Circa 2022, the world was pulling itself out of a slumber. On June 23rd, FX released the first season of ‘The Bear’. But it wasn’t until I woke up to its winning streak at the Emmys, that I resolved to binge it. And I haven’t been the same since.
The show revolves around Carmen Berzatto, a young fine-dining chef, who inherits a family-owned sandwich shop, called ‘The Beef’, in Chicago after his brother passes away.
In its pilot episode, the show throws its audience into the eye of the storm. The makers, it seems, were using tough love to draw its viewers in, getting them addicted to the adrenaline rush of a kitchen, before answering the more nuanced question of what lies beneath all the noise. And it worked.
The phrase “Yes, Chef” became a pop culture phenomenon and ‘The Bear’ received a record-breaking number of Emmy nominations in its category.
Matty Matheson, a real-life chef and producer of the show, in his acceptance speech, said, “We’re all broken inside, and every single day we’ve got to show up and cook and make people feel good by eating something that’s sitting at a table.”
This is the secret ingredient of the show—its people who, despite being in the service industry, pour from a place of emptiness.
With three seasons in the running, and anticipation awaiting its next, it’s a good time to take stock of how far the Jeremy Allen White-starrer has come: If Season One felt like getting sucked into a black hole, then Season Two was an attempt to manoeuvre oneself out of it.
Season Three, however, was standing still, contemplating its existence, in what felt like a seemingly endless therapy session.
From Mr. Beef to The Beef
In line with its erratic narrative structure and chaotic treatment, The Bear’s success is a thrilling and unexpected surprise for the television industry and its makers alike.
Christopher Storer, creator of the show, said, “We didn’t know if anyone was going to give a shit — like FX could watch it and be like, ‘this is bad.’ We had no idea of this being even good, but the sense of accomplishment was incredible.”
The show had the defiance of a rebellious teenager, when it first came out in 2022, with no desire to adhere to conventions. Yet, unlike the teenager, it wasn’t trying to raise eyeballs. It was unapologetically raw, gritty and energetic. But lo and behold—the unanimous applause it received set expectations for the coming seasons soaring high.
Storer grew up in Chicago and ‘The Beef’ was inspired by a real-life restaurant called ‘Mr. Beef’ on River North, in Orleans.
The owner of ‘Mr. Beef’, Chris Zucchero, is a childhood friend of Storer’s, which explains his rather accurate portrayal of the hospitality industry, with carefully observed details such as chefs drinking water out of deli cups. Storer and the writers keep the pace of the dialogue in alignment with the pace of the kitchen; watching the characters engage in banter is as invigorating as watching a chef fire up a dish.
Perhaps, it was the culinary training that the actors received during prep, or Storer’s innate fascination with the culinary world—both his sister and childhood friend are chefs—the one thing the show never misses on is authenticity.
So much so that culinary professionals, across the world, applauded it for the use of precise technique and terminology—and also offered the cast and crew, visiting their restaurants, a free appetiser every now and then!
Preparation
In Sir Laurence Olivier’s words, ‘Good acting is an everlasting search for truth’ and what sets the cast of ‘The Bear’ apart is their willingness to sink their teeth in and get their hands dirty—or greasy in this case. A conscious choice, on Storer’s part, to have the actors train at culinary schools instead of using hand doubles, yields a performance that is intimate, unadulterated and resonates with audiences worldwide.
Take us there, Bear
In an interview on the Tonight Show, Jeremy Allen White talks about working at Pasjoli, a Michelin star restaurant in Santa Monica, with Chef Dave Beran in preparation for his role of Carmen—a world-class chef with mommy-issues, crippling anxiety and a severe case of OCD.
Up until the finale episode of Season 1, Carmen is laser-focused on his kitchen duties, using any excuse, to avoid dealing with his grief. White assumes a nuanced body language—eyes glued to the floor, limbs trembling and twitching, an unsmiling face, and incessant head-scratching—that makes the audience feel, almost as uncomfortable, as he does in his body.
I’m Sydney
Ayo Edibiri, essays the role of Sydney, a young and promising graduate from the Culinary Institute of America. In Season 2, Sydney interviews potential candidates for hiring at the new restaurant and one of them asks, “When can I talk to the chef?”, to which she replies, with a deadpan expression, “You are.”
From struggling to be respected by her peers to finding her voice in a rather obnoxious, male-dominated kitchen—Sydney is the voice of reason in the middle of a testosterone-fuelled rage fest.
Yo, Cousin
At first sight, Richie is loud, offensive and unlikeable but what Ebon Moss-Bachrach goes on to do with his character is no small feat. His character arc feels like a personal victory, that goes from audiences hating his guts to watching him find himself.
In the beginning of Season 2, Richie is struggling with the idea of purpose, and in episode 7, titled ‘Forks’, he finds it—while scrubbing cutlery for hours at an up-scale fine dining restaurant. His over-the-top persona is both a ruse to conceal his loneliness, and a compensation for his lack of knowledge and skills in the kitchen.
The Making
One thing that watching the show will do to you—apart from questioning your existence—is make you hungry.
When shooting food, Cinematographer, Andrew Wehde, prefers going as close to the subject as possible, to create a sort of food-romance—that, right there, explains why, sometimes, we find ourselves wanting to devour the screen while watching ‘The Bear’.
Apart from crafting drool-worthy shots, Wehde juxtaposes intense movement with long, slow-burning takes, to create an ideal balance between time-sensitive kitchen environments and the emptiness outside of it.
In an interview with the Go Creative Show, he talks about using two cameras—one that follows the actors on set and another one that, frantically, captures their movements from every angle, whether they are chopping carrots, peeling potatoes or reacting to someone. The use of tight closeups, interspersed with foreground elements, create a sense of stuffiness, akin to a real restaurant kitchen, and the shaky handheld movements add fuel to the fire—quite literally.
However, Wehde clarifies that they are always careful about maintaining a balance—so that a shaky camera isn’t too shaky, and chaotic movements are intercut with still shots to allow the audience to reset.
The ambition to blend these contradicting techniques may sound bizarre on paper, but somehow they work, and have us, internally screaming, 'Yes, Chef!'
Presenting The Dish
Admittedly, Storer relied greatly on editors, Joanna Naugle and Adam Epstein, to put this dish together and serve it well—and they did not disappoint.
If you need a great lesson in what editing can do to elicit emotional intensity, the fourteen minute-long thanksgiving dinner sequence, in episode ‘Fishes’ of Season 2, is the one for you.
This sequence, that features a roster of remarkable actors, including Jamie Lee Curtis (as Carmen’s mother), John Bernthal (as Michael Berzatto), Bob Odenkirk (as Uncle Lee), Sarah Paulson (as cousin Michelle) amongst others, was meticulously put together using 258 edits. With each character feeling a different emotion, the editors stitch their reaction shots in a way that we empathise with them—some of them, including Carmen, don’t have any lines—but the tension remains palpable.
Technique and style, according to Adam Epstein, were a means to serve the characters and their story, rather than to simply show off their skills.
In this interview, the editors take us behind the scenes and recount what went into creating the vibrant chaos of 'The Bear'.
Whether it was the decision to use a cross-dissolve to create a romance between Carmen and the food he was cooking, or to use quick zoom-ins to build the pace of a scene—they also, always, knew when to slow it down, with no cuts, to get inside the head of the characters.
A Stale Season At The Restaurant
A good story is a result of a good obstacle—or a series of them. With season 3, the problem is, simply, that there is no great problem.
The plot continues to milk its primary obstacle—lack of money, and yes, there is the impending doom of a bad review that could make or break the place, but that isn’t enough to keep the pace that is characteristic of ‘The Bear’.
The season began with a promising flashback episode, in which Carmen is seen honing his skills while enduring humiliation from his superiors, and it sets the bar high—but, unfortunately, does not hold up to the standard.
Its technical prowess still intact, the story grows stale and is unable to move forward. The season relies, heavily, on flashbacks and the potential of the actors, and every other resource at their disposal, amounts to a waste.
With too many distractions, the point of the season is amiss, or perhaps there wasn’t any to begin with. It feels like the kind of impasse one reaches at the pinnacle of success and the question that hangs, unanswered, in the air is—‘What Next?’
For Carmen and the audiences alike.
With Season 4 on the horizon, and its filming already in the wraps, it appears that it will be the closure we need. Despite the unprecedented debacle of its latest instalment, the show held its own at this year’s Emmys and continues to remain a legacy in modern television.
Behind The Scenes with The Bear
Talking about the vibe in between takes, Ayo in an interview with BAFTA, said, "We are actually a pretty chill bunch, but the environment fostered by Chris is one that is open to messiness and that frenetic energy that you want to keep chasing take after take.” To which Ebon adds, “And when it’s done, it’s done.”
Ayo, admittedly, became a better chef through the making of this show and started ‘slicing her onions thinner and safer’ than before. Apart from honing her knife skills, she tried her hand at direction, upon Storer’s insistence, and directed the episode titled ‘Napkins’–which is heralded as one of the highlights of Season 3.
She was not the only one to juggle roles behind the scenes – Chris Storer and Executive Producer Josh Senior, turned Music Supervisors out of sheer desperation to ‘save some money’.
"You can’t make this show without talking about how the finances ripple through," Storer says to Esquire in an interview. 'The Bear' is as much about the practical aspects of running a restaurant as it is about finding inspiration.
Much as the characters in the show, the makers, too, were the underdogs that swept the people away with their grit, creativity and an impeccable 'system'---What more do you need on a Michelin star menu?
Perhaps, it was unusual to be enamoured with a show so inherently chaotic, at a time when the world was recovering from a catastrophe, but—
The brilliant thing about ‘The Bear’ is that its intensity never takes away from its ability to be a comfort-watch, simply, because it makes us care about everything.
All three seasons of 'The Bear' are streaming now on Disney+ Hotstar.