Katie Button is the co-founder and chief brand officer of Katie Button Restaurants, which operates Cúrate Tapas Bar in Asheville, North Carolina, in the US. In the past, she has staged at leading restaurants such as El Bulli in Spain and Jean-Georges in New York.
One of the selling points of the smash hit drama series The Bear has been its commitment to accuracy. The chefs at the namesake restaurant speak in familiar staccato shorthand, the chopping-as-second-nature is done right and the plating is on point.
And especially the high-intensity stress, which is familiar to people who have spent most of their professional lives in a kitchen.
The anxiety, the pressure and the verbal abuse are rampant – the fancier the restaurant, it seems, the more toxic the workplace.
Over the course of the third season, we then watch Carmy bring those same HR-unfriendly practices to his own restaurant, which by now has transitioned from a humble neighbourhood joint to a fine-dining destination.
Season two ended on a prospective note, as the restaurant opened to friends and family, and its community (inside the kitchen and out) coalesced around the creation and consumption of beautiful food.
In this season, which premiered on June 27, any hope that restaurants can be about more than the timely and obsessive plating of dishes dissolves. In that respect, I’m sorry to say that this season of The Bear is less accurate than those that came before.
The show hammers home the disconnect between the experience the restaurant creates for its guests and the actual, increasingly unhappy and stressful experience of its workers. The season ends with the characters worse off than at the season two finale, with seemingly no upside from their high anxiety jobs.
As a chef and restaurateur, I’ve watched The Bear throw fresh energy into the industry, making both customers and staff more excited about the prospect of dining out.
But looking back on the 10 episodes of season three I binge-watched within a 12-hour period, I can’t help but feel defensive about how our industry is portrayed by creator Chris Storer.
We witness Carmy gradually recreate the environments of the places where he trained. Yes, he learned technical skills; yes, he became “great”.
But he also suffered abuse and anxiety and has lost his moral compass and compassion – the things we watched him struggle to achieve in the first two seasons.
And then, even as Carmy obstinately continues on his quest for perfection, Ever, the restaurant most influential in his training, closes.
Head chef Andrea Terry (Olivia Coleman) confides in Carmy that she looks forward to connecting with people again. The only way for her to do so is to leave the industry.
And so the finale of season three leaves viewers struggling with a question that has become all too familiar over the last few years: are restaurants viable any more? And if they are, who wants to work in them?
According to the show, there are just three options in restaurant culture: the Original Beef way, with its swearing, and perennial fighting; the Bear way, where Carmy pushes his team with the same toxic energy that he was trained with; and the way of Ever, the world’s greatest restaurant, which must close its doors.
The Bear’s first two seasons had an outsize impact. It made Italian beef sandwiches a thing outside Chicago and taught people that leadership in kitchens is real and that lessons can be learned from it. I hope season three doesn’t turn people away from the industry, but I fear it might.
Hospitality represents the first job for so many people. It can (and often does) launch careers and is a job they have, or can go back to, throughout their lives. Most importantly, restaurants can be a positive place – not just for diners, but for employees too.
So please Chris Storer, I am begging you, hurry up with season four and show us the potential of the restaurant industry and how far it’s come. Season three destroyed hope; I want it back.
The Bear is streaming on Disney+.
