For five seasons, The Bear made Chicago’s restaurant world a character all its own. The kitchens felt real. The food looked real. The cooks moved like people who had spent years behind a line. From an Italian beef sandwich dripping au jus to the meticulous plates coming out of Carmy’s fine-dining kitchen, there was undeniable authenticity on the screen.
Behind much of it was a remarkable group of chefs and culinary professionals, many with deep Chicago ties, whose work largely happened away from the camera.
At the center was Courtney ‘Coco’ Storer, culinary producer and eventually co-executive producer of The Bear. And her connection to the series goes much deeper than her title. She is the sister of The Bear creator Christopher Storer.
Courtney and Christopher Storer grew up in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, where their early experiences with the city’s food and restaurant culture would later find their way into The Bear. Courtney has recalled eating Italian beef with her brother as a child, long before either could have imagined those memories would eventually help inspire one of television’s most celebrated series.
Courtney went on to build a professional culinary career, training in Paris and working in demanding restaurant kitchens including Animal and Jon & Vinny’s in Los Angeles. When her brother’s idea for a project inspired by Chicago’s Mr. Beef eventually evolved into The Bear, he had someone close to him who didn’t simply know restaurants. She had lived the life they were attempting to portray.
Making actors look like chefs
Courtney initially came aboard as a consultant working with the writers. By the first season, she was on set as culinary producer, a role that grew far beyond conventional food styling.
She helped develop the dishes, advised the writers, prepared food for the cameras and, perhaps most importantly, taught the actors how restaurant professionals actually move.
For Ayo Edebiri, who played Sydney Adamu, that included details as subtle as how a woman moves through a professional kitchen and gradually assumes the physical confidence of a sous chef or head chef.
Courtney’s responsibilities ultimately became so broad that the culinary producer position itself reflected something unusual in television production, bringing together food, storytelling, performance and production.
But Courtney Storer didn’t do it alone.
The culinary crew behind the camera
As The Bear grew from the controlled chaos of an Italian beef shop into the exacting world of fine dining, its culinary team grew with it.
C.J. Capace served as culinary co-producer, alongside a team that included Brian Lockwood, Justin Selk, Nicole Biyani and Danielle Stefanick, with Gabriel Wallace and Jeffrey Thomas keeping the culinary operation moving from the dish room.
Storer has been unusually generous about crediting them publicly. She described Stefanick, who brought years of film and production experience to the operation, as the person who helped keep the culinary train on the tracks. Wallace and Thomas performed a job anyone who has worked in a restaurant understands is indispensable. They kept an enormous volume of dishes, cookware and equipment clean, organized and ready to go again.
Because on a television set, unlike in a restaurant, dinner service doesn’t end when the plate leaves the kitchen.
Someone may have to make that plate again. And again. And again.
Brian Lockwood helped take Carmy to another level
Chef Brian Lockwood became particularly important as Carmy’s culinary world grew more sophisticated. Introduced to the production through restaurateur and The Bear producer Will Guidara, Lockwood worked with the actors and helped create dishes for the series. He also became another set of experienced eyes watching the kitchen scenes and asking whether what was happening would actually happen in a professional restaurant.
Lockwood has described training Jeremy Allen White in everything from cooking and resting meat properly to glazing vegetables, working with pastry bags and developing the speed and physical habits of a professional cook.
By the end of the series, Lockwood said White had become a genuinely capable cook.
That may be one of the culinary team’s greatest accomplishments. The actors weren’t merely holding knives and wearing aprons. They learned enough about the work to make viewers who actually spend their lives in kitchens believe them.
Mr. Beef was part of the DNA
No tribute to the culinary people behind The Bear could begin or end without Mr. Beef.
Christopher Storer grew up knowing Chris Zucchero, whose family owns the River North institution that helped inspire the fictional Original Beef of Chicagoland. The pilot was filmed inside Mr. Beef, and the restaurant’s connection to the production continued long after the series became a phenomenon.
Courtney Storer has credited Zucchero and the Mr. Beef crew with coming through for the production when they needed beef, sometimes with very little notice.
It was more than a filming location. Mr. Beef was part of the foundation on which The Bear was built.
When The Bear needed Chicago, Chicago answered
As the series expanded, so did its relationship with Chicago’s restaurant community.
Chef Curtis Duffy and the team at Ever played an extraordinary role in the memorable “Forks” episode, when Richie experiences the precision and hospitality of an elite restaurant.
The production didn’t simply borrow Ever’s dining room. Members of The Bear team observed an actual service. Ever’s staff and procedures became part of the episode’s DNA. Actress Sarah Ramos spent time staging at the restaurant. Real Ever dishes appeared on screen, while Duffy collaborated with Courtney Storer on others. Amy Cordell, Ever’s director of hospitality, even appeared in the episode.
Chef Matt Danko, who had worked with Duffy at Grace, also served as a culinary consultant and helped lead the production to Ever in the first place.
Then there was Rob Levitt of Publican Quality Meats, another trusted resource for the production. Storer has described reaching out to Levitt when the show needed ingredients, meat or simply the knowledge of someone who understood exactly what they were trying to accomplish.
Other Chicago culinary figures who shared food, expertise, locations or knowledge with the production included Tim Flores and Genie Kwon of Kasama, Sarah Mispagel-Lustbader, and Anna and Dave Posey, among a much larger culinary network.
These weren’t necessarily celebrity cameos. They were resources.
When The Bear needed to know how Chicago’s restaurant world really worked, it called the people who actually worked in it.
A Chicago story built by Chicago people
There were plenty of famous chefs who eventually appeared on The Bear. Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Grant Achatz, René Redzepi, Christina Tosi and others became part of the series’ increasingly expansive culinary world.
But behind those recognizable faces was something quieter.
There were chefs teaching actors how to hold their bodies at a workstation. Someone sourcing the right cut of meat. Someone preparing a dish for another take. Restaurant professionals opening their kitchens to actors and crew members. Chicago chefs answering Courtney Storer’s phone calls when the production suddenly needed something.
And there was Courtney herself, drawing upon a lifetime in restaurants to help her brother tell his story.
Christopher Storer brought The Bear home to Chicago. Courtney Storer and an extraordinary culinary community helped make sure that when it got here, it felt like it belonged.
After five seasons, the kitchen has closed. But for the Chicago chefs and culinary professionals who worked behind the scenes, their handprint is on every plate.
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