Ebon Moss-Bachrach is currently starring in an acclaimed Broadway production of Dog Day Afternoon, but after he takes his bow, there\u2019s only one thing audience members want to talk about. \u201cEvery time I leave through the stage door, there\u2019s a couple of hundred people yelling \u2018Cousin!\u2019\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s his catchphrase as cranky ma\u00eetre d\u2019 Richie Jerimovich in The Bear<\/a>, of course. And now the culinary comedy-drama is back on the menu. One of the decade\u2019s most influential TV shows is about to return for its fifth and final season. It seems the right time to reflect on how this scrappy creation became a\u00a0surprise smash hit and cultural sensation.<\/p>\n Saucepan-rattling and speed-chopping on to our screens in 2022, The Bear followed acclaimed haute cuisine chef Carmen \u201cCarmy\u201d Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) who left behind his career in Michelin-starred restaurants and returned to his home city of Chicago to run his recently deceased brother\u2019s failing sandwich shop, The Original Beef of Chicagoland. Saddled with Mikey\u2019s debts, a chaotic kitchen and sceptical staff, while grappling with his own trauma, Carmy miraculously managed to reverse the family business\u2019s fortunes.<\/p>\n Mikey\u2019s best friend, pugnacious front-of-house manager Richie, was initially resistant but was soon won around. Carmy hired sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), who was dependable, deadpan and full of thwarted talent. Together they transformed the sandwich joint into a fine-dining destination called The Bear (Carmy\u2019s nickname, short for Berzatto), only for disaster to strike. Throughout it all, perfectionist Carmy vibrated with stress and battled his own demons.<\/p>\n High steaks \u2026 Ayo Edebiri in The Bear. Photograph: FX<\/p>\n Moss-Bachrach has said he expected The Bear to \u201cslip through the cracks because it\u2019s such a strange, soft-boiled, red-headed stepchild of a show\u201d. When it outperformed Marvel and Star Wars blockbusters on Disney+, White said: \u201cIt was just so cool that we could stand alongside these massive TV shows about superpowers and lightsabers. And\u00a0then there\u2019s us \u2013 a show about\u00a0people trying to make sandwiches together.\u201d<\/p>\n They reckoned without the magical alchemy that saw The Bear catch fire like an unsupervised grill pan. Its script was a symphony of swearing, with naturalistic dialogue delivered by a cracking cast. The fight to keep the eatery afloat gave the plot bingeable momentum. It arrived fully realised, as flavoursome and expertly assembled as a gourmet sandwich.<\/p>\n The Bear felt like an indie movie \u2013 which is what creator Christopher Storer originally intended it to be. This newspaper hailed it as \u201cthe best workplace drama since Mad Men\u201d, crowning it TV show of the year for two years running. It has scooped more than 100 major awards, including 21 Emmys.<\/p>\n One of those Emmy winners, Moss-Bachrach, was on holiday in Europe when the show launched. He realised The Bear was a hit when it melted the stereotypical French froideur. \u201cI was in Paris and suddenly started getting recognised a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople were coming up and talking about what they pronounced as \u2018Le Beer\u2019. The show is a love letter to Chicago but one of the unexpected beauties is its international appeal. On top of a mountain outside Kyoto, this Korean couple told me how much they love The Bear. It connects through languages, through ages.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markI hear a lot of people say: \u2018My wife can\u2019t watch because she\u2019s a chef and finds it too triggering!<\/p>\n What do fans tend to talk about? \u201cRichie, grief and hotdogs. Most conversations immediately get quite personal. The episode Forks, where Richie rediscovers his sense of purpose, had a powerful effect. I\u2019ve met several people with fork tattoos. I\u2019m less cynical now than I was before The Bear. That\u2019s largely\u00a0due to strangers sharing so\u00a0much with me.\u201d<\/p>\n A key ingredient of The Bear is sumptuous cinematography, worthy of Chef\u2019s Table \u2013 all high-speed slicing, sizzling pans, basting meat and painstaking plating-up. Jimi Famurewa \u2013 the restaurant critic, MasterChef regular and author of award-winning food memoir Picky \u2013 wanted to \u201click the screen\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cLike The Pitt, it\u2019s got an element of what\u2019s called \u2018competence porn\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cThe Bear is a credible depiction of a particular world where people are brilliant at their jobs. Characters are committed to being great at their chosen vocation, which is hugely appealing. The other similarity to The Pitt, of course, is that it\u2019s an adrenaline-pumping thrill ride. You\u2019re watching people under unbearable stress and\u00a0feeling that\u00a0stress yourself. The\u00a0Bear is masterly at that.\u201d<\/p>\n The show\u2019s impact has been felt in unexpected ways. Storer loosely based it on real-life Chicago eatery Mr Beef, where he\u2019s a regular (and an old schoolmate of owner Christopher Zucchero). Business has been booming since The Bear took TV by storm. Zucchero now sells more than 800 sandwiches daily, triple the previous number. Indeed, sales of Italian beef have soared across the country.<\/p>\n Well done \u2026 Jeremy Allen White as chef Carmy in the final series of The Bear. Photograph: FX<\/p>\n The Bear even enhanced the flavour of our wardrobes. \u201cChefcore\u201d became a cult fashion trend. Carmy\u2019s signature look sparked style columns about the perfect white T-shirt and saw White become the face of Calvin Klein. \u201cCarmy or Richie became an easy last-minute Halloween costume, too,\u201d laughs Moss-Bachrach. \u201cThrow on an apron, grab a cigarette and you\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n