Ancestors and The Bear
Phew, the discourse in season 3 of The Bear on legacy was STUNNING to me. This post by @gingergofastboatsmojito and episodes 3x01 Tomorrow and 3x07 Legacy have been sitting on my heart since I finished my binge of the show. Some thoughts under the cut. (I say "some" but this is another long ass post, soz).
If seasons 1 and 2 of The Bear went into the impact of our birth families on each of us, season 3 shifted pretty squarely to talking about the impact of our professional mentors on our lives. I've described those mentors as culinary ancestors, which as a concept I get into below. I loved this aspect of this season and the show generally. It is so rich and I feel like I'm only going to scratch the surface of it here. Keen to hear others' thoughts on this too.
Legacy and Ancestry
In 3x07 Legacy, Carmy talks to Marcus about the idea of legacy in the context of chefs he had worked with - how those chefs had talked to him about how their work would carry on through iterations and generations of subsequent chefs and restaurants that came after them. I'll include both a transcript and screenshots of this conversation below:
Carmy: Like, um, something would start somewhere, and then, uh, people would take that thing and then they would take it somewhere else. So, all these parts of an original restaurant, they would end up at a new restaurant and that kind of thing. That would happen over and over again. And then all these parts of all these restaurants, they would sort of-- You know, they would find each other. And then new people would take those parts and they would put 'em into their restaurant. And the whole thing, it would, um-- It would start to happen all over again.
Marcus: So, like a family tree or something?
Carmy: [looks to Syd who has her back to him, closing her locker] Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Most folks understand ancestry to refer to our family or genetic lineage. When I was in university, I learned about intellectual ancestors or genealogy: where one can trace your intellectual lineage - the thinkers and creators that have shaped your understanding of the world and/or your chosen profession. I think its useful to take this concept and apply it to The Bear to help understand what the show is saying about legacy. I wouldn't limit the concept to "intellectual" ancestry though. It might be more helpful to talk about culinary ancestors in this context because the process of creating food - crafting dishes - isn't solely an intellectual exercise. It engages our intellect yes, but also each of our senses, our memories (recall that chocolate banana from 2x10 The Bear), and the need to nurture and be nurtured.
Culinary Ancestors
Carmy's culinary ancestors are varied given his work history. We know he's cooked under some of the best chefs in the culinary world of The Bear, including: Daniel Boulud (of Daniel), René Redzepi (of NOMA), Thomas Keller (of The French Laundry), David Field (a sociopathic Joel McHale, of Eleven Madison Park), and Andrea Terry (a sublime Olivia Colman, of Ever). I'd also include here Mikey, Donna and Natalie Berzatto. I'd include cousins Richie Jeremovich and Michelle Berzatto as well. These are the home and line cooks Carm grew up with, watched in his mother's kitchen and at The Beef. He took his lessons - the good and the bad, learnt voluntarily and involuntarily - from all of these people, incorporated them into his working self and transmuted them into his food.
In particular, I've talked here about Chef Terry and the valuable lesson of "every second counts" that she carried with her as she mentored waves of chefs through her restaurant, Ever. That post also talks about the parallels between Terry and Syd (which were even more evident in season 3), the latter of whom I'd argue is also one of Carmy's culinary ancestors ("you make me better at this").
I wish we had more information about Sydney and her influences. We know that prior to The Beef, she worked at restaurants Smoque BBQ, Alinea and Avec. We meet at least one of her mentors, Chicago restauranteur Donnie Madia in 2x03 Sundae and 2x10 The Bear, as well as Nayia at the fictional Verdana French Bistro (which ends up closing by 2x09 Omelette). They each offer up small insights into Sydney: that her food is amazing and that she is always "trying to be the best." Carmy is also undoubtedly one of Sydney's culinary ancestors, as infuriating and withholding as he can be. I'm also certain that Sydney's parents and the cultural history/ies that she's inherited through them are part of her culinary lineage as well. I really, really hope that we get much more insight into this side of her next season.
Respect, mentorship and lineage
One of the things that first drew me to The Bear was the respect that the show gave its characters of colour. In particular, the opportunity and support given to people of colour from a working class operation like The Beef to continue into the fine dining world of The Bear. I've spoken a bit about this here.
I haven't seen a dynamic on television before, where folks from the backgrounds like the POC characters in The Bear are from, are backed in the way they are on the show. Where there are mentors who will invest in them to train them up, and who will take those folks with them as they move into more elite and skilled spaces. Hell, I have barely seen this happen in the roughly two decades that I've been in wage-earning employment myself. Lets be clear, capitalism does not incentivise this kind of shit. Its why certain industries, including the world of fine dining, remain largely if not completely exclusive, demarcated by gender, race and class.
Yes this season was fucked in terms of which characters were getting prioritised for screen time over key Black characters like Sydney and Marcus (the Faks can genuinely go fuck). The lack of care given to Marcus, in particular, whose mother's passing was treated almost perfunctorily in comparison to a wholly unnecessary conversation amongst the entire crew about Cl@ire in 3x02 Next (quoting Richie: "who cares?!"), was also fucked. I would have preferred to have spent more time with Syd, Marcus, Tina, Ebraheim, Sweeps, Manny and Angel than listening to Neil, Ted and fucking Sammy (?!) Fak blather their way through precious minutes during this show.
But even with the above, The Bear regularly manages to floor me with beautiful moments of mentorship, leadership and love featuring characters of colour on the show. This is particularly the case in the relationships between culinary ancestors Carm and Sydney with "descendants" Marcus and Tina.
Birth of the The Bear lineage
Recall 1x08 Braciole where Sydney tells Marcus that after she finished culinary school, she spent all her money eating her way through New York. She says that she had the best meal she's ever eaten while she was there. With Marcus' gentle prodding, we find out that the person who created that meal, was Carmy.
Its not until the first episode of season 3 when we see how this actually played out, for both Carmy and Syd. I won't rehash the details of this scene because it is truly beautiful filmmaking to behold. Please if you haven't already, go watch 3x01 in its entirety. Have tissues nearby.
I will say, that in the best meal Syd ever had, Carmy literally served up his heart and lifeblood (check the cut of the fish, the crimson of the blood orange decoction).
That meal - that seed of inspiration from Carmy - birthed something in Sydney, something that would push her to find Carmy much later, working at his brother's sandwich shop.
Together these two incredibly talented chefs started their own lineage, taking what they knew and investing it into The Beef and eventually, The Bear:
And then, the next generation of collaboration and inspiration emerges:
This is why the visuals in 3x01 Tomorrow, with Syd sitting in quiet contemplation of Carm's dish, are so poignant. From 1x01 System, Carm and Syd have been growing their branch of their shared culinary family tree, nurturing it alongside those of their respective ancestors:
In 3x01 Tomorrow, we see that tree literally emerging from the moment Sydney meets Carm, on a plate.
It all starts when Sydney leaves culinary school and decides to make the most of her time in New York, eating at every place she could think of including, at Eleven Madison Park. And when Carmen, after losing Mikey, decides to make a few seconds count, taking ownership of a dish that he knows is going to be stolen from him and bastardized otherwise. The rest is history, or legacy.
Author's note:
I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that this show is also an exercise of mentorship and collaboration: Ayo Edebiri directing 3x06 Napkins under the guidance of Calo and Storer. Ramy Youssef directing 2x04 Honeydew under the guidance of Storer who had previously directed him on and produced Ramy. The fucking force of nature that is veteran Liza Colón Zayas being directed by Ayo. Jeremy describing the filming of 2x06 Fishes as akin to watching masters at work. Of course any television production is a collaborative effort and there are countless names I'm not familiar with who have put their precious time and energy into making this beautiful thing. I just thought it worth mentioning that at times, this show glimmers with truths, and I think thats because, in some way, they're in the marrow of the thing.
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Tasteless
Richie Jeremovich x F!Reader
Carmy Berzatto & F!Reader (Platonic)
From these August Prompts: “Tasteless"
Word Count: 2.7k
Warnings: Cursing, Angst, Kissing.
The Bear Taglist: @drabbles-mc @justreblogginfics @quixscentsposts @dadbodfanatic-x @adorable-punk-superheroes @lodeddiperrodrick @isalver @captainweasleybarnes @musicwithteeth
Other fics from this universe
“Do you remember the first time we met?” The question was one sentence in the flow of conversation as you got out of Richie’s car to walk into the restaurant together.
It had been weeks now of doing whatever you and Richie were doing. There wasn’t any label on it, no discussion of exclusivity, but you spent a lot of nights over there consecutively staying over and on the nights you didn’t, he stayed with you. You were having fun, whatever that meant. Honestly it was the first time in a while that your relationship–or person you were intimate with wasn’t an issue or causing an issue in your life. And not only that but it was providing you with genuine fun and happiness. Richie was a good time, not only in that way but in the way that he was honest with you, you felt safe with him, not only because you knew he’d protect you or stand up for you but because he never lied to you, you never had to wonder or worry what was going on with him. There was a million more things that made your time with Richie enjoyable and you honestly spent a lot of time thinking about it because, well, it made you happy. Your mind got brought back to the conversation when he spoke.
“I remember when Carmy brought home some hyper enthusiastic friend.” He teased you as he placed a piece of paper in his mouth before grabbing his jacket to put on over his beef baseball tee.
You rolled your eyes and grabbed the paper out of his mouth. “My brainstorming is not meant to be treated this way.”
He adjusted his collar and closed his car door, placing the key in the handle to lock it before catching up with you.
“I think the first time we met you told me to go fuck myself.” Richie tried to recollect back on the memory.
“I did, because you were making fun of Carmy.” You nodded in agreeance and grabbed his coffee from him taking a large sip
“I always made fun of Carmy. And give that back, don’t you have your own?” He reached over and grabbed the cup back from you causing a little to spill and just miss the paper full of all the blends of coffee you were thinking to experiment with.
“And I always told you to go fuck yourself. Just like now, be careful! These are precious precious ideas!” You handed him back the coffee to protect the paper.
“You wrote them on the back of a takeout flyer in my bed at 1AM because you couldn’t sleep.” Richie knew you were excited but he grounded you from getting ahead of yourself.
“Oh yea by the way, happy hour at Elina’s this Thursday.” You flipped the paper over to show him as you walked by the side of the partially renovated restaurant to see Tina in the window cleaning it and offered a quick wave that Richie matched.
As you both strolled into the restaurant and made your way to the kitchen you saw Carmy moving around the floor that had green tape on it and Gary holding a stopwatch.
“Morning, fam.” You called out and shrugged your jacket off immediately.
“OooOoOoOo” Gary called out seeing you and Richie walk in together.
All you did was shake your head and push him slightly as you approached him, also in a way to tell him to move over so you could sit next to him on the old kitchen workspace.
“What are we doing?” You asked, letting your legs dangle back and forth.
“Mapping out the kitchen for efficiency. Need to do this all in 5 seconds.” Carmy was running his hand through his hair before taking his sweater off.
“What are we at?” Richie looked over at Gary and you looked over his shoulder at his stopwatch.
“7 seconds.” Gary said, raising his brows.
“You’re fucked.” Richie said while you simultaneously offered encouragement. “You can do it.”
Carmy stared at the both of you while you both stared at each other.
“I gotta take a fuckin’ break.” Carmy said, shaking his head and moving out to the front.
“Carm!” You called out and jumped down to follow him through the saloon door.
“Hm?” He asked and turned around.
“I’ve got a list of potential blends, and honestly could use a second pair of eyes, like a good pair of eyes, that knows flavor combinations, and I know you’re busy with this and the menu and the whole restaurant so like if you’re busy that’s fine, you know?” It was a long winded statement and you were tripping over your words. When you had told Carmy about how instead of a coffee shop you were going to create your own coffee brand, his reaction surprised you. It brought you back to high school when you two would talk about your dreams and plans. He was happy. Supportive even. You remember him saying it was a great idea.
“No, yes, let’s do that.” His attitude changed immediately. “Uh, is it tastings or?”
“No, just want to pick your brain, honestly I could text you the list and you could just send me your thoughts when you can?” You wanted to be aware of his time and the fact that he was weeks to opening.
“No, we should sit down and talk about it. You’re my best friend, you’ve been here helping me, I wanna help you, especially figuring out the best blends, you know. Um, tonight? We can stay late here and chat through stuff, we could even try some things if you want.”
“Yea, alright. See you tonight.” You smiled and turned back to the kitchen where everyone was. “Thanks, Carm.” You turned around with your hand on the door to thank your best friend who was pulling his phone out of his pocket and just nodded with a smile.
__________
The rest of the day was spent doing odd and end things for the renovation, there was a break where you took the L home to grab a couple things for your plans with Carmy later which is what led you here now. You still had some time before you figured Carmy would be back so you were sitting with Sugar, Richie, Fak, and Sydney discussing the options you had laid out.
“I don’t know anything about coffee.” Fak said as he swirled around the one blend you had brewed in Sugar’s office as a taster. It was the idea you were excited the most about, you were nicknaming it the Chicago blend. It was the best regular coffee bean you could get your hands on, nothing added just a great fresh coffee bean and you aerated it, twice. It was you playing on The Chicago Bean and ‘The Windy City.”
Fak took a sip, “I wish it had vanilla.”
“Fak, I love you, but pass the jar to someone else.” You said in a soft tone because you knew how Fak enjoyed his coffee, with enough sugar and vanilla flavored creamer to give a kid a sugar headache.
Fak handed it over to Sydney who sniffed it and raised her eyebrows impressed by the simple smell and then took a small swig.
“That’s light. With a smell like that I wasn’t expecting it to be light.” She said and tossed her head side to side.
“I know, it’s so light that it’s almost tasteless, it needs something. I just don’t know what.” You watched as she passed it to Richie who didn’t hesitate to drink a big chug of it.
“This is fuckin’ good and strong without having me think I’m drinking something that’s gonna shoot me to the moon.” He was ecstatic in how he was talking. It made you smile.
“I’m not gonna try it but it smells good.” Sugar had the jar in her hand and was wafting it. “Maybe it’s fine the way it is?” She said tilting her smile up with a shrug.
“It’ll come to me in time.” You reached your hand out and grabbed the jar back from her.
“You got a name for it yet?” Syd stood up and asked you.
“Carmy said something earlier that stuck with me and I don’t even think he realized it.” You said gathering up your stuff, too.
You thought back to just earlier today when you two made plans. “You’re my best friend, you’ve been here helping me, I wanna help you, especially figuring out the best blends, you know.”
“So I’ve been stuck on the name Coffee Garden right, playing on Chicago’s whole “City in a garden” nickname, this place, it just raised me you know, it’s home. It felt right. But I think I’m gonna add Best Blends to the coffee grinds. Play on best friends, because you know you want the flavors to mix well together.” You explained your logic.
Syd had a smile on her face understanding where Carmy shone through in your ideating. Now actually, that you were looking around everyone did.
“Aright, alright, fuck all of you, let’s get back to whatever the fuck we were doing.” You brushed them all off and moved out to the front.
At some point arguing had started between the group of you, more Sugar and Richie while you and Sydney just added in your two scents when needed and served more as mediators than anything else.
Carmy’s voice alerted you when he asked what was going on and that’s when you saw her. Claire. You had known Carmy was going to see her again, it was inevitable, it was also a little hypocritical of you to be mad. You knew it was too much to balance, but yet here you were throwing more on his plate with your own stuff, but you couldn’t help but think that that was different. Maybe there was a little best friend privilege there and you knew there was also way more transparency. You knew Sydney needed him for things and you’d never even think of taking him away from that, tonight was the perfect example, you were going to tell Sydney to take as much time as she needed with Carm before you took your own time with him because you knew there was a lot still to be decided on. But with Claire, you knew he wasn’t telling her shit and she was going to be collateral, and while you weren’t sure who was going to pick up her broken pieces, you knew who was going to be picking up Carmy’s.
Now Carmy was in the mix of yelling as everyone greeted Claire. Sugar first with a hug, followed by Sydney introducing herself while Richie whispered in Carmy’s ear before giving the girl his normal italian greeting all while you just stood there, staring at Carmy in hopes he would read your mind.
Obviously that was no dice, so you smiled at Claire and moved forward to hug her.
“Hey Claire.” Your arm moved around her for a brief few seconds as she raised an octave to greet you back.
As you pulled out of the hug you noticed Richie was trying to make his point about the whole entire reason everyone was arguing and you went to step in until you heard Carmy.
“Everybody, thank you for today. It was a great day. Go home. Goodnight.”
You and Sydney practically made the same face. Syd’s was more laughable, her face had a smile on it as she accepted what was happening, her eyes rolled and she was pretty quick to grab her things and leave. Which left you standing there, a little in disbelief as you processed your best friend's words as Richie continued to argue with Carmy.
“Richie.” You said cutting him off while staring off in a direction before zoning back in and placing your hand on his abdomen, “come on, let’s go.”
You felt both Claire and Carmy’s eyes fall to your hand that was resting on Richie and then back up to the two of you.
Richie looked down at you and frowned, at first it was because he was frustrated you cut him off but then he saw your face. Your incredibly sad face. That made his own soften and his hand reached out for your shoulder as he instantly realized what was going on.
“Alright, yea.” He shook his head yes as you both disconnected and you grabbed your things and started to make your way out the front door.
“Goodnight.” You were barely able to speak up, but knew you couldn’t be in that room with Carmy without a burst of frustration tears coming out so you opted to step out while Richie grabbed his coat, said his goodbyes and was shortly behind you.
Richie was lighting a cigarette up the minute he was outside and lightly jogged so he was caught up to you as you walked to his car.
“I’m telling you that kid, he’s so fuckin’ annoying, I’m tryin’ my best here, right? They need amperage and I went to get amperage, but no one appreciates me, I’m tryna fuckin’ help, be proactive, but it’s what was I thinkin’, I think I’m the only one thinkin’!” He kept going on and on and you let him as your own thoughts bounced around in your head. You two were now getting into his car, letting the engine warm up while Richie kept shit talking.
“And what happened to silverware with Syd and blends with you? Yelling at all of us to get out, like he didn’t just fuck you both over, and me, because he always fucks me over, it doesn’t matter that I’ve been here longer than anyone and know shit about shit, but still no one is showing anyone any fuckin’ respect.”
“Richie.” You spoke quietly to get his attention, him mentioning what he noticed about you and Carmy grounded you back into reality. It was so different to have someone who noticed that shit and paid attention to how you were feeling. No one had done that before. Sure Carmy and you had years of history where he’d notice things were up and you’d check in but these last years really had none of that.
Ironically, Richie hadn’t heard you so you said his name a couple more times until he stopped and looked over at you.
“Thank you.” You said looking at him, straight into his blue eyes.
There was probably more you could say, more to what you felt but there wasn’t anymore emotional capacity in your brain left to express it so for now, thank you would have to do.
Richie’s brows slightly frowned as he shook his head. “I don’t know what you’re thankin’ me for, sweetheart.”
“Just, everything. Thank you.” You tried to explain but after that sentence Richie didn’t need anymore detail, he nodded and opted to lean in and plant a kiss on your lips instead of saying anything else. His hand cupped your face to bring it closer to his as you both leaned over the middle console of his car. His breath tasted like coffee and cigarettes and strangely enough you loved it.
As he pulled out of the kiss, he left his forehead to rest on yours, “you’re welcome.”
It made you chuckle and as you did he planted one more peck to your lips before moving to put the car in drive.
“C’mon, you can get your coffee lab running at my place and I’ll taste whatever you need me to.” He began to head towards his place putting the radio on low to drown out the silence in the car. “And for the record, that shit wasn’t tasteless, I think it just needs something minorly sweet like air rated vanilla or some shit to balance out the lightness.”
Your head snapped to him, he might have mispronounced the process but he was right.
“Fuckin’ Fak.” Your voice slipped back to its normal self thinking back to when everyone was in the kitchen.
You both let out a small laugh. Richie raised his eyebrows and let out the same sentence as you.
“Fuckin’ Fak.”
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