🍽️“Mo Money, Mo Problems” 🍽️

The wait is finally over and I don’t mean the time between the first and second seasons of Hulu/FX’s runaway hit The Bear. Canadian streamers were subjected to even more of a delay than our friends in the US, but that changed on July 19th when Disney+ finally uploaded the new season to the anticipated series streaming service north of the border.

If you haven’t watched the first season of the show, a quick binge session will be worth it and will quickly bring you up to speed on what unfolded in the debut of this unlikely hit series set in a family-owned restaurant in a rapidly changing Chicago neighbourhood.

Driven back to the family restaurant after racking up his own accolades as a multiple Michelin star chef at some of the best restaurants in the world, it would be apparent from the opening notes of Refused’s New Noise that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) was in for a different kind of undertaking, one that wasn’t just going to challenge his skills in the kitchen but also force him to confront who he really was.

Carmy’s complicated relationship with his brother Michael, or lack of it we find out early on in season one, is the underlying foundation of The Bear, how it fuels the young chef’s passion, both outside the kitchen as he travelled the world proving to his big brother he could work in the best kitchens in the world and through the entirety of season two where he and the nearly unflappable Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), his thoughtful sister Natalie aka Sugar (Abby Elliott), “cousin” Richie (Edmon Moss-Bachrach) and the rest of the tightly knit back of house crew, including Canada’s Vice chef personality Matty Matheson aka Neil Fak, work together to turn The Original Beef from a diner into a restaurant worthy of a Michelin star (or at least Sydney hopes). This was the restaurant that Michael had always dreamt of and wanted to open with his younger brother, but never got around to really asking him outside stacks of money hidden in tomato cans, an ever-increasing debt and a crumbling restaurant that needs to be gutted before it is reborn. Much like the characters on the show, there is a sense of hope and renewal running through the second season.

This notion of redemption isn’t just Carmy’s story to tell, he may have achieved the highest level in the kitchen, but at what price? Did he even care anymore? Does he even want to get another star? What does it mean even to have a star? Sous chef turned chef Sydney wants to prove herself after her pandemic restaurant failed and she is singularly focused on gaining a start and all that it represents. Can Sydney see herself as a Pippen if Carmy is the GOAT? “Cousin” Richie is searching for a purpose and meaning after the death of his best friend Mikey, both in his work life and ultimately as a person. One of Michael’s longtime line cooks Tina is the least likely to pull a 180 but what starts out as a passionate dislike for everything “Jeff” (Chef Carmy Or Sydney) brought into the kitchen in season one, fuels her desire to learn, adapt and shine in the second season. Ebra, weighted down with memories of the past and his reluctance at his age for change, will present a different plan than Tina. Marcus (Lionel Boyce) wants to prove his game as a pastry God, right from the early moments of the first season it was obvious he was on a quest to become the best, even when he walked out on Carmy and the crew in season one. Outside of Sydney (who ate at Carmy’s restaurant in New York), Marcus was the first to really understand what Carmy was bringing to the table and what that would mean to him. Except for maybe Carmy’s brother-in-law who had his back from day one and followed his career through all the Food & Wine magazines and foodie blogs.

Redemption, grief, reinvention, family, addiction, resilience and authenticity provide the ingredients for the character’s narrative in both the first and second seasons, with The Bear’s new batch of ten episodes going further into each of their motivations, memories and backgrounds.

“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.” Bonappetit.com

The pressure of running a three-star Michelin-level restaurant in New York has only primed Carmy on what’s to come as opening an upscale dining establishment on a shoestring budget in the Windy City, with staff who only months before were dishing out some of Chicago’s blue-collar sandwich staples at the Original Beef and had no idea what running a French brigade in a kitchen actually meant.

But has it? Carmy is not immune to the constant panic attacks, visions of destruction, self-sabotage, and a nagging doubt that is experienced by those with imposter syndrome. All greats have moments of doubt, it is how you react to them that define you as a person and a chef. As any diehard Cubs fan knows and his investor and family friend Cicero carefully explains, nobody wants to be Alex Gonzalez and make the big unforced error. It’s time for Carmy to be that guy he knows he is.

Lucky for him he has Sydney who not only pushes Carmy to remember what landed him in the top restaurants to begin with, but that the pursuit of perfection was just as important as the final dish. Her passion and understanding of food can only rub off on those around her. She makes Carmy a better person, chef and leader while he gives her the space she needs to grow and become her own force in the industry.

Christopher Storer’s culinary creation may be Michelin-level worthy TV that you want to savour like a 12-course tasting meal, but it’s impossible not to binge-watch the show like you were diving into an all-you-can-eat buffet at the Wynn in Las Vegas.

Along with expanding outside Chicago’s culinary scene to send rookie pastry chef Marcus to Copenhagen to stage under Chef Lucus (Will Polter), season two ups the ante with guest stars like Olivia Colman, Bob Odenkirk and Jamie Lee Curtis (family matriarch Donna) making appearances in a chaotic holiday episode that will make you think your family is highly normal compared to this crew of characters. If that episode doesn’t land a slew of nominations in every category imaginable, there is something wrong.

The soundtrack to the show continues to be one of the overlooked elements at play. Building tension, emotion, mood and urgency, the '90s-heavy playlist includes a slew of alt-rock icons like REM, The Pixies, Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins, Liz Phair and The Replacements along with groups like Wilco, The Counting Crows, Fine Young Cannibals, Van Morrison, AC/DC and others. Why does music from that era have such a resonance? Countless books and think pieces have spelled it out better than I can, with Simon Reynolds in 2011’s Retromania and Chuck Klosterman’s most recent, The Nineties Book, both worth picking up. A recent article even suggested that at a recent Oasis concert, “we’re all transported to a time when you couldn’t take a photo with your phone because your phone was a device in your house and it would be insane to take it to a concert.” Does that somehow protect the authenticity of the music culture from the era when selling out was the worst thing a band could do (ask Green Day, Jawbreaker, Metallica or Nirvana)? Has that allowed them to gain a level of cultural resistance that other eras don’t have post-9/11 and allowed their emotional impact to go untainted? Or is it just an obvious nod to the fact that the music industry has been focused on everything but the type of music that resonated in the ‘90s, whether that be some scrappy lads from the UK, a bunch of interwoven rock scenes in Seattle or whatever basement punk band from the midwest was making 40 kids nearly destroy a house?

Although The Bear debuted to audiences over 70% higher on Hulu than in season one and those numbers are likely similar for the Canadian launch on Disney+, you almost wonder if the high-tension series could have benefited from a staggered approach to releasing the episodes, using a Jack Ryan rollout style by teasing out a few episodes, allowing the press and streaming audiences to get on board without losing the tension and intricacies of the plot week to week or by burning a good show by dumping it on the public and losing some of its momentum as it gets sucked into the streaming service black hole. With this much buzz behind the show, it is a wasted opportunity. This staggered approach would allow those to dine at their own pace, binging it fast food style or savour it like a fine dining experience.

Let’s hope a season three doesn’t take long to cook up.