The TV series The Bear, available in Italy on Disney+, in its realism offers the exact measure of how and how much the restaurant climate has changed since Covid. Reflecting on the theme are two star contributors, Daniel Boulud and Grant Achatz.
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The series
Few TV series have made waves in the United States as much as The Bear, which chronicles the pursuit of a Michelin star by chef Carmen Berzatto and her brigade in Chicago. The latest edition (here's our preview story), currently broadcast by Hulu, includes cameos by such well-known faces of the world's restaurant industry as René Redzepi and Thomas Keller, but Grant Achatz and Daniel Boulud, whom Michelin magazine went to interview, have already appeared. Thus discovering that the filming took place without a script, for maximum realism.
It was Will Guidara, the show's consultant, who co-opted the celebrity chefs. "My set was the Boulud restaurant, so I felt at home. The cast and operators were extremely respectful of our space and efficient. Cameras aside, the experience was completely realistic. It was an ordinary day in the kitchen. And it was the first time I did not have to do a second take. It is evident that they care about the industry and the way it is portrayed. Certainly some things are calcified, but in general they show the passion, the obsession, the intensity, the devotion, the drama and the joy of being a chef."
This is Grant Achatz's version: “I deeply desired to be involved, because I had seen other works of the director. He knows I am not an actor. He told me that Will would ask me some questions and I would have to answer them naturally. But he didn't tell me what they were going to be about, topics that I am confronted with all the time and that can turn out to be a bit annoying, or at what point they would start acting. So the questions about the edible balloon and the hot and cold potato started, without my knowing that we were already acting. At one point I wondered when we were going to start. Finally I tapped him on the shoulder to let him know I had to go. I turned around and there was no one there. We had turned around. They said, 'Yeah, that was perfect, exactly the reaction we wanted.' So they did something naturally irritating, which I thought was brilliant."
"I was very, very impressed by the nuances, language, dialogues in which people get frustrated. Some of the outbursts were familiar to me: sure, before the pandemic, kitchens were a little more volatile and aggressive in their style of conduct. But I think very few restaurants today remain that way,” the chef confesses, alluding to a general improvement in conditions in the industry. "Nonetheless, for me it was something centered: the terminology, the energy, the things said about what we look like, those are details you could only know as an insider in the food industry. Even watching the series, I was impressed from the first moment. I thought, these guys got it right."
