Master chef and restaurateur Paul Liebrandt rates every fine dining scene from "The Bear" for realism.
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00:00No, tea.
00:01What's wrong with it?
00:02The cook's off.
00:03The cook's off.
00:04Re-fire!
00:06Yes, 100% correct.
00:08You are always taught,
00:09never let your mistakes leave the kitchen, ever.
00:14Hello, I'm Chef Paul Lee Brandt,
00:17and I was the chef owner of Restaurant Corton,
00:19two Michelin stars in New York City.
00:21I've been a chef and restauranteur for over 25 years.
00:24I'm back to look at fine dining scenes from The Bear
00:28and judge how real they are.
00:32âȘ I'm just a wish away âȘ
00:35Oh, sorry.
00:36Stock's boiled.
00:37It's too cloudy.
00:37Yes, it's too high.
00:38I know, I put it lower earlier.
00:40The turning up of the heat on the beef stock
00:45happened to me many times, sabotage.
00:48It happens all the time.
00:51When you're young and you have a big brigade of chefs,
00:54and it's always the small things that you don't check,
00:59i.e. you're busy in service,
01:02someone runs around, turns your oven off.
01:04Just to mess around with people.
01:05It happens.
01:06I would give a good solid eight out of 10.
01:09It is very realistic.
01:10You left the pre-order option open.
01:12255 beef sandwiches due up in eight minutes.
01:17Everything on the grill, fire everything right now!
01:20So there's a couple of things that stood out
01:21for me in that clip.
01:23Number one, great business, a lot of orders,
01:26which is what every restaurant needs and wants,
01:28so that's great.
01:30Maybe a little touch disorganized,
01:32so leave the pre-order option open, okay?
01:35So would I have done the same as Kami in that situation?
01:39Okay, one thing, with all those orders coming in,
01:43do you actually have enough food
01:45to fulfill all those orders?
01:46If you do have all that food,
01:48I would have taken block by block of orders,
01:50not everything at once, because that's ridiculous.
01:53The customers will get their order.
01:56It might take a little longer to get to them,
01:58but you have to deliver what is promised.
02:03Shut the f*** up!
02:04Ah!
02:05Holy f***ing s***!
02:08What?
02:09She stabbed him?
02:11Wow.
02:12Really?
02:14Okay.
02:15I've seen someone's hand get cut off.
02:17I've seen it all.
02:18So it's real.
02:21Kitchens are dangerous.
02:22You have razor-sharp knives, boiling water,
02:27deep-frying oil, flames,
02:30so your situational awareness is critical.
02:33You move backwards and somebody has a knife
02:36that they're not holding blade down,
02:39you go into a knife.
02:40So irregardless of whether it was meant or not meant,
02:44you should have more situational awareness.
02:47Get the f*** out of here!
02:49Thank you!
02:50I quit, is what's going on.
02:52Quit?
02:53Yeah.
02:54So the quitting part, 100%, that's real.
02:57That happens every single day.
03:00People can be pushed to a certain point and they go,
03:02I'm out.
03:03And I'll be honest though,
03:04I have done that before when I was younger.
03:07When I knew how to cook, didn't know how to manage.
03:09Oh, I've done that.
03:10Get the f*** out of here!
03:12I've done that.
03:13Oh yes, more than once.
03:15And I've had sous chefs go, that's it, I quit.
03:17You wanna calm it down and keep everybody's focus
03:21on the task that's in front of them
03:23to get through it in the right way.
03:26And then you do an action report after what went wrong.
03:31And then if people need to be fired,
03:33you do it afterwards, not during.
03:36Because you need everybody's hands.
03:39I'm gonna have to give it a solid four out of 10.
03:43Sorry guys.
03:44The context is important about the chaos,
03:47but the overall actions of the chef were,
03:51in my opinion, over-exaggerated.
03:54Tenderloin.
03:57You know what a lot of restaurants suck at?
03:59Using the home to test dishes for the new restaurant.
04:02Collaborative, bouncing ideas.
04:04Yes, absolutely, 100%.
04:05For me personally, when I ideate with the team,
04:11I don't generally like to do it in the kitchen.
04:13I'll be honest.
04:14Take the gladiator, so to speak, out of the arena
04:18and think in a different setting,
04:20which gets your mind to think very differently.
04:22So just in context, Jeremy and Ayo did actually
04:26work together in preparation for these parts
04:29at Institute of Culinary Education
04:31to, I suppose, foster that chef-sous-chef relationship,
04:37which was obviously very well done there.
04:39All right.
04:40All right.
04:41Mm.
04:42Mm.
04:43Mm.
04:44Mm.
04:45Mm.
04:46Mm.
04:46You marinated it too long.
04:47It's okay, though.
04:48I'll say it in a very polite British way.
04:51To be tasting your own food from your own ideation
04:55with your own recipes and then having to spit
04:58your own food out, I would question,
05:01do you know what you're doing?
05:02You should be a little bit more focused than that.
05:06So I would rate this clip seven out of 10.
05:09I like the context.
05:10It's at home.
05:12They're working on their first collaborative menu together.
05:13The spitting out of the food, maybe not quite so realistic.
05:17Chef, I'm Marcus Brooks.
05:19I'm from-
05:20I know, I'm Luca.
05:21Pastry, start at 5 a.m.
05:23Your section's at the end of the bench.
05:25So in the context of the scene with Marcus
05:27going to Copenhagen to learn from this pastry chef here,
05:31it is very common to send staff, I have many times,
05:36to other contemporaries and people that you respect
05:39to gain experience and knowledge for themselves, 100%.
05:42Yes, it is very common to start at 5 a.m. in the kitchen.
05:46There's a lot of work to be done.
05:48If you're doing bread, that takes time, fermentation.
05:53So that's six o'clock, that's always facing the guest.
05:54Yes, chef.
05:57No, again, chef.
05:58I very much enjoyed watching this clip, very much so.
06:02It shows the discipline, the elegance, the mentorship.
06:08Regarding the positioning of the plating,
06:10100%, you need symmetry on a dish.
06:14Pastry is about, is the final chapter to a meal.
06:18So it's very important to make sure
06:21that you have consistency.
06:23And if one item of the dish is at six,
06:26the other item should be at nine.
06:28If that's the way the dish is built, 100% correct, yes.
06:32Training-wise, you tend to find,
06:34as you probably noticed in the clip here,
06:37that pastry chefs are a little more technical,
06:39more technique-driven with their training.
06:42Savory chefs, yes, very technical,
06:45but pastry is more technical measurements.
06:51Thank you, chef.
06:53Give me two ladles of that into there
06:55and just bloom the gelatin.
06:58So Luca's obviously showing Marcus
07:02the building blocks of how to make a gelee.
07:05100% correct in the technique there.
07:08So a gelee is basically a gelatin
07:11that's used to set cold or hot.
07:15The context of how he's teaching
07:18with regards to the recipe being given, 100% correct.
07:23You would obviously oversee the development of said recipe.
07:28The recipe is a guide.
07:30It's not the be-all and end-all.
07:35Right.
07:37Back.
07:41So, excellent demonstration on the Cornell.
07:46The purpose of doing a Cornell is purely to shape.
07:51It doesn't have to be an ice cream or a sorbet,
07:53but it's purposely just to shape
07:57whatever you are wanting to place on the plate.
07:59You rub to a little bit of heat on the back of the spoon
08:04and then release the Cornell,
08:06which should be a perfect, smooth shape of the spoon,
08:10depending on the size of the spoon.
08:12Excellent technique.
08:21So the dessert that Marcus makes at the end,
08:25which is, I'm assuming, his own recipe that he's created,
08:29looked fantastic.
08:30Obviously, taking a lot of influence with the aesthetic
08:33of how to build the dessert from Luca.
08:38What makes a fine dining dessert,
08:42there isn't exactly a rule of thumb.
08:44It's more to do with the technique
08:46and the balance of flavor, texture, color,
08:50is really what we're talking about
08:51that makes what he's doing here
08:53different from a slice of apple pie.
08:55I like this one very much.
08:56I'm gonna go big on this one.
08:57I'm giving it 100%, 10 out of 10.
09:00I thought this clip was extremely realistic,
09:04elegant, and very, very true
09:07with how you build your technique,
09:10your palate, and your mind through mental pupil.
09:14All the servers take temperatures of the room.
09:15They communicate.
09:17Bogey's on 19.
09:18Walk everything fast.
09:20What stood out for me with that clip
09:22is obviously it's extremely by the second precision
09:27in the front of house,
09:28with everything done exactly the same
09:30as you would expect for the back of house.
09:32So in this scene, Richie is staging,
09:34staging or trailing,
09:37is basically gaining experience
09:40by looking through the window, so to speak,
09:43into somebody else's operation.
09:44So kind of like an intern, right,
09:47where you're not getting paid,
09:48you're helping, and you're gaining the experience.
09:5122 doesn't like people to speak to them.
09:53How do you know that?
09:54Know what?
09:54About the people eating.
09:56We have a designated staff member
09:57that researches each guest.
09:58So yes, actually, a corton is 100% correct.
10:01We would do the same thing.
10:02We would research the guests before they come in.
10:04We would actually send, prior to the reservation,
10:07a little form with obviously allergies,
10:11anything that can't be eaten,
10:12but also knowing where they're coming from.
10:15Therefore, if you come from Japan,
10:18if you come from France,
10:19you like your shellfish, for example, cooked differently.
10:23So we would then curtail if we had a shellfish dish
10:26on the menu for that evening,
10:29depending on the guest,
10:30a little more cooked, a little less cooked.
10:31It's the details that really matter.
10:35Chef.
10:36Point on two by four.
10:37Pequod's deep dish.
10:40No.
10:41Oh, you did not hear me say that.
10:43Taking somebody else's dish
10:45and presenting it in a artful way,
10:48yes, I have, more than once,
10:51to foreign guests from coming outside of America.
10:56I remember very well one guest
10:57wanted to have a black and white cookie,
10:59which is a very New York-centric cookie,
11:01if you've been here.
11:02So we obviously organized that, which was quite nice.
11:06And we obviously knew ahead of time,
11:09we did not eavesdrop,
11:10but the touch and the thoughtfulness, excellent.
11:13I would rate this clip a seven out of 10.
11:15It is realistic as far as the numbering
11:18and the organization of the kitchen.
11:20I wish everybody would have a little more soulfulness
11:23and a smile in what they're doing,
11:26being that you are hospitality.
11:30You're supposed to smile and enjoy.
11:42Very, you know, Rocky-esque montage of memories
11:47of all the training and working in different kitchens
11:51with a lot of chefs that I know very well
11:53and are all dear friends.
11:55So in the first scene, Chef Daniel Boulud,
11:58fantastic chef, know him dearly.
12:00And that was a great scene, obviously,
12:01about how to shape and turn a vegetable.
12:05We saw with René from Noma in Copenhagen there,
12:11utilizing the local produce, which is the concept of Noma,
12:16which is a three-Michelin-star restaurant there.
12:18Chefs that I have had the, I guess,
12:21privilege to go and work with in my past.
12:25Pierre Gagné in Paris, three-star.
12:27Marco Pierre White in London, three-star.
12:30Raymond Blanc, Le MĂ©moire Ă quatre saisons, two-star.
12:35And, you know, a lot of inspiration there, a lot.
12:38I, so, I did the same thing.
12:40Think back.
12:43What the f*** is this s***?
12:44We already have a dish with dill in it.
12:46You knew that, right?
12:47Yes, Chef.
12:47I never repeat ingredients.
12:48The dill scene there, that he is being reprimanded
12:52for repeating dill, it really depends on your philosophy.
12:58There is the rule that in a course of a menu,
13:01you should not repeat a single ingredient.
13:04I personally, I suppose I'm in the middle of both ways.
13:09You could do both, depends on the ingredient.
13:11If you do a black truffle menu,
13:12you put black truffles on every dish, so you are repeating.
13:15But it depends on how you do it.
13:18That's how you do better.
13:21So the idea of subtraction is 100% correct.
13:25Generally speaking, less is more,
13:28is always the rule of thumb.
13:30If you look at something like sushi,
13:32where you have rice, fish, and then a seasoning.
13:35Simple, but it speaks about the ingredient
13:38and the technique shown.
13:40And generally speaking, it's much harder
13:42when there's less on the plate.
13:43You have to be better.
13:49Yes, you do label ingredients exactly as shown here.
13:53With date, time, what the ingredient is.
13:57It's very important to be very organized.
13:59You get deliveries.
14:01You want to make sure that you obviously don't mix up
14:03a new delivery with an old delivery.
14:05So yeah, 100%.
14:06I would rate this scene a great eight out of 10.
14:08I thought it was very realistic,
14:11thoughtful, and very true for all of us
14:15that can think about past life experiences
14:18What's this?
14:20Non-negotiables.
14:21That's how we do this correctly.
14:22That's how restaurants of the highest caliber operate.
14:24The term non-negotiables might be a little strong.
14:28You have standards and principles,
14:30I think is more the right way that you would approach this.
14:33So that's kind of what he's saying in a more younger way.
14:42We've all done it.
14:42We'll say it.
14:43But I've never stood there and went,
14:45I've never stood there and went,
14:46these are my non-negotiables.
14:48I'm like, what?
14:50Like, just like, what's the plan here?
14:52Let's lay it out and be straight to the point.
14:54You know, like that's really what this is about.
14:57Hi.
14:58What's up?
14:59What is this?
15:00It's R&D.
15:03You redid everything.
15:05So the R&D term does not mean redo a dish.
15:08It means research and development of the dishes
15:12and the service and the staffing and who's doing what.
15:16And it's very common and you have to do it.
15:19Yes.
15:20I'm gonna change it every day.
15:21The cavatelli or the raviolo?
15:24Everything.
15:25We're gonna change everything every day?
15:28Yes.
15:29Well, I think it's very admirable
15:30that he wants to change the entire menu every single day.
15:33So the idea here, obviously, of changing the menu every day
15:36is it is tried by some restaurants,
15:40obviously, around the world.
15:42You have to think about the style of the menu.
15:45So with regards to a tasting menu and an a la carte menu,
15:49you have differences of how you approach the menu.
15:52You're not gonna go back every day and do a tasting menu
15:55because it's a lot of food to eat.
15:58If you're a good customer, you want to go back
16:00because they have a signature dish that you want to repeat.
16:03So if you would change the menu every day,
16:05you wouldn't be able to do that,
16:06which would upset your customers.
16:07So it's really a balance.
16:09Who's they?
16:10It's a docu-sign in your inbox.
16:11Carmen, no.
16:12Saying what?
16:13It is a partnership agreement.
16:14And what does that say?
16:16How much of this place you're gonna own.
16:18Giving partnership to the sous-chef there
16:22and to other members of the staff
16:24is obviously a very, very big step
16:26and a very generous step on his part,
16:29which obviously engages very much more so.
16:33So they're not employees, they're owners,
16:35which has a very big way of making anything different.
16:37So I would rate this seven out of 10.
16:41If I'm talking to my team
16:43about becoming partners with me in my business,
16:47I wouldn't casually throw it out
16:49over R&Ding a couple of dishes
16:52and talking about what pasta I'm gonna change
16:55every single day.
16:56Those are very big steps.
16:59Doors.
17:00Doors.
17:03So the term doors refers to people moving,
17:07in and out.
17:08Like I said before in a previous clip,
17:10situational awareness.
17:12Somebody's moving with plates of food,
17:14don't be standing in front of them.
17:16Watch what's going on.
17:17Somebody coming with a tray of glasses
17:19or a hot pan, doors.
17:21Doors means backs, means get out the way.
17:25Thank you, Chef Tina.
17:27No, T, refire, please.
17:28Everybody take your time.
17:30T, do not refire.
17:31Clips off.
17:33Refire.
17:34So in regards to the recooking of the dishes,
17:39yes, 100% correct.
17:41You are always taught,
17:42never let your mistakes leave the kitchen, ever.
17:47The other part of that is the real life part.
17:49Can you afford to do it?
17:52And that was a piece of Wagyu, which is very expensive.
17:55But yes, it does happen.
17:56Yes, it's important to make sure
17:59that your standards and your principles
18:01are never undermined by sending something
18:04that you know should not go out.
18:06I have a bill in my hands for $11,268 for butter.
18:11We cannot keep this up.
18:12I gotta say, it's like, it's bullshit.
18:14If you did that, you'd close in like, you know, one week.
18:17The butter that they're using there,
18:19the idea is based off animal farm butter,
18:21which is from a wonderful farmer up in Vermont.
18:25So in regards to spending $11,000 on butter,
18:29okay, there's the promise of what you want to do,
18:33and then there's the reality of what you want to do.
18:36If you went and spent $11,000 on butter
18:39in a restaurant of that size,
18:40serving a smaller number of people like that,
18:43you would close in one week.
18:45So it sounds great, but be realistic, is all I'm saying.
18:50It doesn't matter.
18:51The guy says he doesn't like mushrooms.
18:51No, it doesn't matter.
18:53If he doesn't like mushrooms,
18:53doesn't it be the mushrooms?
18:55It's not about you, it's about the fucking game.
18:57I'm not doing it.
18:58Get out of here, Richie.
18:59I'm gonna send you for the fucking call.
19:00With regards to the mushroom incident in the dish,
19:04is it right or wrong to abide by a customer's wishes?
19:09It's a hard one, depending on which platform
19:11you're standing on and which way you're looking.
19:13When you were a young chef and you're starting out,
19:14and I was exactly the same way,
19:16my vision, my food, da, da, da, da.
19:19But in reality, you do that once,
19:22customer walks out, leaves a bad review,
19:25other people stop coming, and then you go,
19:27you know what, I'll change the dish.
19:29I'll tweak it.
19:30So yeah, you abide by the customer's wishes
19:33in a setting like this.
19:35And you certainly don't get into a fist fight
19:38with your partner in the middle of service over a mushroom.
19:42We're there to present a dream, not fight each other.
19:46Oh!
19:48Oh!
19:53You can see, just once you do an opening,
19:56you're like this, go, hey, hey, hey.
19:57People drop stuff, people get angry.
19:59The communication takes time to develop.
20:02So with regards to the how fast you should
20:06or shouldn't be in the kitchen,
20:07once you get to a certain level,
20:09you don't go as fast, but you're more accurate
20:12in what you do.
20:13I am very impressed, Sydney, that she has matured
20:17from the previous season, and she is the one,
20:20the voice of calm, the voice of focus,
20:23which is what she's meant to do.
20:24I would rate this, I would say eight out of 10.
20:27Fighting each other in the middle of the kitchen,
20:29probably happens, but you try to make sure
20:32that doesn't happen.
20:33But otherwise, I think, yeah, pretty realistic.
20:36We're gonna start by showing you
20:39how to remove the wishbone.
20:41Yeah.
20:41You can feel the wishbone in there?
20:42Yes.
20:43So it's on both sides.
20:44Fantastic in every way, this clip.
20:46Thomas Keller is the chef owner of the French Laundry,
20:48where this is filmed at the scene,
20:50and Percé in New York, and Bouchon,
20:53and many other beautiful restaurants.
20:57A very, very, very wise and gifted and dear friend of mine.
21:02He was in our movie, and he did the backflip of my book.
21:05So the importance, I think, of the clip here
21:09is the essence of which Thomas is trying to teach Cami.
21:14That cooking is lots of little things done well.
21:18It's not one big thing.
21:19It's lots of little dots that all join up
21:21to make one bigger thing.
21:23To me, it's such a profound profession
21:25because we get to really be part of people's lives
21:29here today because of those who came before us.
21:31So this is your first day.
21:33Wisdom from Thomas Keller.
21:36He's one of those chefs that we younger chefs look to
21:41as like, yeah, like that's the model
21:44of like what we all think you should be.
21:48When I first came here years ago,
21:50went to French Laundry, and Thomas and I
21:52had breakfast together in the garden,
21:54and I asked him, how are you you?
21:56Like what, like give me, not a secret,
21:59but give me some life advice.
22:01And he was very much similar to this, and it stayed with me.
22:04So the advice that I would give in a similar situation
22:08that I have given to many of my younger teammates
22:14is very much the same thing of understand
22:17why we do what we do.
22:19Understand the big implications
22:21of why are you doing what you're doing.
22:24I'm gonna rate this 11 out of 10.
22:29It's that meaningful.
22:30And as a chef, the meaningfulness
22:34of what Thomas is teaching here
22:37goes far beyond this TV series
22:39and far beyond what we're all doing here.
22:45Hey, everybody's Chef Sidney.
22:47Nobody just opens a restaurant and that's it forever.
22:50Everybody goes through opening, closing.
22:53I know the reality of that.
22:55We all do.
22:56So the concept of having a funeral dinner
22:59for closing of your restaurant
23:01maybe is not quite exactly realistic.
23:04In any ways, it should be like going to a wake.
23:07It should be joyous and a celebration
23:09of what you have achieved
23:11and the next chapter that you're moving on to.
23:1410, 32, don't fuck with my camera.
23:17Three, 52.
23:18Why do we call this place?
23:22The thought process that you go through
23:24when you get reviewed by publications, by people,
23:28yeah, it's very much like that.
23:29You're sort of 24-7 thinking about it.
23:32I mean, it's an initial presentation
23:36that you're doing to the world.
23:37My restaurant, me, this is who I am.
23:40There are a lot of emotions involved.
23:42The breaking up of his girlfriend to do it.
23:45I've done exactly the same thing more than once.
23:48It's all or nothing.
23:50So I empathize completely, yes.
23:53You gave me ulcers and panic attacks.
23:56You were an okay chef when you started with me
23:59and you left an excellent chef.
24:02I've been that guy.
24:03I've been in both.
24:05I've been carmy.
24:07I didn't have the ulcers,
24:08but the anxiety and the stress, absolutely.
24:11And I'm in a position now where I'm,
24:13I suppose, the other side,
24:14where I give the advice that his old chef gave.
24:19And he's correct.
24:21He came in a boy and he left a man.
24:24And it's very true with what he says.
24:26You were better.
24:28So was it worth it?
24:29I think so.
24:31It's a tough, tough business to be in.
24:34And not everybody makes it.
24:37And some people get very emotional.
24:41Others embrace it.
24:42So it really depends on how you approach it
24:44and who the individual is.
24:46And I think what I've learned over the years,
24:48people don't remember the food.
24:50Sorry.
24:53It's the people that they remember.
24:55I would agree exactly with what Olivia Colman
24:58was saying here,
24:59that it is about the company
25:00and the presence that you're in,
25:03not so much the actual part of the food.
25:05Yes.
25:06Memories come and go.
25:07We might forget exactly what the dish looked like,
25:10but we can remember the company that we're in
25:13and the feelings and emotions that we had in that company.
25:16That, to me, is the most important thing, yes.
25:26Very realistic with the quotes on the wall.
25:28You gotta think of it like a Roman legion
25:30with the banner that you march behind.
25:33In our kitchen, we would always have focus with a K.
25:37Concentrate all your thoughts and feelings
25:40on the task at hand.
25:42And it's more of a mantra, I suppose you could say,
25:46but it's very correct.
25:48I would rate this a nine out of 10.
25:51Everybody goes through opening, closing.
25:54My restaurant closed.
25:55We will be opening again in New York City.
26:01So be ready.
26:02My favorite scene from The Bear
26:05is the Thomas Keller episode.
26:10The sentiment, the advice to Kami,
26:13the wisdom and the impactfulness that that has in here
26:20and in here, to me, is far more than anything else
26:25that you could actually watch or learn.