The Bear comes to Disney+ on August 31.Credit:FX
Sydney Adamu (Ayo Edebiri,Big Mouth) joins the kitchen – a “brigade” Carmy is keen to call it,styled on his familiarity with fine dining kitchens – and quickly rejects the “toxic hierarchical shitshow” that the new owner has turned it into.
While audiences are familiar with the internal workings of modern restaurants and the egos of many chefs thanks toHell’s Kitchen andChef’s Table,The Bearhas been praised for its scarily accurate portrayal of what hospitality life is really like. The tense and frighteningly speedy movements in the highly confined Original Beef kitchen are a far closer representation of actual workplaces in commercial kitchens.
And it has received high praise from critics worldwide because it’s notjustabout a kitchen.
Ayo Edebiri is a stand out among the cast.Credit:FX
“The Bear is preoccupied with masculinity,” wrote critic Sophie Gilbert inThe Atlantic,“and almost anthropological in its analysis of the ways in which men and male-dominated cultures are set up to fail.”
The show has quickly become one of the most popular TV events of the year,spreading through word-of-mouth and critical acclaim. It’s been widely praised by those in the restaurant business for its interrogation of modern hospitality work culture,drug use and mental health issues.