Chefs have shared what The Bear gets wrong and right about working in a kitchen. (Picture: AP / Food Story Media / MARTIN J WINDEBANK)
There’s nothing better than going out to enjoy delicious food that someone else has cooked for you.
But while you might be having a fabulous time at a restaurant, behind the scenes in the kitchen things will likely look very different.
From sweating over perfection, to screaming at one another; the reality of working in a kitchen can be pretty harsh, as viewers of The Bear will have come to realise.
The show, which is streaming on Disney+, follows Camen ‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), a chef who takes over his family’s sandwich shop after his brother Michael’s untimely death.
It features some incredibly chaotic kitchen scenes, that you’d be forgiven for thinking were purely dramatised. But according to some of the UK’s top chefs, the show is painting a pretty accurate picture of what it’s really like to work in a restaurant.
Kitchen scenes on the show can be quite chaotic. (Picture: FX)
Nick Nairns
‘I actually started watching The Bear after a call from my brother,’ Nick Nairns tells Metro.co.uk. ‘He rang me up and said, “I think they’ve made a programme about you!”‘
Nick, who runs Nairn’s at Bridge of Allan in Scotland with his wife Julia, says the show has gotten ‘so much right’ about working in a kitchen, as it ‘really captures the pressure, tension and relentless pursuit of perfection’ he’s experienced while working in restaurants.
‘I can definitely recognise the pressures of a restaurant that really cares what they’re putting on the plate. It has to be perfect every time – the results can be catastrophic if you don’t get it right,’ he says.
‘It’s so instantaneous: you plate it, garnish and you’re judged instantly. And now more than ever, people are vocal about their criticisms. There’s more feedback than ever so it really is high pressure.’
Other struggles include the heat, as kitchens are generally ‘hot, sweaty, small and intense.’ This, combined with the close quarters and long hours can be overwhelming at times.
Nick says there’s a lot of pressure that comes with working in a kitchen. (Picture: MARTIN J WINDEBANK)
‘Everyone in the team is working to the same timescale and you all finish up after dinner service – often late at night. So you tend to socialise with your workmates. This forges friendships but can be an unhealthy hothouse, where things are blown out of proportion,’ he explains.
‘I’m not really sure there’s another industry like it from this point of view, but I was in the Merchant Navy for seven years so I suppose I was used to that sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere.
‘I’ve certainly seen chefs screaming at one another in the past – it was always senior people inflicting it on junior ones; junior staff wouldn’t cross a senior member of the team.’
While shouting matches may have thankfully become less common in the industry, Nick claims tensions still arise …read more
Source:: Metro
