What Celebrity Chefs Have Said About The Bear

"The Bear" aired the last episode of its final season in June. While there were mixed emotions and reactions about how several beloved characters' story arcs wrapped up, the fact remains that the FX series is one of, if not the best, culinary-themed drama series ever produced. From the very first episode, audiences were riveted by the show's often frenzied pacing, beautiful close-ups, quick cuts of the food and the actors' hands and faces, and the long, sweeping, uncut takes that upped the tension and made audiences feel like they were right in the kitchen with Carmy, Richie, Sydney, and the rest of the gang.

While watching all five seasons, one can't help but think: This show feels so real. But is it really? Do chefs and staff argue as much in real restaurants? According to accounts from seasoned chefs, including some of those with Michelin stars, yes, "The Bear" is true to life in many ways. If you watch chefs' reactions on YouTube, it's apparent when a scene reminds a chef of a personal experience because they either get excited or awkward, depending on how good or bad it was. Clearly, having Matty Matheson as a co-producer paid off.

But what do celebrity chefs think about the show? Many of them started in restaurants before hosting or judging cooking shows became their main jobs. If you're curious, here's what seven well-known celebrity chefs have said about "The Bear."

Jamie Oliver has never had an "angry chef" persona, whether on his own shows or in cooking competitions where he served as judge or mentor. He's always maintained a friendly, approachable image, which is why it came as a shock when he told "The Graham Norton Show" that he stopped watching "The Bear" early on because the people on the show aren't doing things correctly as real chefs would. "I know it's brilliant, everyone keeps telling me how brilliant it is — but I watched the first two and I'm like, 'He can't chop,'" he said (via The Independent).

The Naked Chef also highlighted the show's background actors. While they were most probably just staying in motion while in the frame, Oliver noted that they "just [kept] touching it all wrong and sort of bashing it all wrong." Such things would understandably stand out to a seasoned chef like him. 

To the cast's credit, those who played chefs in the show went through training in order to portray their roles as realistically as possible. Lead actors Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri trained briefly at the Institute of Culinary Education, while White and castmate Will Poulter trained extensively under the watchful eye of Michelin chef Dave Beran. The two got so good that Beran later admitted he would hire both for his kitchen. One wonders what Oliver would have said if he had known where and with whom the show's actors trained.

Gordon Ramsay has made a name as one of the toughest celebrity chefs of his generation. People know him best as the demanding host, mentor, and judge of "Hell's Kitchen" and "MasterChef." He tends to yell at chefs across the kitchen or right in their faces, and his on-screen kitchen meltdowns have been incendiary, with insults among some of the most hurtful any aspiring chef would never want to hear. So, when "The Bear" candidly showed senior chefs behaving similarly on the show, audiences were immediately reminded of Ramsay.

It's easy to assume that Ramsay would be offended by the association, get defensive, and be critical of the show. But surprisingly, he has nothing but praise for it. He told The New York Times that the show is one of many he enjoys on long flights, and that it is the "closest insight to the reality that goes into restaurants on a daily basis." It takes a lot to maintain the polished culture of fine dining, and the show reveals it all to the audience. This wasn't the only time Ramsay shared his thoughts on the show. In another interview with Luxury London, Ramsay added that the show portrays the emotional aspect of cooking well. "I think it's great, and really important for the industry," he said.

If Jamie Oliver thought the actors in "The Bear" clearly didn't have the skill set of seasoned chefs, Bobby Flay thought the opposite. He was all praises for Jeremy Allen White's portrayal of Carmy and how he moved around the stove. "I think that's very hard to achieve for an actor, somebody who doesn't do it," he told Parade. White may be proud of his cooking today, but he said numerous times that his kitchen skills were virtually nonexistent before he did "The Bear." Nevertheless, Flay gave him his flowers and acknowledged that it's hard for even an actor to be so confident and convincing.

As for the show's overall storyline, Flay praised the fact that it balanced both the good and bad aspects of life in the kitchen. "There's some tough love in there," he said. "But there's lots of inspiration in the show, and that's the part I'm really loving because I'm kind of tired of bad-restaurant shows." With so many cooking shows focusing on chefs yelling and fighting, the themes of family and redemption on "The Bear" are a welcome reprieve.

But the Iron Chef was less gracious when asked whether Allen White's Carmy could win at "Beat Bobby Flay." He said there's zero chance of that. In an Instagram Story (via Parade), Flay explained that Carmy's tendency to overthink would be his downfall. "The clock would run out on him while he's thinking about how to approach the dish," he said.

Many memorable episodes and scenes in "The Bear" highlight the intensity and chaos that takes place in the kitchens during dinner service, so much so that many people who had aspirations of working at a restaurant were taken aback. "This show makes it look so stressful," a chef hopeful on Reddit confessed, asking for honest advice from culinary professionals. The replies to the thread were somehow unanimous: Restaurants are stressful environments, and being a chef is not for the faint of heart. Entrepreneur and chef José Andrés agrees.

In an interview with Hasan Minhaj (via YouTube), he acknowledged that anyone who wants to pursue this career should be prepared for the high-stress environment behind the swinging doors. He then gave very specific examples of instances that instantly raise the stress levels in the kitchen, such as when customers arrive at the same time and when each of them orders a different item on the menu. 

But as the chef pointed out, "The Bear" condenses the most dramatic moments into singular episodes. "Obviously, 'The Bear' is what happens in the lifetime of a restaurant. ... If every restaurant was running like the heavy moments of 'The Bear,' my god." However, he also acknowledged that while being a chef is hard, so are many other professions.

Wolfgang Puck, one of the most beloved figures in the culinary world, shares Gordon Ramsay's opinion about "The Bear" being a show about passion and emotion. During the "Like It or Not" segment at FOX 5 DC, the hosts asked the revolutionary chef what he thought about culinary professionals being at the center of Hollywood stories and media lately, specifically in "The Bear" and "The Menu," the dark comedy-thriller starring Ralph Fiennes as a murderous celebrity chef. While Puck admitted that he wasn't keen on some aspects of the media's portrayal of being a chef, he did praise the projects for raising the profession's profile. "50 years ago, nobody talked about the chef," he said. "Now all of a sudden, chefs have become famous."

While that's all he said to say on the topic related to "The Bear," Puck has long been appreciative of media that highlights culinary innovation. Traditional comfort food like spaghetti and meatballs is wonderful, and many will continue to order it even at fine dining establishments. But, as Puck told Entertainment Weekly, he believes the public is ready for new and creative dishes, thanks to these projects. "They are much more open-minded to get great things that are interesting; it doesn't have to be chicken or eggplant Parmesan anymore," he said.

"Top Chef" judge Tom Colicchio is another celebrity chef who praises "The Bear" for its accuracy. Like many celebrity chefs on this list, Colicchio knows better than most what it's like back-of-the-house during dinner service at fine-dining restaurants. After all, he cut his teeth at popular, upscale restaurants in New York, such as Gotham Bar & Grill and The Quilted Giraffe.

Colicchio said one of the things "The Bear" did so well was recreate the tension in a professional kitchen. "The tension that you feel in the kitchen, the nerves, that's all real," he told People. He specifically referred to a scene in Season 2 when Carmy and co. were overwhelmed by the volume of orders they were getting. The celebrity chef did have one criticism about the show: the sous chef would never write the menu. "If you're a chef and you're opening up a restaurant, there is no way you're letting your sous chef write the menu," he said. "It's not going to happen! That's the only thing I kind of shake my head at." It may have made for wonderful storytelling and established Syd's character as a capable head chef, but it seems that "The Bear" may have occasionally put accuracy by the wayside for dramatic tension.

David Chang is a reputable chef and restaurateur who founded the popular Momofuku Noodle Bar in New York, plus other successful restaurants. He has also starred in several Netflix shows, is widely traveled, and was so close to the late Anthony Bourdain that he called him "Uncle Tony." He has so much street cred, professional clout, and on-screen charisma that people can't help but listen to him, and he always speaks his mind — including about "The Bear."

As Chang said plainly about the show's characters on his podcast "The David Chang Show" (via Instagram), "They should all be fired." Fans of the show got so annoyed that they reminded the chef that "The Bear" is fiction. Chang, however, was expressing his disbelief at how some staffing and management problems on "The Bear" wouldn't fly in real life. He also criticized Carmy's apparent nonchalance towards restaurant finances, implying that restaurant owners who behave like that are egotistical and would eventually sink their businesses.

But Chang does have a lot of love for "The Bear." He thinks that Episode 1, Season 1, was stellar and the best ever in film or television (even eclipsing, in Chang's opinion, "Ratatouille"). "I was blown away by how f***ing good it was," he said (via YouTube). "The pacing, the feel, just the stress of it all." In fact, he added that the episode's depiction of time passing in a hectic kitchen was so effective that Anthony Bourdain would have thoroughly enjoyed it. "Tony would have relished this," he said. And this, Chang said, is the highest compliment he could give to the pilot episode.