A real chef grades a Sydney scene from The Bear, finding it to be very accurate. Created by Christopher Storer, the hit FX Network drama follows chef Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) as he returns to run his late brother’s restaurant in Chicago, ultimately turning it from a sandwich shop into a fine-dining establishment. Ayo Edebiri’s Sydney has played a key role as part of The Bear‘s cast since the opening episodes, but later episodes and seasons see her really come into her own as a chef.

In a recent video for Insider, Chef Paul Liebrandt analyzes a scene from The Bear season 2 in which Sydney chases inspiration by trying new foods, sketching, and experimenting with different dish ideas.

Chef Liebrandt praises the show for its depiction of how chefs find inspiration for their dishes and the frustration that often comes along with it, ultimately awarding the series a high accuracy grade. Check out his comment and score for the show out of 10 below:

“I do the same thing as in the scene. I like to sketch. Form is very important. In our kitchen we take plasticine and actually mold, in physical shape, the items of the food to see how it balances on a plate.

“Picture perfect of exactly how dishes normally go. Like writing an album, you have the tracks that you want and you have B-sides, or you have all the other tracks that don’t make it onto the actual album. Same thing with food. It’s tweaking, it’s fine-tuning, it’s moving things around, and I don’t think we ever honestly, in my experience, perfect the dish. It’s always evolving.

“I would rate this nine out of 10. I think they captured the essence of a young chef thinking about what voice they want to put to the dish that they want to do, and the beginnings of the process of doing that. Yeah, it’s a great scene.”

The Bear’s Accuracy Is Part Of Its Success

The Hit FX Drama Gets Details Right

Boiling down the success of The Bear to just one ingredient is an impossible task. The characters, the writing, the general filmmaking, and the performances are all crucial to its overall presentation and quality, but there’s also a clear respect and reverence for the art of cooking. The show captures the chaos that can come with being in a dysfunctional kitchen with passionate individuals, but also the beauty and the synergy. For every screaming chef in the series, there’s another like Olivia Colman’s Chef Terry who reminds viewers that cooking and hospitality is an art.

The devil really is in the details with The Bear, and this authenticity is part of what makes the kitchen and cooking scenes so captivating to watch. From the kitchen implements and equipment being used to the actual cooking techniques and the jargon, The Bear puts a world on the screen that most people aren’t familiar with. Instead of glossing over the cooking or dumbing it down, the show leans into ideas and technical feats that become accessible to viewers through character drama. Even if details aren’t explicitly explained, the stakes are clear, and audiences care because the characters care.

Sydney remains a captivating character to watch, and she grows and evolves in the critically-acclaimed The Bear season 3. While she may have had humble beginnings, the show continues to build her skills and her expertise, and devising new dishes is a key part of this journey. It remains to be seen how Sydney will further change as The Bear progresses, but the show is evidently drawing from real-world chef culture in the depictions of its world and characters.

The Bear season 3 is now available to watch in its entirety on Hulu.

Source: Insider