast member needed to be. I couldn't let anything slip—if my chef was late to set, that would push our schedule back significantly. I had to keep organized to keep myself on cue as well as keeping my cast member on time through every step of the process (hair, makeup, wardrobe, meals, bathroom breaks, etc.) while also keeping an eye out for the other wranglers and cast and pitching in where any help was needed.
It was also my job to keep the cast comfortable when they were off set. This responsibility ranged from taking the cast's lunch orders to going out to the store to grab something they needed to even tailoring the car playlists to their tastes during the long waits in between being on set (I can no longer listen to Beyoncé without thinking of Stephenie). Secret Chef is a high-stakes competition and the cast's anxiety wasn't helped by all the secrecy surrounding their movements. My job was to do everything I could to make them as at-ease as possible.
I was the youngest cast wrangler in the production and I was younger than all of the cast, but I had a great time getting to know the other wranglers and the cast throughout the process and made friends out of many of them! It was very easy to become close with both the cast and the other wranglers when my job was constant communication with all of them—as well as to get to know crew from other departments since my department was so interactive with the others. Since I was engaging with a range of people from production to camera to wardrobe to cast on the daily, this process was a great way to use and expand my interpersonal skills.
