For chef Brian Lockwood, working in a Michelin-star kitchen is a song and dance that requires skill, experience and, eventually, simple “muscle memory.”
But every performance takes choreography and time to practice. The same goes for what you see on the third season of FX’s “The Bear,” which dropped on Hulu in June. The Emmy-award-winning dramedy – which some chefs have described as the most accurate portrayal of a chaotic restaurant kitchen – lets viewers see the not-always-pretty insides of a former Italian sandwich shop in Chicago struggling to transform into a fine-dining restaurant.
Back in January, Lockwood flew to California to spend one-on-one time with actor Jeremy Allen White, who plays titular chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto.
“We were able to just spend a week together just going through these techniques, you know, how to chop, how to butcher a fish, how to segment a piece of citrus, how to actually wipe your board, how to put your spoon back, or how to wear your equipment,” Lockwood said.
“For chefs, everything has its place,” he continued. “That initial week was technique, but also teaching him how to dance: where things go, how to just make that transition smooth, how to plate things, how to spoon a sauce, how to baste a piece of fish, whatever he needed to feel comfortable.”
Lockwood is a Boulder native who built a lengthy resume by working in Michelin-star kitchens like The French Laundry in California and Eleven Madison Park in New York City. In Colorado, he was previously chef-de-cuisine at the Michelin-starred Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder and a chef consultant for Benzina, a hip Italian restaurant in Park Hill. Most recently, he had a residency at Basta in 2021 and hosted pop-up dinners at Michelin-starred Beckon in Denver.
It was his connection with restaurateur Will Guidara, the former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park, that got him a four-month job as a consultant in Chicago on the set of “The Bear”; Lockwood worked for Guidara for nine years there and at NoMad.
Guidara, a co-producer and writer for season three of “The Bear,” brought Lockwood onto the team of professional chefs, including pastry chef Malcolm Livingston II and Chicago-based chefs Justin Selk and Nicole Bayani, who helped prepare the actors for filming and created fine-dining dishes for the show.
“As a chef, my motto is the six P’s: Prior preparation prevents piss poor performance,” Lockwood said. “It’s a military thing, but I live and die by that. So when I met everybody, and I saw the way that they were preparing, how seriously they were taking this, and the level they wanted to deliver at, I was like ‘These are my people.’ It just felt right.”
Prior to his involvement in the third season, Lockwood admits that he’d never seen an episode of “The Bear.” He and his wife had sat down probably a dozen times to start it, but they barely made it two minutes in. “It’s too realistic and so gut-wrenching and intense,” Lockwood said. “And I’ve lived that life. I mean I started at 14, and now I’m 45, so it’s been 31 years of that.”
Three days before he met Allen White, Lockwood pushed past the emotion, however, and binged the whole thing.“Every pedigree chef can kind of relate to what Carmy’s been through, and I will say that that’s very true to me,” Lockwood said. “I’ve worked for Thomas Keller, [who makes a cameo in the show]. I’ve worked for Daniel Humm. I’ve spent time in Europe and these really high-end kitchens all across the world.”
The actors on “The Bear” had previously trained at culinary school and with other high-end chefs to prepare for their roles, but Lockwood was surprised at just how professional they were.
“Everybody could really do what they were doing on film,” Lockwood said. Allen White and co-star Ayo Edebiri “would plate all the food,” while Liza Colón-Zayas, who plays Tina, “would cook all the food.” Allen White, in particular, was “a little too good” of a chef-in-training, he added. “There’s things that he picked up on, where I was just like, ‘Wow, you should not pick that up that quick.’”
One day, the script called for an overcooked piece of steak, and Allen White decided it looked a little too charred for his liking, so “Jeremy sent a piece of meat back,” Lockwood said. “He literally got into the role of chef. It was so fun for me to see these guys all get into character because you think there’s somewhat of a switch, but they all carried themselves like chefs.”
In the latest season, The Bear (the actual name of the restaurant) is newly opened, and chef Carmy, reeling from a previous setback, bullheadedly sets out to achieve a Michelin star. He creates an unsustainable menu with high-quality ingredients that change every day, and spends hours researching, developing and wasting expensive products.
Lockwood and the team helped create most of the stunning dishes on screen, like ravioli with peas and parmesan mousse in episode three. And if you squint hard enough, you might be able to point out the back of his head in one of the show’s countless kitchen scenes.
Director Christopher Storer would write certain ingredients or menu ideas in the script, and the culinary team would decipher his vision on a plate, which wasn’t always easy. “Sometimes we’d have a day to come up with a dish, and sometimes, we’d have the luxury of a week,” Lockwood said. They’d also brainstorm and help develop the menu with weekly tastings, just as Lockwood would when he was at Eleven Madison Park.
“There aren’t many directors you can actually sit down and have a conversation with to say, ‘Hey, in a real restaurant this would be done differently or a little more efficiently this way,’” Lockwood said. “Everybody was able to impart their feedback from their own experiences.”
After watching how Storer works, Lockwood understands the importance of those uncomfortable moments he once couldn’t sit through. “He makes it intentionally uncomfortable at times because he really wants that level of intensity,” Lockwood said.
But, the set wasn’t void of any laughs. Chef Matty Matheson and actor Ricky Staffieri, who play the goofy Fak brothers, are just as funny in real life as they appear on screen, Lockwood said. “There’s a lot of material that just comes out of those two being a room together,” he added. “One of Chris’ [Storer] greatest strengths is he will just keep rolling and let it take whatever direction it’s headed. Any leader knows when to lead and when to follow.”
Lockwood flew to Los Angeles for the premiere of “The Bear,” watching it with the entire team last month, but even as he watches the rest of the season with his wife and daughter in Boulder, he’s looking for his next opportunity in a real kitchen.
Like Carmy’s mentor, the fictional chef Andrea Terry (played by Olivia Colman), told him in the season three finale episode, there is power in not always knowing your next step. “You have no idea what you’re doing and therefore, you’re invincible.”
Originally Published: July 16, 2024 at 12:46 p.m.
