Hulu's series The Bear has received critical acclaim and praise for its honest and realistic depiction of the chaos and stress that comes with working in a professional kitchen. The series follows former gourmet chef Carmen "Carmy" Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) as he takes over his deceased brother Mikey's sandwich shop, The Original Beef of Chicagoland, following his suicide. The show does a great job at not just depicting life in the restaurant industry, but also sheds light on the substance abuse and mental health issues that many chefs face in a high-stress and demanding environment. The Bear fully immerses you into the mind of the cook, sometimes to an anxiety-inducing extent.
Besides the heavy topics, The Bear keeps up with staying funny and focusing on the food to a point that the food can sometimes feel like a character — a very attractive character. It's certainly not a show to binge on an empty stomach because of how it talks and describes its dishes, plus the close-up shots of them. You'll most likely be left drooling at your screen while watching. And if you want to learn how to cook these dishes (or at least something close to them), and others from the show, check out Eating Well's article for recipes.
Updated on July 17th, 2023: With two seasons of The Bear now on Hulu, there are even more delectable dishes everyone wants to try!
The Bear has even better food moments in season 2! The show's culinary producer, and show creator Christopher Storer's sister, Courtney Storer, found that her role expanded in season 2. The food had been amazing in season 1, but this season saw the culinary delights take on an even greater focus. While making all the food look delicious and ensuring everyone's culinary skills were on point, Courtney had to bring the characters' emotional journeys to life through the food. Season 2 of The Bear really brings the food to center stage as Courtney Storer drew from her and her brother's own experiences to inspire meals on The Bear.
10 Marcus' Perfect Donut
Marcus (Lionel Boyce), the restaurant's pastry chef, spent almost the entirety of The Bear's season 1 trying to make the perfect donut. Of all the characters on the show, Marcus is the one that shows the most heart and love for what he does. His passion for baking is shown in the way he focuses all his attention on creating and the amount of knowledge and love he has for the craft of baking.
So, when he finally presents the perfect donut — granted at the wrong time — he's excited to show it to any of the cooks. And what he does present is a homemade jelly-filled glazed donut. All the hard work Marcus put in, the excitement he had when he finally made it, and Carmy's smile when he finally tried it tell us that the donut was worth the trouble Marcus went through to make it.
9 Lemon Chicken Piccata
Carmy was inspired to make his mom's dish after a phone call with his sister Sugar (Abby Elliott) in episode three of The Bear's first season, which is where we see the first glimpse as Sugar is preparing it. However, it's when Carmy is showing the restaurant cooks how to make it that makes it seem even more appetizing as he gives descriptive step-by-step instructions.
The dish requires a type of sauce made from shallots, garlic, capers, white wine, hot chicken stock, butter, pepper, salt, lemon, and parsley spooned onto a cooked chicken breast. Once again, it's a reaction from another character, Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas), that makes us believe the dish must be unbelievably good to leave a character that usually has a lot to say, speechless. On top of the fact that watching as the sauce gets cooked up in a pan while listening to Carmy's detailed instructions makes it sound divine.
8 Carmy's Italian Beef Sandwich
The first dish we are introduced to in The Bear season 1 by Carmy is one of the signature dishes of the restaurant. In the first episode, we watch Carmy prepare the beef for the dish and even argue with Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the best friend and business partner of Mikey, about sticking to the original recipe instead of trying to change things.
Of course, when the other cooks finally try Carmy's version of the sandwich, they're blown away, proving his talent for cooking to the rest of the chefs, and that he was right in his attempt to alter the menu. Even Richie couldn't deny how good Carmy's Italian beef sandwich was as he was seen enjoying it himself at the end of the episode. The reaction to trying the sandwich, plus the look of the sandwich, made it all the more appealing.
7 Mikey's Spaghetti
The beginning of The Bear starts with an argument between Richie and Carmy about keeping Mikey's (Jon Bernthal) spaghetti on the menu, but Carmy is firm on removing it. We never see the spaghetti until the final episode after Carmy gets to read the letter his brother left him before he died.
This inspires Carmy to cook the dish, and season 1 ends with the entire kitchen crew sitting together with a big bowl of the spaghetti in the middle, talking and laughing, and enjoying the food. You can never go wrong with a simple bowl of spaghetti. It's nothing special: garlic, onion, basil, olive oil, butter, and two cans of San Marzano tomatoes, but pasta never looks anything but delicious.
6 Sydney's Cola-Braised Short Rib and Risotto
After carrying the idea for a couple of episodes of The Bear, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) finally presented her Cola-Braised Short Rib and Risotto for Carmy to try in episode six, and after accidentally serving it to a critic before the dish was even on the menu, it got the restaurant a huge wave of orders.
The short rib is famous for its rich taste and, when served with the perfect sauce, can become anyone's favorite cut of meat. Especially when it's cola-braised. The carbonation of the soda helps break down the meat's fibers and make them tender and juicy. With all that in mind, plus the pairing with risotto, a creamy Italian rice dish that gets cooked in broth, you can practically taste it, leaving you wanting to go to the nearest restaurant that can serve anything close to what's shown on the screen.
5 Carmy's Plum Gelée
This incredible dessert was featured in episode 3 when Carmy passed Marcus in the kitchen. Marcus had the wall covered in desserts from an old recipe book, and Carmy explained that to make it took 4 types of plums: a sweet plum wine from Japan which had to be boiled down; a plum consummé, which is black plums cooked in black vinegar, salt and sugar; compressed plums cut into four-centimeter squares; and finally making a plum gelée in the consistency of Haribo gummy bears, according to the show. Carmy telling Marcus how difficult it was to make the Plum Gelée likely inspired him to try and make his perfect donut.
4 Sydney's Amazing Omelet
Throughout almost every episode of season 2, Sydney and Natalie take on a lot of responsibility to make up for a struggling Carmy. On the morning of the friends and family night, Natalie is under a lot of stress. She hasn't eaten in a while and that's never good for a pregnant mother. To help Natalie, Sydney makes her one incredible omelet. She fills it with a blend of soft cheeses and chives. And, as a wonderful garnish, tops the dish with crushed sour cream and onion potato chips. Natalie tells everyone it was the best part of her day, and Sydney remembers why she got into making food in the first place.
3 Marcus's Honey Bun
In season 2 of The Bear, Marcus really becomes more inspired when it comes to his desserts. One item we saw on the new restaurant's menu was the Honey Bun. Sound familiar? Well it should be to anyone who's had any freshly packaged, gas station pastries for a snack. It was the actor who played Marcus, Lionel Boyce, who came up with the idea that his character should want to create the gourmet version of the snack. Boyce drew from his own memories of having Honey Buns as a treat when he was a child and attached it to his character in the show by having it pay homage to Marcus's sick mother.
2 Luca's Minty Snickers Bar
When Marcus goes to Copenhagen to learn from a talented pastry chef, he meets Luca (guest star Will Poulter) who teaches him the secrets of sweetness. Luca likes to create desserts that taste like candy you remember as a child, but look like Michelin 3-star dishes. It's part of what inspired Marcus to make his Honey Bun. This dessert is meant to taste like a candy bar, but is built like a 3-layer cake. The bottom layer is a chocolate sauce with a bit of caramel. In the middle, a bit of mint shiso. And on top, a layer of coconut cream set with gelatin. Finally, the dish is topped with a bit of cracker.
1 Carmy's Seven Fishes
In the season 2 finale, we see this Seven Fishes dish carries a lot of meaning for Carmy. This dish, and the relation it has with his mother Donna, is an emotional spot in Carmy's heart. We know that Donna (played by guest star Jamie Lee Curtis) was obsessed with everything being perfect, and when Carmy has his breakdown in the chiller, we can see that influence, relating the two instances now that this Seven Fishes dish lost heat. Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, the married couple behind Chicago's famous Filipino restaurant Kasama, helped create this dish. They took what would have been served as multiple courses and "finessed" it to become a single serving.