A Michelin-star chef analyzes the chaotic opening night in The Bear season 2. Created by Christopher Storer for FX on Hulu, this Emmy-winning comedy-drama stars Jeremy Allen White as Carmy Berzatto, an ambitious and professionally trained chef who returns to his hometown to take over his family’s sandwich shop following the unexpected death of his brother. Alongside White, who excels as the chief protagonist of the show, other The Bear cast members include talented names like Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Abby Elliott, and Lionel Boyce.

Speaking with Insider, master chef and restaurateur Paul Liebrandt breaks down the opening of The Bear restaurant from season 2.

Giving the show a 7 out of 10, Liebrandt explains that The Bear manages to capture the chaos, the energy, and the sensibilities of a restaurant opening night pretty well. He also adds that the time factor is also very important, as timing is everything in an environment that’s that fast-paced. Read his full quote below:

Opening nights are tough, they’re very, very tough. It’s like going on a first date, you’re not meeting you, you’re meeting the representative of you. I think they captured it pretty well, the stress level, the energy, the sensibility, I suppose, you could say of the kitchen. The gentleman who was calling the tickets says a lot, maybe more than you should on an opening night. It’s opening night. You want to calm everybody down a bit and focus because everyone’s a bit nervous.

Absolutely we have a timer, everybody has a timer. Timing in the kitchen is the one thing we cannot get back, so when you come for a meal in a fine dining restaurant and if you’re doing multiple courses a la tasting menu style, you won’t be sitting at the table and having a 45 minute gap between courses. You’re going to leave so the timing is critical, critical not just for the flow of service but for the timing of how food is cooked, how the food is rested, timing of the temperatures, the techniques. It’s very critical that the timing is to the second in a kitchen.

Is The Bear An Accurate Depiction of Restaurant Work?

The Bear Gets Many Things Right

Since The Bear premiered on FX on Hulu in 2022, the show has received high praise from both viewers and critics, who have lauded its excellent pacing, its captivating story arcs and, most especially, its lovable characters. White’s Carmy and Edebiri’s Sydney are two particularly standout characters, and their intricate relationship has been one of the show’s major appeals, leading to speculation about what might become of their relationship in The Bear season 3.

While the strong performances and interpersonal relationships have been a major appeal of The Bear since its premiere, another strong talking point is its depiction of the kitchen and restaurant lifestyle. Many shows in the past have served up glossy and gilded versions of what restaurant cultures are like, but not The Bear. The show manages to lay out the constant chaos and messiness of restaurants, even down to its sound design. The repeated sound of the ticket machine, for example, helps drive home the madness that occurs in a kitchen setting.

Even though The Bear largely excels in its depiction of the kitchen and restaurant lifestyle, there are a few exaggerations and moments of excessive drama. For example, while the show does make use of different realistic kitchen vernacular, there are a few times when there’s unreasonable use of industry jargon that does not particularly mirror real life. However, these moments are few and far between, and the show overall does a good job presenting an authentic look into kitchen life.

Source: Insider