The big picture
- Joel McHale's character a
The bear
is based on chef Thomas Keller, known for his high-stress kitchen environments. - Thomas Keller's philosophy greatly influences season 2 of
The bear
emphasizing growth and service in the culinary world. - Keller's “every second counts” philosophy is a key theme in season 2 of
The bear
encouraging urgency and personal growth in the kitchen.
The bear Sure it's an overall stressful show, but there's one moment that definitely stands out. In Season 1, Episode 2, “Hands”, a flashback shows Carmy Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) working in a luxury restaurant in New York. The whole atmosphere is tense, and it gets worse when his boss, David Fields, plays into it Joel McHale, enters the kitchen and verbally abuses Carmy, going so far as to whisper that he “should be dead”. Season 2 of the FX series goes a long way in explaining that the kitchen environment in this type of restaurant is really extreme, but what McHale's character does is simply out of line. It turns out, though, that it's also based on a real person.
Joel McHale's character in 'The Bear' is based on one of the best chefs in the world
Ever since that flashback scene with Joel McHale came out The bear In season 1, fans have been trying to guess who her terrible character was based on. Luckily, McHale himself gave us the answer Late Night with Seth Meyers a few months ago, shortly before the season 3 premiere. “I was portraying chef Thomas Keller,” the actor immediately confesses, but quickly explains, “And I don't think she's as horrible as I am, but she does whisper to her employees.” Keller is known for changing fine dining with his work and, of course, for his extremely stressful kitchen environments.
In this flashback scene, Carmy works at one of the best restaurants in New York, and now that the cat is out of the bag, it can even be speculated that it was at one of Thomas Keller's renowned restaurants, the Per Se . Although Keller himself is not known for being a toxic person, the entire kitchen environment doesn't leave much room for anything other than his famous “Sense of Urgency” philosophy. so the lingering impression is of stress, bad mood and rudeness. The kind of toxicity displayed by Joel McHale's character isn't necessarily the rule, though there are accounts of how things can escalate at times.
Keller was, in fact, even the subject of a 2012 television documentary Christopher Storer himself, the creator of The bear. The piece, called—you guessed it— A sense of urgencyrepresents Keller's kitchens at his restaurants, The French Laundry and Bouchon Bistro, exploring the extreme fanaticism with which everything and the environment are done with the maximum possible risk.
In addition to this terrible chef, Thomas Keller is a big influence in 'The Bear'
One of the things he does The bear such an amazing show is how it actually draws on multiple influences to build its own world. Season 2 sees a big change in the way the characters behave as they have to face the reality that they have to be willing to grow as people in order for their business to grow as well. Most of what underpins this change comes from the culinary world itself, especially from the philosophy of Thomas Keller. He may have inspired the cruel character of Joel McHale, but at the end of the day, he is a very successful chef, and Christopher Storer took a lot of inspiration from that to build the foundation of the season.
One of the most acclaimed episodes of the second season, “Forks” is inspiring in itself, with Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) face the reality that they must respect their work if it wants to be good. Carmy sends him on stage at Ever, Chef Terry's (Olivia Colman), where he learns that working in haute cuisine restaurants is not about satisfying himself but about others. Most of what he learns from Garrett (Andrew Lopez), Jessica (Sarah Ramos), and Chef Terry herself hails from Keller. Richie eventually becomes an act of service specialist, but it's quotes like Garrett's “Every day here is the freaking Super Bowl” that really inspire him to be better in the first place. They come from Keller's ideals, which hang on the walls of his kitchens, like finesse in performance and execution at every turn, that's why the forks can't have stripes. Another classic is Jessica's “Every night you make somebody's day,” which comes from Keller's idea of the purpose of cooking: “Make People Happy. That's what cooking is all about.”
Another iconic moment in Season 2 takes place in Copenhagen, when Marcus (Lionel Boyce) is staging with Luca (Will Poulter). “At a certain point, it's less about skill and more about being open,” the chef tells Marcus, talking about how important it is to look outside the kitchen for inspiration. This also comes from the idea of inspiration from Thomas Keller, who often talks about the importance of “being aware of the world around you.”
The philosophy “Every second counts” also comes from Thomas Keller
Another of Thomas Keller's influences in The bear Season 2 is perhaps the biggest. The “every second counts” sign and his story are among the most poignant moments of the season, being tied into Richie's arc, Marcus losing his mother while an apprentice with Luca, Sydney (Oh Edebiri) and his growth to a leadership position… Just seeing the clock on the walls of the kitchen at Ever's and The Bear and this sign below it is enough to make us cry and motivate us, and something almost identical hangs on the walls of the kitchens of Thomas Keller's restaurants.
For now, it is clear that the expression “sense of urgency” is extremely significant for Keller and his work philosophy. It's even the name of Christopher Storer's documentary about him, and that notion carried over The bear, too. In Season 1, Carmy writes it on a piece of tape, and also has a tattoo of her initials, “SOU” This idea mainly comes from the fact that working in a kitchen requires making the most of every second, otherwise the work may be in vain. A sauce can break, meat can go cold, something can burn, etc. Also, a kitchen in a haute cuisine restaurant works as one body, and a delay in one station can cause a chain reaction that delays an entire day's work. Maintaining a sense of urgency helps the team stay focused and alert.
Of course, Storer adapts the notion of a sense of urgency The bear into something more positive. “Every second counts” works as its double in the sense that a kitchen team must be aware that skipping a second can damage food, for example. In “Forks,” one of Ever's chefs scolds the entire team because of a blemish that sets the entire workflow back two seconds and every second counts. But this notion also applies on a personal level. Richie complains to Garrett about being 45 and having to polish his forks, and by the end of the episode, he learns that it's never too late to start over. Marcus tells Luca that he's been a pastry chef for just over a year because he needed a job and he learns the same lesson. In this sense, “every second counts” is an elevation of the idea of ”sense of urgency”. So while Thomas Keller may be the inspiration behind Joel McHale's Terrible Chef, there's a lot more that Keller influenced. The bear than just that horrible character.
Season 3 of The bear comes out June 27. Previous seasons can be streamed on Hulu.
