One hesitates to label the latest thriller from Nicholas Tomnay (“The Perfect Host”) “yummy” or “delicious.”

Sure, it’s a culinary tale on the order of “The Menu.” But this most certainly isn’t “The Bear.”

“What You Wish” is a thriller with life or death on the line, with the super rich behaving badly and the people who “serve” them behaving even worse. This is fine dining with a taboo main course. Yeah, “that,” and without the “Twilight Zone” twist of being named for a cookbook.

The movie is about a desperate, broke chef who reconnects with rich culinary school classmate who jets around the world serving the swellest of the swells that which only he can prepare, and at prices that would make even a real billionaire swoon.

Who would’t be jealous of this lifestyle? But whatever Jack’s got going for him — fat bank account, endless upscale travel, free stays at swanky homes in exotic locales — he doesn’t seem all that happy about it. Old pal Ryan should get a clue.

But Ryan, played by Nick Stahl (of the TV version of “Let the Right One In”) with a calculated desperation, accepted this gift trip to an unnamed Latin American “paradise” (it was filmed in Colombia) with creditors on his tail — the kind of guys you deal with when you have a gambling problem.

Whatever it is that has successful chef Jack’s (Brian Groh) top-knot in a twist, serving “a lotta rich people” who “just want an extreme experience” at table, Ryan can only imagine. I mean, loan sharks are a REAL problem, right?

Jack’s “It’s not all glamor” and “the reward always matches the atrocity” warnings fall on deaf ears. When events conspire to put Ryan in Jeff’s chef jacket, in his rented, remote mansion, he figures he can handle impersonating his friend. And he has no qualms at all about trying.

But when “the agency” people show up, Imogen (Tamsin Topolski, giving off Brit-accented Elizabeth Holmes vibes) warns him “a bad dish will completely destroy the agency’s reputation.” That’s not nearly as scary as “a bad dish from you and your life will end.”

Ryan, posing as Jeff, must fool Imogen and her armed-and-dangerous fixer, the callous Maurice (Juan Carlos Messier, scary), and later the clients and still later the federal cop (Randy Vasquez, properly unflappable, up to a point) who shows up. It’s going to take more than Ryan’s grab-my-big-chance culinary skills to save his bacon.

The screenplay and Stahl let us see the calculations going on, the alarming problems back home and the horrific turn of events that makes Ryan’s abrupt and heartless decision to “take over” Jack’s gig and life logical. Or logical enough.

There’s a callous disconnect that I found less convincing as Maurice takes Ryan out to procure “produce” for this beyond-exclusive meal. You’d think Ryan would at least start to flip out at the monstrous turn of events, the lines he must instantly cross, the horrors he must tolerate and participate in. Stahl gives us little of that.

The second and third acts are about bloody meal prep, the barely-sketched-in rich diners, seeming bystanders and police who may not be as backward or as easily thrown off the scent as “the agency” expects.

Sometimes the suspense pays off and the movie’s twisted internal logic works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Stahl doesn’t always allow the character human reactions to what he’s gotten himself into and what others may be dragged into with him.

But there’s suspense in more than one situation, and a darkly humorous seasoning to the later acts.

Sure, it’s easy to see this as a companion film from the guy who gave us “The Perfect Host.” But Tomnay throws in a couple of twists that pay off and puts us in Ryan’s shoes and chef jacket, trying to work out how in the hell he will get out of this meal-of-his-life alive

Will he skip out before dessert?

Rating: unrated, bloody violence

Cast: Nick Stahl, Tamsin Topolski,
Juan Carlos Messier, RandyVasquez, Penelope Mitchell and Brian Groh.

Credits: Scripted and directed by Nicholas Tomnay. A Magnolia/Magnet release.

Running time: 1:41