![]() ![]() “I did work at a restaurant where someone tried to stab someone else,” Jimenez tells me, recalling the scene where Sydney, Carmy’s sous-chef, stabs someone out of frustration during service. She misses the friendships she had in restaurants-but she doesn’t miss the long hours and the chaos. Laura Jimenez, who cooked in Manhattan before the pandemic, enjoyed the show. “But I would’ve driven myself insane.” Carmy also realizes just how toxic his mindset is, and eventually makes a career move that promotes a healthier work environment. “I probably could have done great if I kept going,” Chen says. The Bear peels back the curtain on the painful reality of what it’s like to work in a kitchen, and the emotional and physical cost that comes with it.įor Wesley Chen, a former cook, The Bear reaffirmed that leaving the restaurant industry was the right decision. We all agreed the show is a stark reminder of our trauma. After watching, I spoke with other restaurant workers. It reminded me a little too much of what it was like to fend for myself in a chaotic, cutthroat kitchen. It was so accurate that it was triggering: The details of spilling a whole Cambro of veal stock, your peers hiding your mise en place, and still others turning up the stove when you weren’t looking. Not because I thought it was bad television-but because it was the most accurate portrayal of life in a restaurant kitchen I’ve seen in a while. I responded the only way I knew: “Yes, chef.” I used to work in Michelin-starred restaurants, and at the last restaurant I worked at, a sous-chef asked if I was stupid and if there was something wrong with me for not understanding what they were asking me to do. ![]() I knew the show was fiction, but the scene could have been lifted straight from my memory. When I watched this part, I had to pause. In The Bear, Hulu’s new TV series dramatizing-and nailing-toxic restaurant culture, the main character recalls a chef berating him. ![]() Why don’t you say this? Say, ‘Yes, chef, I’m so tough.’” “Why are you so slow? Why are you so fucking slow? Why? You think you’re so tough. ![]()
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