Boulder chef used Michelin-star background to train Jeremy Allen White in “The Bear”
Brian Lockwood was a chef consultant on season three of “The Bear,” streaming now
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.”