[BU Today] What BU Foodies Have to Say about The Bear
Excerpt from BU Today:
The long-awaited third season of FX’s hit comedy/drama The Bear premieres June 26. In last season’s finale, a stressed-out Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (2023 Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White) is a colossal jerk to his staff and family and subsequently gets locked in the walk-in fridge during the biggest night of his career. His team manages the restaurant just fine without him and are significantly less toxic while doing so.
Carmy’s efforts to transform his family’s fast-casual Italian sandwich shop into a fine-dining restaurant strikes a chord with BU culinary experts who watch the show.
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The show’s flashback scenes—as well as Carmy’s own current-day outbursts—drive one School of Hospitality Administration expert crazy.
“I think it perpetuates an image of disorganization and unprofessional conduct that the industry is trying to move past, although it is certainly entertaining and well-acted,” says Seth Gerber (SHA’12, Questrom’21), a SHA lecturer, general manager and co-owner of Boston’s South End restaurant MIDA, and an industry consultant. “I enjoy it as TV, but wish that so many people didn’t take it seriously as an analogy for what it’s like in the business or as a hero story.”
Demetri Tsolakis, a SHA lecturer and CEO of Xenia Greek Hospitality, agrees. Tsolakis grew up working in his parents’ Greek restaurants in western Massachusetts. He opened Committee Ouzeri + Bar in the Seaport in 2015, Krasi Meze + Wine in 2020, Hecate in 2022, and Greco Truly Greek, a fast-casual eatery that launched in 2017, with several locations in Boston and Washington, D.C.
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Tsolakis believes The Bear showcases an “old-world style of how a chef acts or used to act, versus new ones that are more in tune with mental health, exclusivity, and not being so aggressive.
“I don’t think it depicts every kitchen,” he adds. “But we all know someone who used to work for someone like that.”