The kitchen can be a pressure cooker, where tension can suddenly explode. Ask Chicot, Gordon Ramsay or the contestants of MasterChef. Added to the stress of maintaining the frenetic pace of preparing dishes that meet customer expectations is the uncertainty of a highly competitive and evolving business in which one must always give one hundred percent, and the many personal problems that pull one away from home. In fiction, no series has better demonstrated the anxiety that can be experienced between the stoves than The Bear, the 10-time Emmy winner (and one of the most nominated series of the year) whose third season premieres on Disney+ today.
She does this knowingly, as the series has an experienced culinary consultant, chef and executive producer Courtney Storer, sister of The Bear creator Christopher Storer. “I work a lot with her and her team on the idea of what Carmi and Sid are thinking about. [els dos personatges principals]“In how these types of dishes are executed and presented through a culinary lens,” explains fellow chef Matthew Matheson, who brings Neil, the series’ mastermind, to life.
“We had really good chefs, and Courtney is amazing at creating this food and bringing it to life,” adds the actor, who also serves as an executive producer on The Bear and whose character has grown in popularity year after year.
Perfect personality
This season, the challenge is greater, as Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), the protagonist, arrives, ready to transform the modest restaurant he inherited after his brother’s suicide into a reference place in the culinary field in Chicago, after going through a difficult period. Radical reforms, as we showed in the previous installment. His quest for excellence poses a challenge to his team.
“Carmi continues to do what he does best, which is to go back to his work and challenge himself. But in doing so, he also challenges everyone around him, and I think it ends up being a challenge to be close to him.” The actor, who admires his character’s idealistic nature, continues: “It’s something I aspire to in my life, because I’m the opposite,” adds Allen White, who has been dating Rosalía for months.
And that’s not the only thing that’s affected him about the series, which has changed the way he views restaurants. He and his co-workers have. “Now, when I go to a restaurant with my kid, if they drop something on the floor, it’s stressful. I always think about cleaning up, because I know how hard the staff works,” says Abby Elliott, who plays Carmi’s sister Natalie (Sugar). “We all have a hypersensitivity to restaurants,” White says.
In fact, Chicago’s food scene is even more important in the 10 new episodes. “There are so many restaurants and people who work there who have been so helpful in helping us produce the show… whether it’s the chefs who have come to teach us or who have let us use their locations,” recalls Ayo Edebiri, the show’s definitive Sydney master who this season is directing one of the sixth episodes (“Napkins”) focusing on the character of Tina (Lisa Colón-Zayas). “It’s been a wonder, a kind of masterclass and a gift,” he says of this new experience.
connected to pain
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But the kitchen isn’t the only thing that unites the Bear characters. They’re all connected by pain. Either dealing with the death of Mickey (Jon Bernthal), Carmie and Natalie’s brother and former team leader, or with personal traumas he’s experienced. “One of the strengths of this series, and one of the reasons it connects with so many people, is that I believe pain is the river that runs through us all and one of the only things we all have in common. The human experience,” says Richie’s stern cousin Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
“This season, the characters are dealing with pain in different ways,” Edebiri says of the series that has already racked up a host of awards, and is nominated for 23 Emmys in 2024, more than any other comedy title in a single year. “We shot the first season with no expectations and we were a little unsure if we were going to find our little bubble again after the success. And I think we did. And then those feelings got magnified in the second season, but we figured out how to find our creative space again,” Allen White confirms.
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