Emmy-nominated 'The Bear' depicts chef life. We asked Pensacola chefs, 'How real is it?'

FX's original series “The Bear” is a dark comedy that has captivated viewers with its unapologetic portrayal of the stress and strife of the culinary industry.

The first season of the series, which first aired June 23, 2022, was successful enough to earn an Emmy nomination this month in almost every category it qualified for, including best comedy series, lead actor, supporting actress, supporting actor, guest actor, writing and directing.

Even those who have never stepped foot into a restaurant kitchen have been glued to the personal journey of main character Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), an ambitious young chef who battles his own demons to achieve culinary greatness, regardless of the cost to his relationships or overall wellbeing.

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Season 2 just fell short of this year’s nomination period, since it did not air until June 22, 2023, but is ready for next year after landing a star-studded cameo line-up including Jamie Lee Curtis, John Mulaney, Will Poulter, Bob Odenkirk, Olivia Colman, Adam Shapiro and Robert Townsend.

The show allow viewers to step into the non-slip shoes of its characters, whether it be watching them to drink out of quart containers, have a breakdown in the walk-in cooler or communally chain smoke a pack of cigarettes silently while sitting on the ground outside after a grueling service, only to do it all again the next day.

However, the biggest questions you’re left with after binging the two seasons on Hulu is — how much of that actually happens, or does it just make for good TV?

These Pensacola chefs are setting the record straight.

Meet the fact-checkers

Darian Hernandez: Hernandez, a Food Network "Chopped" champion, serves as the executive chef at Brother Fox inside Pensacola’s boutique lodging house, Lily Hall. Previously, Hernandez has worked at The Grand Marlin of Pensacola Beach, Restaurant IRON, Woodmont Grill, Per Se, The Bazaar by Hose Andres, Atlas and Fontainebleau Miami Beach.

Edward Lordman: Lordman, a Food Network "Beachside Brawl" finalist, is the owner and executive chef of Southern Grit Culinary. Previously, Lordman has worked at Gulf Breeze’s The Pointe, Polonza Bistro, Restaurant IRON, Pensacola Country Club, The Georgia Club, Emmanuel Dining and Center Stage Catering.

Jason Hughes: Hughes is the executive chef of Pensacola’s Atlas Oyster House. Previously, Hughes has worked in The Grand Marlin of Pensacola Beach, Pensacola Fish House and Stinky’s Fish Camp.

Q: Is the fictional series more realistic than reality TV cooking challenges?

A: Yes.

Both Hernandez and Lordman have had their time on the other side of the television screen starring in Food Network reality cooking competitions. Even though the cooking challenges were as real and intense as portrayed in the episodes, they found some parts of the experience to be more scripted than the reality series.

Hernandez: “Yeah, 'The Bear' will be a little more realistic … I think it's a great representation, the closest that I've seen from any of the shows. Some of the shows you're watching you'll say, ‘No, that would never happen.” But then you look at ‘The Bear,’ like ‘Okay, yeah, I’ve kind of been in this situation before.’ It's very relatable.”

Hughes: “I don't like the competition cooking shows and stuff like that. I mean they're cool, and they definitely have grown our profession into the limelight, for sure. But that feels so much more scripted than this literal made-up fiction … I didn't watch ('The Bear') at first for like the first three weeks after Season 1 came out because all my industry friends tried to scare me away and would be like, ‘It was too triggering.’”

Lordman: “I was there for 11 days (filming) ... they (Food Network) were like, ‘Say this, word this, do this, be yourself, but be more’… you’ve got to come across a certain way, but I just feel like it takes away the authenticity.”

Q: Are all chefs referred to as ‘Chef’ rather than their name, regardless of rank?

A: Sometimes.

Throughout the show's high-intensity kitchen scenes, you’ll hear terms like “CORNER!” or “Yes, chef!” shouted out constantly. In the fictitious Beef kitchen, Carmy’s insistency on calling everyone in the kitchen “chef” as a sign of respect helps build community and confidence within his team. However, in a real-life kitchen, our chefs said that this is purely circumstantial depending on the restaurant.

Hernandez: “I feel like it varies where you're at. At certain places, if you call someone else a chef, that's not 'the' chef, he will be fired. Like, ‘I'm the chef, I'm standing right here.’ But also, here (Pensacola) in most of kitchens — I call anybody ‘chef.’ I just feel like it's empowering. And it's also like, we all go out, we're in the trenches together. We all do the same thing.”

Hughes: “Not everybody. So, we (Atlas) are doing it. Everybody is, ‘Yes, chef,’ ‘Thank you, chef.’ I probably took my first executive job nine or 10 years ago. It’s weird when people call me by my first name.”

Lordman: “I feel in the right kitchen, in the right setting. You're not going to be in Five Guys Burgers, like, ‘Yo, chef.’  I think we need to be real and like, not be like, ‘OK, well, you work in the kitchen (and) in the kitchen everybody can just be called chef,’ because I feel that takes away earning the right to be a real chef.

Q: Could the infinitely long ticket scene really happen during a service?

A: Maybe.

In the series’ one-take episode “Review” in Season 1, Episode 7, viewers don’t get any sense of relief as the camera fixates on the order printer that seems to print ticket orders for an eternity. One of our expert chefs thought this scene was dramatized to show the high-stress emotions going on in the chef’s head, while the other two felt the scene was a real-life scenario.

Hernandez: “Well for New Year's, I was at The Bazaar … we were so in the weeds. I think they overbooked; I don't know what happened. But at one point, tickets were coming off the ticket machine and they were on the floor across the station … we’re not even looking at the board anymore we’re just firing 10 of everything.”

Hughes: “The ticket machine was one of my favorite scenes from the whole show ... the emotions, they're really real. Like, ‘Get off my expo line!’ We've all been there. ‘Just fire everything! Fire everything we have!’ So yeah, I do I like that scene a lot.”

Lordman: “When that ticket started printing. First of all, it doesn't just like — I guess it could just do that. But it was just like printing, printing … I think that's a representation of how we feel, and not what actually happens.”

Q: Are restaurants really run like a militant “French Brigade?”

A: Yes.

In episode three of “The Bear,” Carmy tasks his sous-chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) with transforming the long-time Chicago beef sandwich shop chefs into a clean and pristine French brigade. The hierarchy was first established by French chef Auguste Escoffier and gives each chef in the kitchen a clear place and position in the chain of command. It turns out, even if the positions are simplified to terms such as "fry cook," this hierarchy is still in place today.

Hernandez: “Whether you realize or not, most kitchens are a brigade system. You know that system came from Escoffier, king of chefs. So, he implemented systems that comes from like a military. So very militant, very organized.”

Hughes: “It's really the only way you can get a whole room full of people who are just all very different from very different backgrounds, but you want everybody kind of speaking the same language.”

Lordman: “I like the militant. If I'm going to go work for somebody, I want it to be very structured. I think the right chefs kind of see that and are attracted to that kind of style.”

Q: Can the kitchen be that toxic with yelling, throwing objects, etc.?

A: Yes

One of the most triggering scenes in “The Bear” was in Season 1, Episode 2’s flashback to Carmy working in a highly esteemed New York City kitchen as he is pounded with insults by the executive chef attempting to dismantle his self-worth. Although the episode was hard to stomach, the most alarming thing was how easily many of the chefs watching could relate.

Hernandez: “I was working in Miami at this fine dining Italian … it was just like this one dish, it was just (expletive) impossible … You take tuna and you pound it out, put like two pieces of clingfilm, you pound it out and you put brunoise carrots and truffle inside of this and you put microgreens, you roll it on top of each other, tighten it, and make like a perfect tuna roll. And I could not (expletive) do it to save my life … It's like a two-hour process. The chef comes over, her name's Nina Compton — she’s in New Orleans and she just got nominee for James Beard — but she comes over and she's like on my (expletive), cussing at me and takes the rest of what I had and just like bunches them up and just throws them away. I like cried in the (expletive) elevator.”

Hughes: “I've had things kind of thrown me, basically threw a telephone across the restaurant, across the kitchen one time. Not really like at me, but in my direction. I didn’t like it because I just think you're just not professional. If you can't control your emotions, you're just immature. You just don't know how to handle yourself in front of people.”

Lordman: “Shane Taylor, the guy I followed down here, he was the one that was more like, slam his hand on this (expletive) thing. He would throw dishes and stuff, but never like ‘you’ as a person … but also, we all loved him. Amazing dad, amazing husband. I look up to him.”

Q: Are stages as glamorous as they’re portrayed to be?

A: Not really.

One of the characters that "The Bear" carefully develops is curious pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce). Even through the chaotic environment of the fictional restaurant The Beef, Marcus continues to seek out new sources of inspiration, ultimately taking his desserts to the next level. Carmy rewards this by sending him to Copenhagen to stage at the restaurant’s expense. Though these unpaid internships were a norm in the industry, they are far from possible for everyone, regardless of passion alone.

Hernandez: “A lot of the people who, at the time, were staging with me, these kids that graduated fresh out of (Culinary Institute of America) and you know, mommy and daddy paid for everything. They have a place in lower Manhattan, they're not worried about rent and not worried about anything, they're just there to learn. They don't have to worry about, ‘Okay, I got $20 in my pocket, I got to take this green line train and get off here. The staff meal is my only meal I'm going to eat for the day.’ You know, they don't have that those types of worries.”

“Some of the guys that I was with in my circle in Miami — they got their first (Michelin) star this past year. So, I sent one of my line cooks, Joey … He absorbed everything. I told Manny, the guy who he went to see, I was like, ‘Yo, show him the same way. Kick his (expletive), show him the real deal.’ He (Joey) came back and now he's just like, ‘I'm going to do lacto-fermentation.'"

Q: Do service industry jobs take a toll on mental health, substance abuse and personal relationships?

A: Yes.

As much as "The Bear" explores the challenges within the kitchen, it also dives into the personal struggles that those who find themselves in the culinary industry carry with them. Carmy’s brother’s suicide is what ultimately leads him back into the old sandwich shop, he still struggles with the aftermath of his brother’s addiction, always feeling like he has something to prove.

Hernandez: "Within three years, I was maybe in like, three states, four states. At that point I haven't seen my family in forever. ... You sacrifice relationships and your family ... I'm getting ready to take the first vacation I've ever had in my career next month and that's like, 12-13 years of just being gone. You sacrifice, so like relationships, peace of mind, mental health. You see a lot of that.”

Hughes: "The drugs are just everywhere. It's been a long time since I've been a cook, right? Nobody is going to come and try to sell us (executive chefs) drugs. But there definitely was a time that I can recall where they were just everywhere. I mean, a place I worked at where they literally break out the portion scale at the end of a shift to like to split up a sack and weigh it. It’s definitely a thing that happens."

"There's a decompression aspect of unwinding, relaxing … If you came in first thing in the morning, you're getting off in the night, you're talking about 15, 16, 17-hour days sometimes where you have been just like heightened sense of awareness … you've just had to worry about everything and care about everything all day long. So, it's a very easy trap to fall into."

Lordman: "Some people, when they fixate on something, it stems from something that maybe hurt them or whatever. For me, it's losing my mom when I was young. And a lot of people know that, but that is my pure driving force to just have to do this. I have to go on Food Network, I have to do this because she loves Food Network, she loves to cook. I call her collard greens ‘Mama’s Collards,’ because it's not perfect, but it's pretty close to what my mother did. … A lot of us, a lot of people when they have that driving force to be so perfect and so good, you know, it is very a mental thing that they're trying to overcome. To maybe fix in a way that you're never gonna fix it. And so, you just fixate on just being best you can be."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Emmy-nominated 'The Bear' shows chef life. Pensacola chefs fact-check