LaClair: 'The Bear' approaches food and family with reverence and a little humor

In the past, I reviewed Nicolas Cage’s eclectic foodie movie "Pig", and ever since then, people occasionally tell me about food related viewing that I simply must watch. Person after person has recommended Hulu’s "The Bear", so I finally sat down and watched two episodes of it. Here’s what I thought, both of the show so far, and the food in it. Disclaimer: This show is rated MA for language, and there’s a fair bit of it. Also, very mild spoilers for the first two episodes follow.

The first episode starts with a black screen and the distinctive “click, click, click” of a gas stove trying to light. Oh! I thought. We’re getting into the kitchen right away, cool! But then the screen lightens, and you see our protagonist, a young guy with piercing blue eyes and a mop of sandy blonde hair, walking on a large, empty, multi-lane bridge with a big city in the background. He’s gently murmuring, “Shh, shh,” and approaching a large barred cage, right smack dab in the middle of the bridge. I hear low, menacing growling coming from the cage. Then, slowly, the man opens the cage and backs off. A large, mean, snarling bear ambles out. The man sadly, knowingly whispers, “I know,” and the bear roars and leaps at him. Then he jerks awake in a kitchen, clearly dreaming. It was a fairly dramatic way to start a show.

Our main character is named Carmen, but quite a way into the show, his sister calls him Bear, so the show title’s mystery is starting to be solved. Carmen was a big deal chef in New York, but his brother, Mike, has just passed away. Carmen returned to his hometown of Chicago to run his brother’s long-revered Italian Beef sandwich shop, mostly because his brother left it to him, but I think he has deeper reasons of his own, too. The sandwich shop isn’t in great shape. It hasn’t been updated, the kitchen is dirty, things need to be fixed, it isn’t making enough money to pay the staff, etc., etc. Lots of problems. Carmy has a cousin named Richie that’s been running the place since his brother’s passing, and Richie is mean, bossy, and foul-mouthed. He doesn’t want Carmy to come in and switch everything up with his high-falootin’ ways.

Carmy hires a new girl named Sydney, and she has some great ideas and is a competent sous chef. She’s kind of the only one on Carmy’s side at first. Carmy calls everyone “chef” as a sign of respect in the kitchen, and the first time one of the old, resistant staff calls him “chef” back, I couldn’t help but smile. The second episode also featured a trip for Sydney and Richie to the hardware store, and revealed a whole new side to mouthy, mean-tempered Richie. These characters aren’t caricatures of Italian men running a generational sandwich shop in Little Italy, Chicago. They are slowly but surely being revealed to be well-conceived and well-written people, with complications, shades of gray, and differing, important, realistic motivations.

And the drama doesn’t let up. This is a half hour show, and it just kept slamming me with character introductions, relationships, food cooking methods, frantic, panic, trouble-shooting, ahh! But this is all for a very good reason. I think we, the audience, are supposed to feel the pressure, feel the multitasking required of Carmy and crew, and I did feel it. This show is exciting and interesting, and super fast-paced.

And the food! I got glimpses of high-concept fancy food from New York in flashbacks that I can’t help but think I’ll get more of in future episodes. But mostly I’m in love with Carmy’s new Italian Beef sandwich, with its soft, not crumbly homemade bread and Giardianiera topping (a pickled mixture of veggies, usually cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, and hot chili peppers). I’m sure there’s a website that replicated recipes shown on this show, and I plan on finding it.

'The Bear' has three seasons so far and has been renewed for a fourth. The series has won 21 Primetime Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe awards. It is fast paced, frenetic, and expects the audience to be smart, and maybe more than a little hungry.

Rebecca LaClair travels to a new place every week to try food from a trendy restaurant or one she hasn’t been to yet.