#Syd can no longer see her value in the restaurant

[cosmic-light-fics]

2x09 - Sydney: You could do this without me.

3x09 - From Beef to Bear: How Carmen "Bear" Berzatto Turned His Family Sandwich Shop Into A Fine Dining Establishment

[freedelusionshere]

Why Demon Chef David has reappeared and what it might mean for S4

I've had this thought about Chef David and what he represents for a while now. His NYC restaurant is called Empire and he targets and abuses a younger Carmy (probably because he won an award at such a young age), but he basically instills a lot of values in Carmy that are about elitism and being "the best" (thinking about you $11K Dystopian Butter) that are actually at odds with who Carmy clearly wants to be. It's at odds with everything that he learned from other chefs who have taken more of a nurturing approach that still exist in the fine dining world.

This comes up several times in the narrative, with his family basically calling him elitist, and part of that is jealousy, I think, about how he was able to escape the turmoil in Chicago. But it later turns out to be true when Carmy tries to lone wolf his way to the Michelin star, acting like only he can accomplish it when he's only previously retained one, never won one himself, and making kind of lifeless food that is a rehash of what he learned at Empire. And in fact, still admires David's talent although he's his abuser.

Syd is tied directly to the moment when Carmy starts to break away from Chef David, by defying him and making a dish the way he wants to make it. I won't be surprised if we find out later that he saw Syd eating the dish, either, and remembers her when she comes into The Beef and brings up Empire.

We also see mentioned several times that Empire has failen from its top position. Luca and Syd both mention this. Also in Forks, when Richie brings the table the Chicago pizza reworked by Chef Adam, diners talk about how the food scene in Chicago (at Ever in particular) is way better than NYC at the moment, and they laugh about it. We also see Chef Adam berate staff about smudging plates at Ever which we later learn he's mocked for being the one doing it. Meanwhile Chef Terry is calmly peeling mushrooms before service because she likes to do this and invites Richie to participate. This is in contrast to Adam. All this is foreshadowing.

Which led me to ask: why is Chef David at Ever's funeral to begin with when he's a known asshole that no one likes? It made me wonder if David was an investor in Ever when it first began and one of Terry's missteps and regrets. Terry talks a lot in the S3 finale about various mistakes she's made over the years, but the good that came out of it: the people. We also see in S2 that Chef Terry owns the restaurant in Copenhagen Marcus trains at and that Luca is at, the "Every Second Counts" sign is there.

Could Terry be closing Evers to rid herself of both Chef David and Chef Adam? She has other restaurants elsewhere. That are ostensibly run well and are not closing, that she no longer leads.

Which brings me to S4 and Chef Adam poaching Syd from The Bear to work for his new restaurant, which is happening in a hot food scene in Chicago and immediately will replace Ever (Adam is wanting to make this all happen very fast) with Chef David as an investor again. This would also kind of bring the moment Syd first had Carmy's blood orange hamachi dish and the narrative significance of that full circle, but played out in reverse, because I don't think Syd will be submissive to Adam or David.

Likewise, I could see Terry potentially becoming an investor in The Bear, stepping up to replace Cicero's failing financing, as long as Carmy promises her that he won't repeat those mistakes that they have both made along the way and lead to The Bear finally being legit and successful the way Mikey always dreamed, with The Beef still in operation at the window (which funny enough could get the Michelin star).

This could set up Carmy and Syd as rivals temporarily (which would be fun), but I don't predict any of that will last too long and in fact I think Carmy will be supportive of Syd and try to win her back FOR REASONS (aka "I can't do this without you. Wouldn't even want to.") Syd might not know who Chef Adam's investors are at all at this point, and she of course has every right to not want to put up with Carmen's shit, but also the narrative has set her up to run and try to start over again because of trust issues (she mentions this to Marcus in S1) and the show will want to reconcile that.