Recipes From The Bear
Summer: Travel, beach reads and binging The Bear. I finished the show last night and all I can think about is braciole and “family meal” spaghetti.
Warning: watching The Bear is not a relaxing escape. The show creates an angsty sense of dread and stress. I binged The Bear over a 24-hour period and loved every minute. So many intense themes to unpack: Mental health and anxiety, addiction, family dynamics, workplace dynamics and the day-to-day chaos of cooking for a living.
The moment Carmy comes home and plops on the couch with a PB&J, chips, and coke after a shift: Yes, chef. Working in a restaurant kitchen is glamorized and romanticized in movies and media. Successfully owning and running a restaurant, or just working the line day after day, is grueling and physically backbreaking. That’s why I have this cushy culinary instructor gig.
The show’s creator, Christopher Storer, hired his sister as a culinary producer for the series. Her touch made the scenes sizzle with authenticity. With stints at restaurants like Verjus in Paris and Jon & Vinny’s in Los Angeles, she has the culinary resume to help make the kitchen feel real (read: intense and stressful). The knife skills shots alone are “fire,” as the chefs say when tasting each other’s creations. The pastry nook felt like the only quiet respite.
Watching the show made me crave a big “gravy” pot of sliced garlic in a bath of extra virgin olive oil and San Marzano tomatoes. A hot beef sandwich wrapped in butcher paper sounds divine. And Braciole. Braciole is the rolled beef dish that “Carmy” and his siblings make in the show. A symphony of pounded beef layered with Prosciutto, breadcrumbs, parmesan, pine nuts and basil, the beef is rolled up and seared, then simmered with tomato sauce. It’s a Sunday kind of family meal and I need to make it stat.
Recipes From The Bear
- If you’re inclined to make a Chicago beef sandwich like the ones on the show, here’s the recipe.
- “Family Meal Spaghetti” could be my new back-to-school dinner.
- The show’s culinary producer shares the Braciole recipe in the Wall Street Journal.
- For dessert, chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla ice cream.
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