After a long career as a professional chef in fine-dining, Carmen “Carmy” / “The Bear” Berzatto brings his restaurant experience, knife skills, and trauma back home to Chicago where he takes over his family’s sandwich shop.
The Bear is a chaotic and fabulous representation of the hard work and suffocating hours it takes to run a restaurant.
According to Patrick Foley, of Hauppauge, a professional chef and general manager of Prime Restaurant in Huntington, “The cacophony of noise, the hustle and bustle is definitely true to life.” Foley, like Chef Sydney in the series, attended the Culinary Institute of America (CIA).
“Like Sydney, I am a systems person. The CIA is all about systems in a kitchen, which I relate to – places that have no systems, no professionalism… there is a lot of resistance when it comes to implementing them and it’s frustrating.”
The 8-episode season follows a charismatic kitchen staff as they tread through a tsunami of grief, change in ownership, and new rules, protocols, and procedures in the kitchen.
Restaurant-talk refers to these as systems. Though the kitchen staff seemingly hates each other, each episode reveals more of the relationships and love they hold for each other as a work family. The employees of The Original Beef give real meaning to the phrase “family-owned business.”
The Bear has shown its paws during an appropriate time in our economy, as local businesses still labor to rise again in the aftermath of the Pandemic. The show epitomizes understanding small business and restaurant-business lifestyle.
Jeremy Allen White, who plays Carmy, teaches the viewing public exactly how hard it can be to try to lift a business up off the ground. His depiction of an overworked owner who looks as though he never showers (and quite possibly eats cigarettes for breakfast) is also notably comparable to his accredited role as beloved Lip on Showtime’s Shameless. Though similar-looking roles, Carmy and Lip would probably never be friends.
We begin to understand the turmoil of Carmy’s past as soon as the first episode- however, his monologue in the season finale truly makes you understand the character’s depth. We can even argue that it is the one true glimpse you get into his mind. He finally communicates the complicated relationship he had with his deceased brother Mikey, and the restaurant’s importance to him and those Mikey left behind.
The dedication, resilience and, frankly, the level of sanity and patience needed to survive a life in the kitchen is no easy feat. Carmy is proof-positive evidence of that.
The show just as much revolves around the “back-of-house” aspect of the industry. It’s important to note that, along with the kitchen craziness, there is also “front-of-house” customer service chaos along with it.
Patrick Foley, who runs both the front and the back of Prime, knows this all too well.
The Bear will either allow previous restaurant workers to reminisce in the workflow or trigger some war flashbacks. For Patrick, “watching The Bear was surprisingly refreshing for me.”
Season 2 is said to come out sometime in 2023. This was announced just after Season 1’s release.
Patrick Foley highly anticipates season 2 and is excited to see the kitchen survive. “Personally, I’d get rid of Cousin Ricky though, he’s a cancer.”
