What i will say about Markus is that he is actually an accurate portrayal of cooks who fall in love with cooking but haven’t worked at any high level places to see what it actually takes. I have people i look after who love cooking but struggle with the sheer athleticism and soldier like discipline of the day to day. It is extremely conflicting to deal with haha
Ha totally agree - have 100% worked with folks like him in my experience. I don’t even think it’s a bad thing to be more “creative” than “productive”, but in situations like this, you gotta change gears IMO. Being able to adapt is super helpful
@@justinkhanna Agree 100%. Being able to adapt in extremely high pressure and stressful environments really is key to success not just in the kitchen, but also in many facets of life
Yeah I was thinking this may have been his first experience with this level of kitchen chaos, this place was a mom and pop where yeah they had their regulars but the show makes it obvious that they were not doing the volume needed to keep the place afloat. Also they don't go into Markus's background much this could be playing toward pre-existing trauma where this level of intensity from someone who is an authority and was previously helping mentoring and giving him some praise for something he has started to show passion for just absolutely shut him down when feeling that flight or fight response. I'm not saying this was there but also it's hard to know where people are coming from and what will set them off.
@@GRIZY28 Have you ever cooked? like actually cooked. A full meal. cut veggies, clean em, trim fat off your meat, keep everything moving in the pan so it doesnt burn? that shit is genuinely tiring even for someone just doing home cooking lol. Now imagine doing it in a professional setting running back and forth 8-12 hours a day. I've gotta imagine your average commercial cook in a kitchen like this is probably walking upwards of 4 maybe 5 miles a day depending how busy they get / how large their kitchen is. Not to mention they are working around stove tops / grills that are likely going most of, if not all day long. hot as hell. things boiling, ovens going etc. Its hot af in kitchen man. I'm sure most places have fans and such around stations but still.
The scene where Richie's dysfunctions come in handy. He thrives off chaos and adversity. He doesn't have a station of his own due to a lack of expertise - so no major pressure on him directly. He just recognises that he needs to get involved and rushes into it headfirst. Similar with Tina actually. They gravitated towards the chaos, so when everything went ballistic they're getting stuck in.
@@MrDucktastic I worked in a restaurant in high school and college, and by the time I was the senior person (of the other high school hires), the people I enjoyed training and working with the most were the people who were able to just dive in when things got busy. Yes, it's overwhelming, but just find something to do and we'll get through it. Don't go and try to shirk away or hide somewhere and make me find you to assign you something.
@@Patman494 Yeah same. I actually started to really enjoy it when a rush happened at my old job (pizza place). Me and this one other guy just kind of read each other's minds where we would stop talking for like an hour straight and just go. I would always make the pizzas and he would always run the ovens. I wouldn't even have to say I needed an oven, as soon as I was done with a pizza I'd turn around and he was already cooking it. Same with tickets, before he handed them to me I was already rolling out the dough. It was fun, pretty stressful but fun.
Way I look at it: It's not an emergency room, or emergency heart surgery. Nobody is going to die if people have to wait a bit, and if all your equipment is occupied and the staff have their hands full, tell people they will have to wait a while when they order. If they don't wanna wait, there's several other places you can go to eat nearby, I'm not magically bumping your ticket up in front of sixty other people (we get phone orders, online orders, walk in takeaway, and have a 100 seat beer garden type patio - QLD aus, by the way). I can only out up so much at a time, food takes a set amount of time to cook. You had your heart set on fish and chips? Boo hoo, I got stuff to do.
If they are really nice, I'll try and get it out in the best quality I can, but sometimes, you gotta just straight up say: I can't do it in 5 minutes. Your kid's hungry? Maybe ya should have packed some snacks, instead of walking into a packed restaurant and expecting preferential treatment.
From Sydney's POV like... If you have ever worked in any environment like this and made the existential mistake. It can be anything but basically like you if you know you know. I dropped a 400 dollar cake once and the feeling of just "I made the worst possible mistake and it can't be corrected" is beyond relatable
@@thegreatachilless1007That’s the key difference LMAO. I understand _and sympathize_ with Sydney being flustered, annoyed, angry, all of the above. But you gotta own up to it. She basically started a grease fire and instead of staring into the flame, she walked out of the kitchen entirely as it burned.
except dropping a cake is so much more benign than straight up berating a coworker who is your senior in business and in life and then accidentally stabbing him afterwards 😭 i like Sidney but she was out of line this whole episode
Also her Risotto was good, but like Carmy told her… it wasn’t peak. He didn’t wanna give her the answer, he wanted her to push herself. She just got all upset… honestly as the show goes on. I start to dislike her more and more.
In a writing perspective I find it a great choice to give her this flaw. Her one flaw is 'impatience'. And in writing you have to ask: which does this character react to: fight, flight or freeze? Knowing Sydneys past with catering we know it's flight and that's what she does here.
I've seen it happen. Never been the one responsible, but you can bet I pitched in and did what I could to help with the Damage Control. I saw a wedding cake come back from the venue having fallen apart during transport, and 3 Cake artists rushing to piece together a replacement, while picked up all their end of day clean up.
I've seen the thousand yard stare at 12:46 plenty of times after grueling shifts, especially from our newer folks and on weekends. Like the "what did I just get myself into" mentality is real, but it starts to dissipate once you do it enough and understand the process. "Controlled chaos" is what I can best describe it as
Learned response to chaos is the best way I've come to describe it. In a kitchen, stuff goes sideways in the most random, impossible to control way constantly. Vets of the kitchen or any customer service are trained improve actors.
Carm went into full speed mode but the entire restaurant was not ready for it. Especially someone like Markus, he was clearly not used to working at a high pace. Sydney has done it before but she hates it as she mentioned.
It wasn't even Markus not being used to working at a high pace. It was Markus's complete obliviousness to the whole situation. He is, what, two meters away from the Expo? If that. That ticket machine does not stop til Carmen punches it. Besides the machine, he's had Syndey and Carmen both have screaming sessions in the window of a couple of minutes. Every other person, even Tina's son, is SO MUCH more aware of how bad this situation is, regardless of level of experience. Markus hasn't even engaged with it. That's a level of unprofessionalism at the single, utmost, basic level of any industry that it's laughable. I agree with Justin, this is such a weird moment for Markus's character, as til now the show has painted him as someone with a naive but earnest respect for Carmen and chefs of his calibre. And he's been beyond helpful to Sydney, understanding the situations before now, and reading the room. Here? He's beyond any sense of awareness beyond himself. A more realistic approach would've been Markus helping with the cakes, and something happening to his donut in the heat of the moment with Carmen - who in turn is already showing his frustration at Sydney over her risotto dish - and taking it out on Markus. That'd far more justify him walking out, as it'd show he was willing to switch gears, but his own passion work was amongst the first Carmen lashed out at in temper over.
@SteadFast411 I was super confused at that too. Marcus had been portrayed as someone who will go along with a prank (on Sydney for example) but as soon as Syd makes it clear she wasn't cool with it, he immediately tries to make up for it by offering her help, and even helping clean up the mess she makes after rejecting his offer. Him just all of a sudden being so absorbed in his donuts was just weird. They alluded to him sleeping at the restaurant, so I assumed it was because maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep because he was doing that. Just a weird moment
@@TheNerdySportsGuy i feel like its in character with just him being so obsessed with his donuts that they eclipse everything else that's going on. he's willing to sleep at the restaurant just to work on them and has been obsessing over perfecting them for weeks, its all that matters to him right now
My read on Marcus is that he was more excited on showing Carmen that he succeeded than making donuts. I felt like in a way, Carmen inspired him and he saw him as a mentor (probably is very first mentor). That’s probably why he shut down the chaos around him to just focus on making Carmen proud. By doing so, the opposite happened unfortunately. I have small experience in a kitchen more than a decade ago so I am not speaking from experience here 😅
I could see that. I also chalked it up to Marcus saying he had been sleeping in The Beef to "save time on his commute" or whatever, so I assumed he was just so deliriously tired he couldn't really care that absolute chaos was happening around him. I'm pretty sure we've all been that tired before lol
agreed i was pissed off when he was still working on his side project when the restaurant was high in stress and felt Carmen's frustration in that moment and feel him going off on Marcus was justified but ruined his donut that was overkill because that was Marcus's passion and he destroyed it that was a huge heart break for him i got him throwing in the towel after that.
When Carm picked up that donut off the ground and ate it anyways, omfg I’m not a chef or cook so idk if a chef like carm in that kind of mentality and instance would even care about that damn pastry, but after Markus, and Syd especially, walked out, I feel like Carm just couldn’t help but want to know how BADLY HE screwed up and hurt his Fellow chefs feelings. His reaction after he ate that donut is such amazing storytelling to me, especially considering he blasts the ticket machine after too. Like I said idk if they would do that irl in the moment but I thought that was pretty rea
Except that Marcus had made this mistake of neglecting his work before and blew a fuse in the Beef while trying to inappropriately play catch up, costing Carmy a fortune and a lot of stress to get it fixed and survive. And then he apologizes and Carmy doesn’t bust his balls at all and encourages him to be creative but not while he’s neglecting his actual work he gets paid for. And then Marcus basically spits in his Carmy’s face here and plays the victim and calls his a little bitch behind his back with Sydney who was even worse. Comes back, no apology even tho Carmy gave him one. Honestly I can’t dislike Marcus and Sydney any more than I already do
He was told multiple times on multiple occasions his job takes priority over his creations, but he completely stopped listening. 2 episodes before this he blew the electrical panel because he spent too much time playing with his recipes rather than doing his job then tried to rush everything knowing the system couldnt handle it. He knew what he was doing, he just didnt care.
Working in food service most of my life made this episode feel so real. I've walked out. I've seen plenty of people walk out. I've been the yeller. And i've been yelled at. This may not seem real for the fancy cooks but in the mid to low level its a semi regular busy day.
I love that moment where Carmy tastes Marcus' Donut and its really good, he realizes how severely he fucked up by treating this group of normal people with the physical and mental pressure of a toxic High End Restaurant Kitchen.
Yes. It’s a hilarious scene but also dramatic as one sees the realization. I felt so sorry for him. So glad he does some therapy and apologizes. He really does care deeply about the staff. He knows (most of) them deeply admire him at this point and he probably feels like he failed them. Not for the to-go mess, but how he turned into a rage monster. He almost, almost avoided going that way.
Jesus christ, the resteraunt goes to shyt and he does what he has to wit the group incapable of handling it, and hes the one who has to apologize? He'sthee one who got the retlsyeraunt. It's his ass on the line. The restaurant goes under everybody else goes and gets a new job, he has to sift through the ashes of his life in a pile of rubble. Oh, they all need a hug and blankie. Th3 real world sux ch8ldren, get used to to check your ticket and get out, quit fugging with the rest of us that understand life.
@@LadyScaperand yet Marcus and Sydney constantly disrespects him and plays the victim when he’s honest with them or in the rare case lashes out at them. I wish they had never came back without an apology to Carmy
i have literally been in an almost exact situation at my restaurant with a head chef going ballistic yelling at everyone as the line was an hour behind on food, fights breaking out between staff from stress and people just up and walking out cause this wasn't what they signed up for. this episode was sooooo good, cause it really captured that chaos when shit hits the fan and everyone has the change gears fast. and in this situation you can tell that Markus wasn't prepared and was off in his little world doing donuts when chef should've just went up to him and said "stop everything that you're doing and make cakes" to help him change gears but that doesn't always happen and Markus is too green to know that when shit goes down you HAVE to shift into overdrive FAST. You can kinda tell that Sydney isn't accustom to this level of chaos in the kitchen when everything goes to shit, where she wants to micromanage everything which is completely counter-productive when you need to start bulk firing food to make all those covers and Carmen was completely right in telling her to get the fuck out of the window and start making shit. I've seen it happen too many times to count.
It was funny how i liked Marcus and Sydney at the start and hated Tina. After that shit show, I can't stand marcus and his super aloof nature, Is there anything in his freaking head besides "Purfeck Dohnuuuts". Sydney and her freaking ego. Tina surprised me by really just taking Carmys advice and seeing her true potential.
Big disagree on the whole marcus was too green thing....First, Its human nature that when there's a rush to automatically switch over. Who in their right mind could be 5 feet away from that chaos and not realize its time to stop fucking around on side projects. Second, he worked at mcdonalds, they have rushes too and every employee is needed for the machine to run. No excuse for his choices here.
I worked triage at a psych hospital. Me and this one person started at the exact same time. One night, we had several clients present at once, all in some form of crisis. I handled myself pretty well while the other person about had a panic attack. At the end of the night I asked her if she'd ever worked fast food during a shift change, answer was definitely no. Never thought all my experience working fast food would equip me to work efficiently with clients while doing crisis intervention.
10:33 "shut down the ordering". Bingo! I have 16/17 year old FoH who know if they see a full wall of tickets to start chilling the line, announcing wait times, and not taking phone orders. Everyone outside of the industry underestimates how competent kids can be and overestimates the competence of owners who bought in.
Markus is a great example of what its like to work with culinary school students. The second they walked through the door we would all sigh because we knew what a nightmare it would be to see them struggle through the their realization that they actually had no idea what they had signed up for.
10:33 the reason this was happening was that no one turned off the pre-order option the night before, so all of those chits flying in were made before service started and are just snowballing out once they turned on the system.
Also another point I wanted to add is I don’t feel like Markus reaction was weird because I doubt they have had an OVERWHELMING moment like this in the kitchen or at least don’t have these moments often because they are a smaller kitchen. So for him to be shut down completely after finally being passionate about what he’s baking is understandable and fits the character.
Totally - he's got no context for how to switch gears. I think other folks got pissed at his reaction cause it's not how THEY would've reacted in the situation and it seems foreign to see someone else just be lax about the chaos.
I never even wondered if i should be upset with Marcus, it never happened. Syd nade me see too much red, knowing she is a main character but the worst one ive ever seen.
you won't really get it from watching clips, but the reason Markus is so fixated on the donuts is because he has very dire things going on in his personal life and his getting into donut baking was his main distraction/coping mechanism. So when carmie dismisses them after previously encouraging him it feels like a betrayal.
Except that Marcus had made this mistake of neglecting his work before and blew a fuse in the Beef while trying to inappropriately play catch up, costing Carmy a fortune and a lot of stress to get it fixed and survive. And then he apologizes and Carmy doesn’t bust his balls at all and encourages him to be creative but not while he’s neglecting his actual work he gets paid for. And then Marcus basically spits in his Carmy’s face here and plays the victim and calls his a little bitch behind his back with Sydney who was even worse. Comes back, no apology even tho Carmy gave him one. Honestly I can’t dislike Marcus and Sydney any more than I already do. He never learned from his mistake and made the man who was mentoring and caring for him pay the price while not taking any responsibility and growing as a person.
I think he watch full vid and season besides still what he did is wrong and unprofessional no matter what And he just ran away not taking any responsibility then never say sorry just like Sydney
I think Markus is really just in love with the art form of baking and doesn't particularly look up to chefs as much as he admires the baked goods themselves and because of this thought process, you can see how that could lead to him becoming obsessive over perfecting a single donut that it causes the rest of his work to suffer and when Carmy knocked the donut out of his hand it was the same as having his dream smacked out of his hand and he suddenly realised that he is back to feeling like no more than the Mc Donald's chef he once was working as a single mechanism of a machine that doesn't allow him the creativity that he desires. I think it's a tough lesson that Markus needed to learn too, that there's a time to let your creativity flow and there's a time for the mundane day-to-day
Kinda surprised Justin said Markus has never showed this behavior before when in the previous episode, we literally see how Markus so fixated on trying to do his own fermenting project that he is late on the restaurant thing which lead to the whole restaurant shutdown because of the machine…
marcus was in the wrong but it's more like he didn't realize what was going on. So it's a lot more forgivable because he was passionate. Sydney has no excuse she caused the whole scene and left because he said "get the fuck outta my station" rightfully so😂. You can just tell she lived a life of getting everything she wanted and dealt with no hardships other than the kitchen. You never seen Richie leave hes prob been threw hell and back ten fold.
The small things matter, but I could see his character have a much better time in life as a more private chef or in his own bakery. I'm sure we'd all rather see someone *not* lose passion for their industry, but it's also common for us to let that happen and talk about them behind their back afterwards.
@@bradleyrobillard6917No sense of urgency for them honestly makes sense though because you really can't rush and be urgent with baking, it's a delicate process and much more can go wrong compared to cooking.
I was glad to hear your thought on Markus and Sydney. Maybe I just don't completely understand the dynamic here but the way I saw it, Markus and Sydney were 99% in the wrong despite the ending suggesting they were the ones who deserved the apology. Richie's behavior was unacceptable the entire show and Carmy definitely crossed a line but I don't think it holds a candle to what Sydney did (and to a lesser degree Markus). Sydney pushed her own dish onto Carm and when he told her it wasn't ready, she gave it to a customer anyway. Not that big of a deal alone but still clearly insubordinate. She also pushed Carm into the to go service which he was already hesitant about. She then left the pre-order option on which created a massive problem which she left in the middle of. She basically set the business on fire (metaphorically) and walked out as they were trying to put it out. She also did this knowing it could destroy the business that Carm's dead brother left him knowing it meant everything to him. I was shocked to see the show paint her as the victim in this situation. I completely agree with what you said about Markus too. I couldn't believe he tried to show Carm his side project when he wasn't doing his actual job during an emergency. Ok, rant over lol
Lol this is such a good breakdown. When Carmy texted her apologizing I was like WTF but I guess his character at heart is like a pretty sweet guy so maybe he wanted to be the bigger person and bury the hatchet. I hate Sydney but she's a good character for the show because we all know people like her who are weird and insecure and every word out of their mouth is sarcastic (not in the fun way). I think the actress plays it really well. Markus is kind of like Balloo from Jungle Book where he's big and lovable but also you wouldn't let him watch your children, he's in his own world too much.
@@tcbell3694 bro shut ur racist ass up, everybody had their reasons for acting the way that they did and everybody was wrong that was the whole point but Carmy is the boss and handled it horribly so it was his responsibility to fix the situation and get the work environment under control, everybody was having a melt down and struggling
I was working in a Mexican restaurant/bar on Cinco de Mayo, so already we were screwed as far as workload, but add to that that it was literally my fourth or fifth week working in a professional kitchen, it’s really a night I’ll never forget. We were open from 11:00 to 10:00 and I don’t think there was an empty table for more than the two minutes it took to wipe down the whole time. It’s also worth mentioning that my manager at the time was more than a bit of a drunk, did not give a shit about customers (which on most days ranged from mildly entertaining to kind of comforting in a way) and basically only helped in the kitchen when we had two customers in the whole restaurant. Anyway, I got to the restaurant for the night shift and immediately I understood the gravity of the task I was about to undertake. We didn’t use tickets, but large POS screens at every station, and every one of them was chock full. People were shouting at each other, servers were basically sprinting for drinks, bartenders were sweating through their shirts. It was a nightmare. But I managed to find my zone. You know that scene in every baseball movie ever where the main character takes a deep breath and the roar of the crowd is silenced, then they crank one out into the parking lot? It’s as if I were that generic baseball player, dear reader. I never had even two seconds where I had to recall what what next, I knew it instinctually, it was incredible. Near the end of the night, we were as busy as ever, but a different line cook decided now would be a good time to order his comp meal. The rest of us had come to a sort of silent understanding that today just wasn’t the day you order food. He didn’t get the memo. But I put it out of my mind, had I been even a little bit in charge, I would have yelled at him, but I didn’t even have the time to register my frustration. At long last, we were closed, and I had just finished my cleaning everything was wrapped, labeled, and spotless. Then the cook from before asked me where his enchiladas where. I said that I made them and gave them to front of house to put them in the hot box. All of which was true. He said they weren’t in there. I told him that I didn’t know what to tell him, my responsibility over his food was over, them’s the brakes, kid. He was not satisfied and decided that he was going to get his enchiladas. So he unwrapped all of my stuff, messed up my clean counters, and set back almost all of my progress in cleaning to make himself some enchiladas, then didn’t clean up, and left before we were all through with the floors and such. I started to cuss him out, but nobody would back me up, I don’t really blame them, they were just as done as I was, but I was young, naive, and I believed, foolishly, in culinary justice. Anyway I went and cried in the walk-in for a few minutes, then finished cleaning. To cap it all off. The air conditioning was broken the whole time, the temperature didn’t dip below 95* in the kitchen the whole time I was there. Later in the summer, it got up to 115*. I have pictures to prove it, and that manager I mentioned earlier? He left early on one of the particularly hot days saying it was “too hot for him” then fired a line cook for doing the same thing, lost all respect I ever had for him that day. I handed in my two weeks not long after. Anyway, great content as always, Chef! Keep it up! I just subscribed!
Is it weird that this episode actually made me miss working in a high-volume kitchen? There'd be only two or three days a year that really pushed me as an expediter. Where I had to operate at my absolute max for 6 hours or more. I can look back at some of those days and *still* feel like what we did was impossible, but we did it. And it's those moments that make a kitchen feel like a family, because you're listening and attentive to every single person, but you all understand that you're in it together and *it will end*. I kinda want to be in the fire again.
It's definitely double-edged...the feeling of a job well done is pretty unmatched - it's HOW that job gets done that I think can be improved. In other words: can we get the same amount of satisfaction in the work without all of the fallout, personal attacks, and negativity?
I understand that. Recently transitioned to an office job and have been craving that feeling from getting a massive rush out of nowhere at 3 PM on a Monday when you’re the only person working the back and front of house. It’s the constant inflow of work and that stress always pushed me to be at the top of my game. I started playing video games just to get that feeling back haha
That’s exactly how it made me feel too lol I only worked in a dish pit normally but there were two nights over a 3 year period that we got slammed and short staffed and I got thrown into the chaos, it was so miserable and stressful in the moment but looking back there was some beauty in the chaos
Watching this show has triggered so many flashbacks of being the expediter at Uncle Lou's in Wildwood, NJ. Not nearly the level of cuisine, but the pressure of getting the plates out... sheesh.
@@Ethan_Stephens This sentence "It’s the constant inflow of work and that stress always pushed me to be at the top of my game. I started playing video games just to get that feeling back" resonates with me on so many levels.
12:35 Ive seen a lot of cooks' eyes out grow their current restaurant. I'm currently working with a new cook who wants to be a Michelin start cook and doesn't have pride in the food we serve because it's not at that same level. It's been a struggle to get him to understand that in order to operate at that level you need to have experience pushing volume with the basics and take pride in those basics
The saying “got to start somewhere” is so true. I remember fresh out of college I denied job offers because I thought I was better than the place. Well, I got a huge serving of humble pie for my life for 2 years and now I’m where I want to be but it took 5 years.
Reminds me of work in an emergency department. When shit hits the fan there has to be a system with a team leader, and team players knowing their roles. This is an epic demonstration of how things should not go down in a chaotic situation and thank god I am yet to witnessed it irl.
This episode is the most relatable and realistic depiction of a stressful kitchen shift ever put on TV lol. I encourage anyone who has ever taken food workers for granted to watch this show because there's so much more stress that comes with a cooking job than people think when they themselves have never worked in a kitchen.
Today we held a tradeshow in Chicago that had the camera team, the gaffer and key grip talking about their process and all. And before working in film I've worked in the restaurant industry for 12 years, but to learn just how intentional the tight spaces were built into the set and how the movements from the talent and camera were was incredible to learn. And I've got to say I grew an even greater appreciation for the crew who I already admired before the show even aired because I was very very VERY fortunate enough to have had work with a lot of them before.
Once the ticket machine started spewing out orders, I heard the sound of the crappy dot matrix printer we had in our kitchen, not the sound used in the television series. PSTD achieved.
One of my first cooking jobs was at a beer garden. Simple menu; burgers, hot dogs, fries, chicken wings and some shellfish. It was the day of a new draft beer being introduced to the public and the place was packed to the brim, around 150 people. There were two of us in the kitchen, and my partner decided to quit right before the event started, and once it started all hell broke loose. Tickets were on the floor, just like in the video. It was insane, the servers had to stop taking orders because it was way too much to keep track of by myself. This show took me back to that moment. It definitely didn't feel like it was in the show though, i kept calm and did my damnest to get everything out, but of course, it's impossible for a single person.
This episode reminds me of the reason I left the industry, but I really enjoyed it. Before COVID hit this kind of stress was a regular thing on our Friday/Saturday Nights, honestly I miss it a lot, I miss seeing customers out the door 10 minutes to close. We just handled the stress better. We came together as a team before COVID (to be clear, many people still left), afterwards it was much more like this episode. I still really liked this episode, brings back memories.
This is great! I'm no chef, but I've cooked, waited tables and managed multiple types of restaurants over the course of 20+ years. This entire show is pretty well done as far as the reality of food service.
I've been out of the kitchen for over a decade, but I still have a recurring nightmare of an event that happened to me that was very similar to this episode. Total chaos, people melting down, etc etc. The sound of a ticket machine still haunts me in my sleep. This was definitely the most realistic show in regards to kitchen life/work I've ever seen. Of course, some things were added for drama, but for the most part very solid.
This episode is so relatable it reminds me of the time I worked at a chaotic dining room as a server. The dining room had about 200 residents that would come in all at the same time with no host and no reservation and having theirs orders all taken around the same time with a small kitchen with only two line cooks and an expo that quite mid service and I had to take over with residents walking in the kitchen to yell at me. The room service phone wouldn’t stop ringing and the orders kept printing non stop. After working at that place I have the mentality to work anywhere honestly
@@maddymud Neither Markus nor Syd deserved an apology. It's literally the opposite. They should be apologizing to Carm if their characters had an ounce of self awareness, the writers dropped the ball hard on that one. He's the one giving them the chance to elevate both their games. Letting Markus experiment and develop his skills and letting Syd have any responsibility at all given her history is two a massive leaps of faith they straight up would not get from anyone else as skilled as Carm.
I remember being pretty confused in the aftermath of this episode, with the view being shifted to Carmine being the one in the wrong. Sydney had consistently been impatient, then when shit hit the fan couldn't knuckle down and follow the rank structure. Marcus was absolutely out to space - he deserved to get shit on for worrying about his doughnuts at that point in time. At the end of the series when Carmine apologizes, it just felt wrong. Is your staff just allowed to have tantrums and dictate the pace of the kitchen? Threw off the series a bit for me.
Yes, didn’t understand this either. Sure, Carmy probably shouldn’t have lashed out like that, but he didn’t actually cross any lines. At least in my opinion. Sydney on the other hand knows this was her idea and her mistake with the preorder in the first place, so at that point putting your head down and just doing the work is the way to go, and talk it out with the boss later. Not to mention bringing Richie’s child in the discussion is so incredibly not cool. If she was focused on her work she wouldn’t have stabbed Richie either. So where Carmy wasn’t in the right necessarily, Sydney crossed several lines and should’ve also apologized. Especially for walking out on the situation she helped create. Who knew Richie would be the real MVP tho? Like when shit hit the fan the dude took his orders like a champ, even with a stab wound. He really deserved an apology tho.
Carmy’s arrogance is what brings his downfall in this episode. He could’ve easily shut down the app, recalled the orders and cancelled them. But instead he tried to save his reputation and yes, the restaurant to a degree but really he wanted to show that he had brought this team to “his level”. Yes, Marcus is nonsensical in this episode for the exact same reasons you mentioned but Carmy lost that service as soon as he decided he was “the one”. His whole arch this season is about recognizing that he needs his people just as much as they need him and that he needs to listen to his family.
I actually watched this episode during morning prep for a all day shift. Got to the dinner rush on a Sunday and the printer broke. I genuinely felt like I was reliving the episode
I lived the cooking life for years, and to be honest, the pressure really got to me. I ended up leaving the food industry, and becoming a landscaper. I sometimes miss the rush of crushing a rush, and too be honest the drugs and booze. But I'm happier and healthier more than ever, i even got sober.
Marcus’ reaction makes more sense if you read him as being neurodivergent. He hyperfixates on things. The cakes and then the donuts. He stayed overnight and wasn’t showering because of how focused he was on getting the recipe right which points to executive disfunction. Marcus isn’t going to react in a way you expect because his brain isn’t coded the same way.
As someone that’s also neurodivergent but not a chef I have to say that if I’d been spending days perfecting the donuts only to get yelled him my face I would have reacted the same. When I get hyperfixated on something everything around me falls to the background. Marcus didn’t notice the chaos because of that imo.
I completely agree! I’m neurodivergent and Marcus’ behaviour leading up to this, and his reaction both felt like they made complete sense to me. The fact he even approached Carmen when he was so obviously overwhelmed showed that he wasn’t able to look beyond the doughnuts and see what was actually happening in the kitchen.
One of my busiest shifts was at the bar and grill I was the head chef of. In a small resort town down here in Australia. In the middle of the busiest school holidays the towns seen so every hotel, holiday home, caravan park and campsite fully booked plus more illegally camping. Three of the maybe 10 restaurants in town were closed that day to give staff a break, with us being one of the few casual places open that was affordable for families with kids (the majority of the towns bookings). We ended up doing almost double covers than the usual that night. Every seat had butts in it open to close. We had to tell the FOH to shut the doors to walk ins after awhile. And it wasnt even like we couldnt keep up, I had a dynamite team, I just didnt have any food left to serve people after a point. We prepped for it to be bad but I didnt even have the fridge space to maintain the par levels needed for a service like that. Not when we'd have multiple groups of 10-20 people walk in looking for tables. So it was bittersweet because we did everything right and rocked it, but still couldnt keep up. My only comment on the service here is that Carmy was wrong to fire all at once. Sydney had it right in that you need to try and organize the chaos. Its not reasonable to think any team could make 200+ sandwhiches in 8 minutes anyways so find a number that they can make and go from there. Still, maybe my favourite episode of anything from 2022. If you could liquify work anxiety and inject it id be this and thats what the show was going for. Bravo
Yeah good point. I think there are 2 things Carmy was doing - he was definitely organizing the chaos with creating that taped off section, but the "fire everything" moment might've been more to change the energy and pacing of the brigade more than anything else (and maybe Sydney could've been better at articulating her plan and showing pace vs organization). I don't think he actually thinks everything can get picked up all at once, it's just more to get folks to strap in and focus - totally agree with you though on the anxiety lol
I’ve worked with a couple of Marcus’s in my time. Folks who are so enamored with the high end stuff that they tunnel vision so hard on their creative projects that they forget their daily routines. It’s the sense that I’m good enough that I can probably bang out my usual stuff in a heartbeat. I would even argue that this was effectively foreshadowed by Marcus blowing the power grid trying to rush and catch up after falling behind. That and I’ve also seen a couple of dessert chefs flutter off into their own world, oblivious to the rest of the kitchen, even when the kitchen is in the weeds. Pâtissières are a special kind of folks. 😂😂😂
I just found your channel I'm a trained server with a cooking degree so I been in both sides for the past 11 years (I'm 28).I've never met a server who was also a cook like me. I gotta say my busiest day was when we were short staffed and the all electronic system went down,the typical, so we had to write it all down on paper talk to all the tables and we had to close the restraunt sooner because we couldn't keep up with the day Keep up the good work and a huge thumbs up from Portugal
Used to work in a country club in the restaurant portion in high school/college. They put my to work in the expo window after a year. Man is this bringing back some PTSD about those crazy nights where the ticket machine was ALWAYS printing out. You got sous chef yelling at you, servers yelling at you, and youre responsible for the pacing of everything going out of that window. Was a great experience i felt like i built up some work ethic that others my age didnt really have, but damn i wil NEVER do that shit again
Christmas day 9 years ago. Tickets down to the floor + two full rails. Just had to keep going. Picking up 3-6 tables at once depending on the size till it was all done. This stuff is so real. Glad they put it out there for people to see and I hope they understand a bit more why and how we do this day to day.
I've noticed the same - if your every day is like episode 7, you've got problems lol but other comments have echoed the holiday rushes that just stretch capacity and make for a really challenging service
Arriving late is not my standard, but I'm late to The Bear and newly obsessed, so these videos are new to me! I feel like I have a foot in both worlds as somebody super well-versed in professional cooking due to a TON of family being in that world and being fascinated by it and soaking up all I can, but still being in a different career field. To me, Marcus getting frustrated and walking out was someone reacting to the often abusive and unnecessary ways that chefs can treat their crews. Marcus reacts like a normal person to Carmy losing it on him, not like a trained chef. Carmy has been kind and supportive of every one of Marcus's endeavors thus far, and was even sympathetic to his earlier mistakes. Marcus SHOULD have popped into gear, but he didn't realize how much the kitchen at large was drowning, and Carmy roasted him and disrespected him. Not "I need you on cakes, Marcus, what are you doing" but "are you fucking with me" as if Marcus was deliberately trying to drag the service down. Carmy and Syd talk so much during the series about how much they want the environment to be "different" than the other places they've worked, and I think someone as talented but untrained as Marcus walking out--someone normal who doesn't expect that harsh treatment--was totally predictable. I think this show has a lot to say about how militant kitchen environments can be and whether or not they need to be that way for everyone to produce their best work, which is a really fascinating question to me!
Better late than never, Clare! Thanks for writing this, I hear you on all of it - I asked myself the question: if the environment was different, and it was a fishing boat or a fashion designing firm or a Broadway play...would it be reasonable to have someone "on-the-clock", but prioritizing a separate project over their core responsibilities? My mind says no, and, like most things, there's a middle-ground that's probably the best place to land, where Marcus steps up slightly, and Carmen cools his jets a bit. It's easy to point fingers and paint one person as the bad guy, but it's usually a mix of both. I think that's what made this scene so good and relatable!
being in the weeds is one thing, that over time and experience you can deal with. But I have been in a situation like this early in my career and this episode brought back ptsd I wasn't ready for. That moment of clarity when you realize there's nothing you can do. Great break down.
This was the last episode I've watched, it definitely brought up some bad memories. Reminded me of a time when chef threw a plate of quail at me (that was the entree) because I was too slow on appetizers one night. I know that didn't happen here but just seeing Chef fly off the handle like that is all it took.
The Marcus donuts thing is a great example of this show just throwing emotions out there and seeing what makes the final cut. They probably told the actor to do that, they captured it so well they put it in without thinking about the character’s narrative. This is the problem with the show, lots of cutesy caricatures, but no real depth or understanding of the subject matter, just portrayals for portrayals sake, which makes it trivial
Incredibly relatable. Expoing chaotic dinner services with a non stop printing printer, churning out orders all through the chaos, people yelling at each other. I don’t miss those moments tbh, they could be hell. But I’m glad I had those experiences
I was head of FOH and bartender with two hreen servers we were scheduled for a slow morning. It was the world cup. Walked into a line around the block. I think it was about 350 heads. So true, change strategy and just keep going. Never walk out.
I work in a small pub kitchen where there’s normally just two of us on shift. Shit properly hit the fan last week, with tickets still coming through after the kitchen was closed. I’m used to working in bigger chains so I’m pretty good at prioritising and ‘switching off’, but my coworker hasn’t experienced that before. Managed to calm him down and just explain that we push through, call out the tickets you’ve got on, and go until there are none left. It’ll be shit, you’ll be angry, but you’ll get through it and we can have a ‘team smoke break’ (sit and cry outside for a bit by the bins) after. This episode emulated that feeling to a t, where you just want to give up but you can’t
To me it seems like Markus is passionate about trying and perfecting new things… once he perfects the chocolate cake he loses interest in that and wants to move on to donuts even though he’s supposed to be making the chocolate cake. When he feels like he’s perfected the donuts and is happy with what he’s made, he goes to the person who previously encouraged and nurtured his interest but is met with the polar opposite reaction of what he was expecting and he realises that in that moment Carmen doesn’t want him to be creative and passionate, he wants him to be productive and efficient and that’s where the switch flips for him, the person who ignited this spark in him and introduced him to all these exciting things is the person who snuffed it out and told him he couldn’t have it. It’s in the next episode he realises that while Carmen encouraged his creativity, he needs him to be a team player, to focus on his responsibilities first and nurture his creativity in the space around his responsibilities
yeah, the only hangup I have about this episode was Marcus. Like the writers had to make an excuse to add more conflict and chaos into the scene by having written Marcus to be off in another world with his donuts when the kitchen was crashing and burning. Like did he not hear Carm chew out Sydney for trying to expedite in a different way (not to mention being sexually harassed and disrispected by Richie). That moment got me ticked off with Marcus that was not fixed until mid season 2.
My only "kitchen" experience was a fast-food place that would cater and have online orders. The website wouldn't let you order catering and would give you the phone number to give the place time so that we wouldn't have this exact thing happen, someone figured out that if you just made 25 consecutive orders for as much as the system would let you it would all go through. we were just winding down from lunch and cut from 14 staff down to 4 when 25 tickets just started printing enough to feed 200 people. That and Free Sandwich Days were fun times, but at least we knew about Free Sandwich Days weeks in advance.
Naw cuz as someone thats been in Markus’ shoes its soooo fucking easy to get trapped in ur own world when ur the pastry chef in the kitchen especially if your the only one because you have no one to reality check you at times like these. U really need to train urself how to switch gears when ur in ur own little bubble doing a task that requires so much concentration and precision. I agree that his reaction is definitely from lack of experience in this type of setting since im assuming its his first pastry chef gig with the added layer of the environment being a small mom and pops restaurant where he’s normally in a setting that allows him to experiment more and with more added time. I was thrown into my first completely solo pastry chef gig freshly 18 at a high level country club and I had sooooo many moments of me getting my ass beat for being a dumbass and not knowing any better so I really empathize with Markus being inexperienced and thrown into an obnoxiously stressful environment.
My first job was at McAlister’s Deli and those tickets come in fast! I loved being the lead because it was go time and my co-workers who wouldn’t get frustrated kicked ass. Loved it.
Kinda surprised you said how Markus never showed this behavior before. Remember in the fermenting episode, you pointed out the difference between Sydney and Markus when they are both working on their little project. You can see clearly how Markus is so fixated on his project that he is late on the restaurant meal, which lead to the whole machine act up and shutdown the restaurant. The same is here, Markus was so fixated on this donuts, he feel like he almost figured it out so he forgot what is happening around him. Which is basically his fault and the lack of experience working in this intense environment (clearly because the shop has never been this “popular”).
I can see that - I guess I've always experienced the reverse: being inexperienced and going into a high-caliber environment, not someone high-caliber (Carmy) coming into an inexperienced place. From the "how realistic is it" perspective, I'm used to seeing folks nerd out on things outside of work because of that reason...they don't want to have their cool ideas be executed at a restaurant level. Definitely an example of how there's often a disconnect between the two!
As a current server in a fine dining steak house and having started working in the line at 14 before making the switch, this episode just had me almost like laughing scared with how accurate it was.
2 days I worked that stick out in my mind. 1 the corporate team dropped a fundraiser on us for the families of some people who were shot in the community, it was monday night, we found out sunday, nobody was available for backup. It was a disaster where they left the relatively new KM (me) alone and I got chewed out by a line of people who had to come in and help us, each one thinking I should be doing something other than what the last one told me to do lol. 2nd was Mother's day 2020, we were like the only place open in town, the owner put a tent up outside and let people sit, he made a brunch menu that none of us had any idea how to execute until we had orders for it. Total disaster, its all togo, the people sitting down think they are getting their food in 15 minutes. I have 300 open orders, all large family style platters, quote times of 2 hours, servers and foh mgrs are pulling my orders apart to build ones for people who showed up 30 minutes early and are screaming at them about the wait. Fucking awful lol. The owner gave up at 3 and we were still cooking till almost 6pm lol By the end of covid we had it down with things being organized by name and time and all that. Was much better
@@justinkhanna yeah. He threw up his hands screamed about how we do this every day and he doesnt understand the issue and shut orders down. It was bad, got to the point where I couldnt even cook by check because they were just taking whatever they got yelled at for so we just fired a shitload of food and I sent out whatever I got screamed at about regardless of tickets lol
@@bradleyrobillard6917 lol I got to the point where I basically stopped putting orders together and just waited for them to yell at us. We just kept it full like a buffet lol
My old steakhouse used to be pretty quiet on Tuesdays, so we operate with a skeleton crew. We had a bachelorette party reserved (16 top), so we were mentally prepared for that. What we weren’t ready for was for the owner to show up with a 22-top unannounced. He then proceeded to invite folks in off the street to celebrate his grandson’s birthday. There were 3 of us in the back, 4 of us out front. It was the longest 6 hours of my life.
6 hours? You need to step up the pace. 40 people served is an hour tops. What kind of 7 course meal were you whipping for his grandsons birthday? I have 22 show up every other day unannounced. You must not have many fire departments or police stations nearby. 😂 they always surprise me
6 hours? You need to step up the pace. 40 people served is an hour tops. What kind of 7 course meal were you whipping for his grandsons birthday? I have 22 show up every other day unannounced. You must not have many fire departments or police stations nearby. 😂 they always surprise me
I remember when the UKs top food critic came to our restaurant last year. No one cared, but I just started and for me it was the first glimpse of restaurants I’ve seen only in movies. Then the article came out and I sat on my bench reading it like a kid on Christmas 5 minutes before service. Then we got our first Michelin star and it was one of the best feelings - it wasn’t even my star!
I worked in a smoothie shop and on "Dollar Smoothie Day" I will never forget the sight of turning around and seeing so many tickets shooting out of the printer that they were literally snaking down to the floor and gathering in a heaping pile. We stopped taking orders for a moment and picked up all the tickets and organized them and just started blasting them in the order they came and it was chaos. We got it handled eventually but I will never forget that image.
1. While I'm not a chef, I do understand Marcus's reaction to this situation. He's consumed by and solely focused on his art and wasn't really paying attention to what was going around him. This happens to me a lot. I get so focused on one specific gratifying task that I start to ignore the mundane, routine, necessary tasks. I think we saw this earlier when he lagged behind on his cake orders and, in his rush to catch up, he blew up the cake mixer. We also saw him shut down in that same episode because the cake mixer eventually shorted out the electricity. I feel like you're coming at this from a professional viewpoint and not a novice's viewpoint. Marcus wants to be a professional, but he's still a novice. 2. I'm a little disappointed you didn't show Sydney's evisceration of Richie -- literally and figuratively. (You also missed that Carm told Richie to switch from the fries to the giardiniara, which triggered the confrontation with Sydney.) Yes, Richie was a sexist, condescending asshole to her, but what she said to Richie was waaaay out of line. I think it's important to point out because it shows how Carm's stress and intensity was rolling down hill. That scene also showed that Richie didn't trigger the confrontation and was putting his head down to do the work asked of him while Sydney was the one messing up and falling apart. She didn't call corner. She wasn't working as a team. She ignored her job to pick a fight with Richie. And she wasn't taking care of where she was pointing her knife. I thought that was really important to the plot and important character development for both Sydney and Richie.
I noticed that too. Richie actually started helping her with her task after she treated him like absolute shit, which honestly requires a better person than I would have been and shows growth. But she didn't let him out of pride. You can't afford to do that in a crisis.
@@vicentegeonix Your viewpoint doesn’t matter, this is his character and in the show his character is extremely emotional, amateur and unprofessional. He’s not ready for high intensity and the way that was showed was executed perfectly.
One thing this ep and your commentary makes me think of, one of the proudest moments of my career... at a 5-star hotel as chef de cuisine, the exec chef gave me an application and said he wanted me to hire them. It was the nephew of the boat captain that the chef would go fishing on, so doing a personal favor. I had 2 openings, and 3 applicants including that guy. Two blew me away... not coming in with a great resume (none of them did), but with an attitude I thought meant they'd be great employees. The other, I just got red flags. And, of course, the problem child was the one my boss told me to hire. I went to him, handed him the applications and interview notes I took, and said, "I want to hire these two, they are what we need.... I don't want this guy in my kitchen." He said, OK, and let me hire who I wanted. He then passed the application on to the Garde Manger chef, who went ahead and hired him. So, we did orientation in groups, so we did a "Day One" with all the new hires, among all the departments, to do the final paperwork and teach them company culture. The hotel director always went first thing to meet the new hires... and by 8am, there was this rumor of "who the hell hired this guy" from the GM. About an hour later, I tracked down that is was the kid I refused to hire, that the GM read the same thing, and started asking about. Trust your gut, if you feel uneasy about someone, that's not going to go away. Whatever your biz is, if you're interviewing and have this feeling of "this one's a bit of a douche"... the douch-y-ness isn't going away, you can't "make it work".
I'm impressed. Both with Justin's play-by-play and the comments. All of you added something to my day. Never knew about The Bear or Justin Khanna until today. Probably a sin. Thank you for you making my day a better one.
Marcus and Sydney: two children who dont know how spoiled they are. One wants the prestige of being a showrunner without actually having the chops to stand on stage The other is a giant child that has no concept of the world that he claims he wants to be apart of. What makes their behavior unacceptable is the attitudes they both carried afterward. Syd and Marc both hangout and lick each other’s wounds and basically chalk up their shared experienced as a “We survived Carmen” instead of a, “We screwed over a guy who believed in us more than anyone else probably ever has” or a “We caused and/or contributed to a very avoidable situation through our incompetence or arrogance”
The hotel restaurant I work at always emails a list of all the recent reviews and I love reading them everytime, all the positive reviews on the food and stuff just hit different especially reading them at home
This episode resonated with me so heavily. I'm 41 years old and been in this business since the beginning and I remember as a manager at Pizza Hut the day we rolled out online ordering (with timed ordering ahead option). I opened that morning and I was there 3 hours past close because the chaos we could not have been prepared for. The whole flow changed, it went from orders coming in a manageable time frame because csr were taking orders over the phone to there being a full screen with 33 orders pending that we can't see yet. Since it is on a conveyor oven you have to grab those pizzas or they will start smashing into each other. I yelled out to a CSR "come over to cut table with me, all you will be doing is putting boxes down and putting stickers on what they are and putting them together" and I grabbed both clamps and was just grabbing pans, one in each hand 2 at a time, sliding them on to boxes and tossing empty pans in a pile. All of the dough prepped was used and every single pan was piled up to the ceiling. Working other places (a bbq joint for example) when we rolled out online ordering I knew what I needed to do and yet it was still chaotic because my team was used to going off a kvs screen and the online orders did not display there, they only printed tickets and not only did we not know it would be like that, it created chaos because as it was we would have a line wrapped around the building when we opened and then a ton of timed orders on tickets for different times as pick up but they print out when ordered. So you can have all the tickets right there but when already backed up on top of that you have to remember to interrupt those in store orders to make the online order at a specific time. Its not like one person can do in store one on the online orders because we only have one cook line. Ugh
As much as i understand the tension and the urge to just throw the towel and quit, this made me lose a ton of respect for three characters in particular, but most of all Sydney. She made a mistake the entire crew was willing to work on, just like she'd done one or two episodes prior for Tina, and admittedly got more flak for it than she gave others. She then makes mistakes herself, and not even understandable ones, she just ignores basic training that even amateurs like Richie have down by now, ending up in getting staff injured, which absolutely must not happen, holding a knife in a way where it can stab someone in the ass is a rookie mistake that feels way out of character for her. And her reaction is to have a meltdown and leave a guy she just stabbed and who canonically has no way to drive himself to the hospital as well as the guys cleaning up after her mistake to sink or swim on their own? Okay. I get that this conflict has been built up from the first minute of her entering the Beef, but that reaction didn't exactly endear her to me, and i assume others either.
Had some chaos like this just this past sunday during fathers day at one of the resturaunts i work at. From open to close tickets did not stop printing. It's only me and 2 other people cooking in this kitchen not including our sushi chef. I'm very new to this field of work and I'm very grateful i get to have an experience like this so early on in my career. The gear shift didnt feel as immediate as it did in this episode, it was very gradual, but nonetheless hectic. Not only were we runnin a full house we had loads of online orders being put in as well so while we cooked online orders, one table even walked out, but nonetheless we pushed through it and still somehow managed to have the place cleaned and clocked out before 10. Man i never felt so tired in my life, but what i love about this line of work is that i work my ass off all day long and when its over i feel satisfied and proud, and that sthe first time ive ever felt this way doing a job.
I've worked in a lot of fine dining but I grew up in dinners, family spots, etc like this. This episode holds true to the chaos of those environments completely. You have the sous that has never really been "yelled" at yet (or has and came to you to get away from that), the cook who is budding and not been quite put in stress yet, and a chaotic service that puts everyone over the edge. I think the point of the episode is that Carmen fucked up, and he knows it by the end. He shouldn't have flashed out. He should have been stern and given direction. I've been there a few times running a kitchen and at the end of the day I felt like shit. But I learned from it. So does he in the show.
I get what you said on the ordering thing, and I founded odd when I watched, but now I think it was printing all the orders he already saw on the monitor, but it prints slowly. I guess this is to drive us more crazy while watching it, bc we (that doesn't has any experience working on a kitchen) get the notion of how MANY orders actually is. Just a thought...
The chaos of the kitchen brigade is probably the only reason I have been able to handle the work I do now at an animal shelter. Of the team I started with 2/6 of us were kitchen vets the other was our team lead, and now that she is gone I am the team lead despite not being most senior. Only one other person still there from when I started 10 months ago.
Here is my one thing that did take me out, he called out his pars and they have no where near that amount of food. Why did t they just unplug the machine and call support?
As someone who dropped out of culinary school, I 100% imagine this is what it would have been like to work in the industry. I tried bits and pieces, and despite my deluded ideals of grandeur, I just ended up chopping a shit-ton of parsley and prepping ravioli until I never wanted to look at it again, when I actually got to experience the industry. I now work in the very different- but also stressing environment of sales, and I've got to say there are days where I do miss it.
I do think Marcus is nerodivergent. It was clear he didn’t have a clue on what was going on when he brought Carmin that donut lol. He was too excited about showing Carmen his success.
Yeah, read the room Markus. Now is not the time to tell the boss you figured out your doughnuts. And Sydney, when the s*** is hitting the fan and the boss tells you to stand down, don't make him say it three times until he has to swear at you. Learn to listen, don't just storm off like a child.
Worked in a pizzeria and can confirm its crazy. When we were loaded with tickets owner would say either let the phone ring and dont answer and if we do answer tell then its gonna be an hour wait with how busy it was. And turn off online ordering until in house tickets were done and finished.
My take away from Carmy not just shutting down the pre order system was that this is essentially the same situation as his fryer fire incident he talked about before. He has the choice between letting everything burn down around him (getting swamped with an impossible amount of orders) so that his anxiety's go with it instead of fixing the situation rationally. Obviously this is in a more metaphorical sense as that fryer fire situation literally happens in the following episode.
This whole season and even the next we become more and more aware of just *how severe* that deep-rooted desire to succeed affects Carm, I really love moments like it because he’ll do what may seem irrational, but it’s always the Carmy thing to do
9:10 The youtuber CGPGrey had a great line about this sorta thing in his pirate video "The Captain position can be challenged any time the crew feels it necessary - with one exception. BATTLE, is no time for diplomacy"
The whole episode feels like we're supposed to see Carmine being in the wrong. Except Marcus that was just not the time to be working on new donuts when everyone was in panic mode.
No, that’s not what this episode does. This episode is meant to exacerbate the intensity of a high stress environment. Nowhere in the show is Marcus or Sydney given the “woe is me” treatment. They don’t get sad music, they don’t get long monologues about their person, they don’t get standalone scenes. The scene showed how they, in their own seperate ways, are not capable of handling the environment they’re in.
To an extent he is - he acted the way most head chefs would in that situation. But The Bear is to a decent extent also about how soulcrushing and abusive that environment often is. By normal standards, Carmy was in the right. But he was trying to set himself to a higher standard than that.
@@obscurit_y4536 they got apologies when they were both in the wrong. sydney fucked up the orders and marcus wasnt doing his job and they both left and got off the hook as if it was all Carmens fault
my husband and i are talkers when we watch movies and shows at home; normally we have a lot to say and will sometimes have to rewind things once we finish some tangential discussion that started bc of something the show made us think of, so our tv watching is usually pretty interactive lol. this episode though? we were dead silent the whole time. when the episode finished and the credits rolled, we just looked at each other and saw each other’s faces with eyes wide and mouths agape and just said “holy SHIT” lmao. such a good episode and it does an amazing job of portraying the absolute mayhem of a bad day in the kitchen.
Dude yelling at the girl to get off his expo line. Brings me back to my Red Robin days. Nothing glamorous or anything special but we were around the corner from NC state and it for sure got very busy every weekend 😅 yelling and screaming is fairly normal
I'll never understand why they didn't just cancel the orders they couldn't fulfill. The restaurants I order from do that all the time when they can't keep up. It's no big deal. Had Carmen kept his head cool and just done that, things would have been absolutely fine.
What i will say about Markus is that he is actually an accurate portrayal of cooks who fall in love with cooking but haven’t worked at any high level places to see what it actually takes. I have people i look after who love cooking but struggle with the sheer athleticism and soldier like discipline of the day to day. It is extremely conflicting to deal with haha
Ha totally agree - have 100% worked with folks like him in my experience. I don’t even think it’s a bad thing to be more “creative” than “productive”, but in situations like this, you gotta change gears IMO. Being able to adapt is super helpful
@@justinkhanna Agree 100%. Being able to adapt in extremely high pressure and stressful environments really is key to success not just in the kitchen, but also in many facets of life
Yeah I was thinking this may have been his first experience with this level of kitchen chaos, this place was a mom and pop where yeah they had their regulars but the show makes it obvious that they were not doing the volume needed to keep the place afloat. Also they don't go into Markus's background much this could be playing toward pre-existing trauma where this level of intensity from someone who is an authority and was previously helping mentoring and giving him some praise for something he has started to show passion for just absolutely shut him down when feeling that flight or fight response. I'm not saying this was there but also it's hard to know where people are coming from and what will set them off.
Athleticism?! Ok lol
@@GRIZY28 Have you ever cooked? like actually cooked. A full meal. cut veggies, clean em, trim fat off your meat, keep everything moving in the pan so it doesnt burn? that shit is genuinely tiring even for someone just doing home cooking lol. Now imagine doing it in a professional setting running back and forth 8-12 hours a day. I've gotta imagine your average commercial cook in a kitchen like this is probably walking upwards of 4 maybe 5 miles a day depending how busy they get / how large their kitchen is. Not to mention they are working around stove tops / grills that are likely going most of, if not all day long. hot as hell. things boiling, ovens going etc. Its hot af in kitchen man. I'm sure most places have fans and such around stations but still.
Richie being the most sane person during the rush is very accurate even though he’s a hot head
The scene where Richie's dysfunctions come in handy. He thrives off chaos and adversity. He doesn't have a station of his own due to a lack of expertise - so no major pressure on him directly. He just recognises that he needs to get involved and rushes into it headfirst.
Similar with Tina actually. They gravitated towards the chaos, so when everything went ballistic they're getting stuck in.
@@MrDucktastic I worked in a restaurant in high school and college, and by the time I was the senior person (of the other high school hires), the people I enjoyed training and working with the most were the people who were able to just dive in when things got busy. Yes, it's overwhelming, but just find something to do and we'll get through it. Don't go and try to shirk away or hide somewhere and make me find you to assign you something.
If Sonny Corleone worked in a kitchen.
@@Patman494 Yeah same. I actually started to really enjoy it when a rush happened at my old job (pizza place). Me and this one other guy just kind of read each other's minds where we would stop talking for like an hour straight and just go. I would always make the pizzas and he would always run the ovens. I wouldn't even have to say I needed an oven, as soon as I was done with a pizza I'd turn around and he was already cooking it. Same with tickets, before he handed them to me I was already rolling out the dough. It was fun, pretty stressful but fun.
Chaotic brains and personalities thrive in chaos lol. It makes sense
Everyone in the kitchen: 😠🖕🏼😒🤬🤼♀️⚔️🔪
Marcus: 🥰🍩
Truuuuue
😂😂😂
Episode 7 condensed a decade’s worth of relatable moments into a wild ride to watch.
💯
perfect summary
There’s NOTHING like the panic you feel when you get an over flow of tickets
Gotta bail yourself out 💪
Literally all you can do is like turn all emotions off and accept that someone’s gonna have to wait a bit. It sucks
Ugh the panic when the overflow omg the stress that come under me too
Way I look at it:
It's not an emergency room, or emergency heart surgery.
Nobody is going to die if people have to wait a bit, and if all your equipment is occupied and the staff have their hands full, tell people they will have to wait a while when they order.
If they don't wanna wait, there's several other places you can go to eat nearby, I'm not magically bumping your ticket up in front of sixty other people (we get phone orders, online orders, walk in takeaway, and have a 100 seat beer garden type patio - QLD aus, by the way).
I can only out up so much at a time, food takes a set amount of time to cook.
You had your heart set on fish and chips? Boo hoo, I got stuff to do.
If they are really nice, I'll try and get it out in the best quality I can, but sometimes, you gotta just straight up say:
I can't do it in 5 minutes.
Your kid's hungry? Maybe ya should have packed some snacks, instead of walking into a packed restaurant and expecting preferential treatment.
From Sydney's POV like... If you have ever worked in any environment like this and made the existential mistake. It can be anything but basically like you if you know you know. I dropped a 400 dollar cake once and the feeling of just "I made the worst possible mistake and it can't be corrected" is beyond relatable
@@thegreatachilless1007That’s the key difference LMAO. I understand _and sympathize_ with Sydney being flustered, annoyed, angry, all of the above. But you gotta own up to it. She basically started a grease fire and instead of staring into the flame, she walked out of the kitchen entirely as it burned.
except dropping a cake is so much more benign than straight up berating a coworker who is your senior in business and in life and then accidentally stabbing him afterwards 😭 i like Sidney but she was out of line this whole episode
Also her Risotto was good, but like Carmy told her… it wasn’t peak. He didn’t wanna give her the answer, he wanted her to push herself. She just got all upset… honestly as the show goes on. I start to dislike her more and more.
In a writing perspective I find it a great choice to give her this flaw. Her one flaw is 'impatience'. And in writing you have to ask: which does this character react to: fight, flight or freeze? Knowing Sydneys past with catering we know it's flight and that's what she does here.
I've seen it happen. Never been the one responsible, but you can bet I pitched in and did what I could to help with the Damage Control. I saw a wedding cake come back from the venue having fallen apart during transport, and 3 Cake artists rushing to piece together a replacement, while picked up all their end of day clean up.
I've seen the thousand yard stare at 12:46 plenty of times after grueling shifts, especially from our newer folks and on weekends. Like the "what did I just get myself into" mentality is real, but it starts to dissipate once you do it enough and understand the process. "Controlled chaos" is what I can best describe it as
Learned response to chaos is the best way I've come to describe it. In a kitchen, stuff goes sideways in the most random, impossible to control way constantly. Vets of the kitchen or any customer service are trained improve actors.
THIS IS A DELICATE ECO SYSTEM!!!
I've both seen it, and experienced that 1000 yard stare...
Dont really agree it had anything to do with "sexual harassment" though like the video said.
@@anon4854 Richie saying Sydney did sexual favors can definitely be interpreted as sexual harassment in court, maybe that's what he meant
Carm went into full speed mode but the entire restaurant was not ready for it. Especially someone like Markus, he was clearly not used to working at a high pace. Sydney has done it before but she hates it as she mentioned.
It wasn't even Markus not being used to working at a high pace. It was Markus's complete obliviousness to the whole situation. He is, what, two meters away from the Expo? If that. That ticket machine does not stop til Carmen punches it. Besides the machine, he's had Syndey and Carmen both have screaming sessions in the window of a couple of minutes.
Every other person, even Tina's son, is SO MUCH more aware of how bad this situation is, regardless of level of experience. Markus hasn't even engaged with it. That's a level of unprofessionalism at the single, utmost, basic level of any industry that it's laughable. I agree with Justin, this is such a weird moment for Markus's character, as til now the show has painted him as someone with a naive but earnest respect for Carmen and chefs of his calibre. And he's been beyond helpful to Sydney, understanding the situations before now, and reading the room.
Here? He's beyond any sense of awareness beyond himself. A more realistic approach would've been Markus helping with the cakes, and something happening to his donut in the heat of the moment with Carmen - who in turn is already showing his frustration at Sydney over her risotto dish - and taking it out on Markus. That'd far more justify him walking out, as it'd show he was willing to switch gears, but his own passion work was amongst the first Carmen lashed out at in temper over.
@SteadFast411 I was super confused at that too. Marcus had been portrayed as someone who will go along with a prank (on Sydney for example) but as soon as Syd makes it clear she wasn't cool with it, he immediately tries to make up for it by offering her help, and even helping clean up the mess she makes after rejecting his offer.
Him just all of a sudden being so absorbed in his donuts was just weird. They alluded to him sleeping at the restaurant, so I assumed it was because maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep because he was doing that. Just a weird moment
@@TheNerdySportsGuy i feel like its in character with just him being so obsessed with his donuts that they eclipse everything else that's going on. he's willing to sleep at the restaurant just to work on them and has been obsessing over perfecting them for weeks, its all that matters to him right now
My read on Marcus is that he was more excited on showing Carmen that he succeeded than making donuts. I felt like in a way, Carmen inspired him and he saw him as a mentor (probably is very first mentor). That’s probably why he shut down the chaos around him to just focus on making Carmen proud. By doing so, the opposite happened unfortunately.
I have small experience in a kitchen more than a decade ago so I am not speaking from experience here 😅
I could see that. I also chalked it up to Marcus saying he had been sleeping in The Beef to "save time on his commute" or whatever, so I assumed he was just so deliriously tired he couldn't really care that absolute chaos was happening around him.
I'm pretty sure we've all been that tired before lol
agreed i was pissed off when he was still working on his side project when the restaurant was high in stress and felt Carmen's frustration in that moment and feel him going off on Marcus was justified but ruined his donut that was overkill because that was Marcus's passion and he destroyed it that was a huge heart break for him i got him throwing in the towel after that.
When Carm picked up that donut off the ground and ate it anyways, omfg I’m not a chef or cook so idk if a chef like carm in that kind of mentality and instance would even care about that damn pastry, but after Markus, and Syd especially, walked out, I feel like Carm just couldn’t help but want to know how BADLY HE screwed up and hurt his Fellow chefs feelings. His reaction after he ate that donut is such amazing storytelling to me, especially considering he blasts the ticket machine after too. Like I said idk if they would do that irl in the moment but I thought that was pretty rea
Except that Marcus had made this mistake of neglecting his work before and blew a fuse in the Beef while trying to inappropriately play catch up, costing Carmy a fortune and a lot of stress to get it fixed and survive. And then he apologizes and Carmy doesn’t bust his balls at all and encourages him to be creative but not while he’s neglecting his actual work he gets paid for. And then Marcus basically spits in his Carmy’s face here and plays the victim and calls his a little bitch behind his back with Sydney who was even worse. Comes back, no apology even tho Carmy gave him one. Honestly I can’t dislike Marcus and Sydney any more than I already do
He was told multiple times on multiple occasions his job takes priority over his creations, but he completely stopped listening. 2 episodes before this he blew the electrical panel because he spent too much time playing with his recipes rather than doing his job then tried to rush everything knowing the system couldnt handle it. He knew what he was doing, he just didnt care.
Working in food service most of my life made this episode feel so real. I've walked out. I've seen plenty of people walk out. I've been the yeller. And i've been yelled at. This may not seem real for the fancy cooks but in the mid to low level its a semi regular busy day.
what? There’s the same if not MORE screaming in fancy restaurants, have you SEEN high class expos?
I love that moment where Carmy tastes Marcus' Donut and its really good, he realizes how severely he fucked up by treating this group of normal people with the physical and mental pressure of a toxic High End Restaurant Kitchen.
Yes. It’s a hilarious scene but also dramatic as one sees the realization. I felt so sorry for him. So glad he does some therapy and apologizes. He really does care deeply about the staff. He knows (most of) them deeply admire him at this point and he probably feels like he failed them. Not for the to-go mess, but how he turned into a rage monster. He almost, almost avoided going that way.
Jesus christ, the resteraunt goes to shyt and he does what he has to wit the group incapable of handling it, and hes the one who has to apologize? He'sthee one who got the retlsyeraunt. It's his ass on the line. The restaurant goes under everybody else goes and gets a new job, he has to sift through the ashes of his life in a pile of rubble.
Oh, they all need a hug and blankie.
Th3 real world sux ch8ldren, get used to to check your ticket and get out, quit fugging with the rest of us that understand life.
@@LadyScaperand yet Marcus and Sydney constantly disrespects him and plays the victim when he’s honest with them or in the rare case lashes out at them. I wish they had never came back without an apology to Carmy
i have literally been in an almost exact situation at my restaurant with a head chef going ballistic yelling at everyone as the line was an hour behind on food, fights breaking out between staff from stress and people just up and walking out cause this wasn't what they signed up for. this episode was sooooo good, cause it really captured that chaos when shit hits the fan and everyone has the change gears fast. and in this situation you can tell that Markus wasn't prepared and was off in his little world doing donuts when chef should've just went up to him and said "stop everything that you're doing and make cakes" to help him change gears but that doesn't always happen and Markus is too green to know that when shit goes down you HAVE to shift into overdrive FAST. You can kinda tell that Sydney isn't accustom to this level of chaos in the kitchen when everything goes to shit, where she wants to micromanage everything which is completely counter-productive when you need to start bulk firing food to make all those covers and Carmen was completely right in telling her to get the fuck out of the window and start making shit. I've seen it happen too many times to count.
The accuracy of the dynamic is totally true 🙌
@@justinkhanna oh it really really is
It was funny how i liked Marcus and Sydney at the start and hated Tina. After that shit show, I can't stand marcus and his super aloof nature, Is there anything in his freaking head besides "Purfeck Dohnuuuts". Sydney and her freaking ego. Tina surprised me by really just taking Carmys advice and seeing her true potential.
@@riffraff48 I felt the exact same way.
Big disagree on the whole marcus was too green thing....First, Its human nature that when there's a rush to automatically switch over. Who in their right mind could be 5 feet away from that chaos and not realize its time to stop fucking around on side projects.
Second, he worked at mcdonalds, they have rushes too and every employee is needed for the machine to run.
No excuse for his choices here.
This episode is a masterpiece. It was like a 20 minute kitchen version of uncut gems
Uncut Cakes
I worked triage at a psych hospital. Me and this one person started at the exact same time. One night, we had several clients present at once, all in some form of crisis. I handled myself pretty well while the other person about had a panic attack. At the end of the night I asked her if she'd ever worked fast food during a shift change, answer was definitely no. Never thought all my experience working fast food would equip me to work efficiently with clients while doing crisis intervention.
10:33 "shut down the ordering". Bingo! I have 16/17 year old FoH who know if they see a full wall of tickets to start chilling the line, announcing wait times, and not taking phone orders. Everyone outside of the industry underestimates how competent kids can be and overestimates the competence of owners who bought in.
100% - don't add to the chaos if there's another option available
Markus is a great example of what its like to work with culinary school students. The second they walked through the door we would all sigh because we knew what a nightmare it would be to see them struggle through the their realization that they actually had no idea what they had signed up for.
Yeah the expectations vs reality can be real sometimes
10:33 the reason this was happening was that no one turned off the pre-order option the night before, so all of those chits flying in were made before service started and are just snowballing out once they turned on the system.
Also another point I wanted to add is I don’t feel like Markus reaction was weird because I doubt they have had an OVERWHELMING moment like this in the kitchen or at least don’t have these moments often because they are a smaller kitchen. So for him to be shut down completely after finally being passionate about what he’s baking is understandable and fits the character.
Totally - he's got no context for how to switch gears. I think other folks got pissed at his reaction cause it's not how THEY would've reacted in the situation and it seems foreign to see someone else just be lax about the chaos.
I never even wondered if i should be upset with Marcus, it never happened. Syd nade me see too much red, knowing she is a main character but the worst one ive ever seen.
you won't really get it from watching clips, but the reason Markus is so fixated on the donuts is because he has very dire things going on in his personal life and his getting into donut baking was his main distraction/coping mechanism. So when carmie dismisses them after previously encouraging him it feels like a betrayal.
Except that Marcus had made this mistake of neglecting his work before and blew a fuse in the Beef while trying to inappropriately play catch up, costing Carmy a fortune and a lot of stress to get it fixed and survive. And then he apologizes and Carmy doesn’t bust his balls at all and encourages him to be creative but not while he’s neglecting his actual work he gets paid for. And then Marcus basically spits in his Carmy’s face here and plays the victim and calls his a little bitch behind his back with Sydney who was even worse. Comes back, no apology even tho Carmy gave him one. Honestly I can’t dislike Marcus and Sydney any more than I already do. He never learned from his mistake and made the man who was mentoring and caring for him pay the price while not taking any responsibility and growing as a person.
idk what show you were watchin but that's not what happened lol.@@christopheraparicio7671
I think he watch full vid and season besides still what he did is wrong and unprofessional no matter what
And he just ran away not taking any responsibility then never say sorry just like Sydney
I think Markus is really just in love with the art form of baking and doesn't particularly look up to chefs as much as he admires the baked goods themselves and because of this thought process, you can see how that could lead to him becoming obsessive over perfecting a single donut that it causes the rest of his work to suffer and when Carmy knocked the donut out of his hand it was the same as having his dream smacked out of his hand and he suddenly realised that he is back to feeling like no more than the Mc Donald's chef he once was working as a single mechanism of a machine that doesn't allow him the creativity that he desires. I think it's a tough lesson that Markus needed to learn too, that there's a time to let your creativity flow and there's a time for the mundane day-to-day
Bakers are a different breed, no sense of ergency
Kinda surprised Justin said Markus has never showed this behavior before when in the previous episode, we literally see how Markus so fixated on trying to do his own fermenting project that he is late on the restaurant thing which lead to the whole restaurant shutdown because of the machine…
marcus was in the wrong but it's more like he didn't realize what was going on. So it's a lot more forgivable because he was passionate. Sydney has no excuse she caused the whole scene and left because he said "get the fuck outta my station" rightfully so😂. You can just tell she lived a life of getting everything she wanted and dealt with no hardships other than the kitchen. You never seen Richie leave hes prob been threw hell and back ten fold.
The small things matter, but I could see his character have a much better time in life as a more private chef or in his own bakery. I'm sure we'd all rather see someone *not* lose passion for their industry, but it's also common for us to let that happen and talk about them behind their back afterwards.
@@bradleyrobillard6917No sense of urgency for them honestly makes sense though because you really can't rush and be urgent with baking, it's a delicate process and much more can go wrong compared to cooking.
I was glad to hear your thought on Markus and Sydney. Maybe I just don't completely understand the dynamic here but the way I saw it, Markus and Sydney were 99% in the wrong despite the ending suggesting they were the ones who deserved the apology. Richie's behavior was unacceptable the entire show and Carmy definitely crossed a line but I don't think it holds a candle to what Sydney did (and to a lesser degree Markus). Sydney pushed her own dish onto Carm and when he told her it wasn't ready, she gave it to a customer anyway. Not that big of a deal alone but still clearly insubordinate. She also pushed Carm into the to go service which he was already hesitant about. She then left the pre-order option on which created a massive problem which she left in the middle of. She basically set the business on fire (metaphorically) and walked out as they were trying to put it out. She also did this knowing it could destroy the business that Carm's dead brother left him knowing it meant everything to him. I was shocked to see the show paint her as the victim in this situation. I completely agree with what you said about Markus too. I couldn't believe he tried to show Carm his side project when he wasn't doing his actual job during an emergency. Ok, rant over lol
Lol this is such a good breakdown. When Carmy texted her apologizing I was like WTF but I guess his character at heart is like a pretty sweet guy so maybe he wanted to be the bigger person and bury the hatchet.
I hate Sydney but she's a good character for the show because we all know people like her who are weird and insecure and every word out of their mouth is sarcastic (not in the fun way). I think the actress plays it really well.
Markus is kind of like Balloo from Jungle Book where he's big and lovable but also you wouldn't let him watch your children, he's in his own world too much.
Come on! We all know why they were painted as 'victims' and y they got the apology -in Sprite of not being owed sh $t. We just cant say it out loud!
@@tcbell3694 bro shut ur racist ass up, everybody had their reasons for acting the way that they did and everybody was wrong that was the whole point but Carmy is the boss and handled it horribly so it was his responsibility to fix the situation and get the work environment under control, everybody was having a melt down and struggling
@@tcbell3694say it out loud 🤨
@@tcbell3694 wym say it
I was working in a Mexican restaurant/bar on Cinco de Mayo, so already we were screwed as far as workload, but add to that that it was literally my fourth or fifth week working in a professional kitchen, it’s really a night I’ll never forget. We were open from 11:00 to 10:00 and I don’t think there was an empty table for more than the two minutes it took to wipe down the whole time. It’s also worth mentioning that my manager at the time was more than a bit of a drunk, did not give a shit about customers (which on most days ranged from mildly entertaining to kind of comforting in a way) and basically only helped in the kitchen when we had two customers in the whole restaurant. Anyway, I got to the restaurant for the night shift and immediately I understood the gravity of the task I was about to undertake. We didn’t use tickets, but large POS screens at every station, and every one of them was chock full. People were shouting at each other, servers were basically sprinting for drinks, bartenders were sweating through their shirts. It was a nightmare. But I managed to find my zone. You know that scene in every baseball movie ever where the main character takes a deep breath and the roar of the crowd is silenced, then they crank one out into the parking lot? It’s as if I were that generic baseball player, dear reader. I never had even two seconds where I had to recall what what next, I knew it instinctually, it was incredible. Near the end of the night, we were as busy as ever, but a different line cook decided now would be a good time to order his comp meal. The rest of us had come to a sort of silent understanding that today just wasn’t the day you order food. He didn’t get the memo. But I put it out of my mind, had I been even a little bit in charge, I would have yelled at him, but I didn’t even have the time to register my frustration. At long last, we were closed, and I had just finished my cleaning everything was wrapped, labeled, and spotless. Then the cook from before asked me where his enchiladas where. I said that I made them and gave them to front of house to put them in the hot box. All of which was true. He said they weren’t in there. I told him that I didn’t know what to tell him, my responsibility over his food was over, them’s the brakes, kid. He was not satisfied and decided that he was going to get his enchiladas. So he unwrapped all of my stuff, messed up my clean counters, and set back almost all of my progress in cleaning to make himself some enchiladas, then didn’t clean up, and left before we were all through with the floors and such. I started to cuss him out, but nobody would back me up, I don’t really blame them, they were just as done as I was, but I was young, naive, and I believed, foolishly, in culinary justice. Anyway I went and cried in the walk-in for a few minutes, then finished cleaning. To cap it all off. The air conditioning was broken the whole time, the temperature didn’t dip below 95* in the kitchen the whole time I was there. Later in the summer, it got up to 115*. I have pictures to prove it, and that manager I mentioned earlier? He left early on one of the particularly hot days saying it was “too hot for him” then fired a line cook for doing the same thing, lost all respect I ever had for him that day. I handed in my two weeks not long after.
Anyway, great content as always, Chef! Keep it up! I just subscribed!
Thanks for the sub, Nathan! This is such a wild story - 115 degrees is no joke 🥵 you gotta make this story into a blog post or something!
Reading this gave me flashbacks to crying in the walk in on New Year’s Eve. Line cook solidarity, we feed the world and get fed shit as thanks
Take it to a publisher
The therapy monologue will always make this a killer show
Is it weird that this episode actually made me miss working in a high-volume kitchen? There'd be only two or three days a year that really pushed me as an expediter. Where I had to operate at my absolute max for 6 hours or more. I can look back at some of those days and *still* feel like what we did was impossible, but we did it. And it's those moments that make a kitchen feel like a family, because you're listening and attentive to every single person, but you all understand that you're in it together and *it will end*.
I kinda want to be in the fire again.
It's definitely double-edged...the feeling of a job well done is pretty unmatched - it's HOW that job gets done that I think can be improved. In other words: can we get the same amount of satisfaction in the work without all of the fallout, personal attacks, and negativity?
I understand that. Recently transitioned to an office job and have been craving that feeling from getting a massive rush out of nowhere at 3 PM on a Monday when you’re the only person working the back and front of house. It’s the constant inflow of work and that stress always pushed me to be at the top of my game. I started playing video games just to get that feeling back haha
That’s exactly how it made me feel too lol I only worked in a dish pit normally but there were two nights over a 3 year period that we got slammed and short staffed and I got thrown into the chaos, it was so miserable and stressful in the moment but looking back there was some beauty in the chaos
Watching this show has triggered so many flashbacks of being the expediter at Uncle Lou's in Wildwood, NJ. Not nearly the level of cuisine, but the pressure of getting the plates out... sheesh.
@@Ethan_Stephens This sentence "It’s the constant inflow of work and that stress always pushed me to be at the top of my game. I started playing video games just to get that feeling back" resonates with me on so many levels.
12:35 Ive seen a lot of cooks' eyes out grow their current restaurant. I'm currently working with a new cook who wants to be a Michelin start cook and doesn't have pride in the food we serve because it's not at that same level. It's been a struggle to get him to understand that in order to operate at that level you need to have experience pushing volume with the basics and take pride in those basics
Those basics will only serve you in a higher-caliber kitchen
The saying “got to start somewhere” is so true. I remember fresh out of college I denied job offers because I thought I was better than the place. Well, I got a huge serving of humble pie for my life for 2 years and now I’m where I want to be but it took 5 years.
I felt like I was In the kitchen with them I was stressing out for like a minute😂😂 I almost yelled yes chef until I realized i was so into the show
Reminds me of work in an emergency department. When shit hits the fan there has to be a system with a team leader, and team players knowing their roles. This is an epic demonstration of how things should not go down in a chaotic situation and thank god I am yet to witnessed it irl.
Truuuue
This episode is the most relatable and realistic depiction of a stressful kitchen shift ever put on TV lol. I encourage anyone who has ever taken food workers for granted to watch this show because there's so much more stress that comes with a cooking job than people think when they themselves have never worked in a kitchen.
Today we held a tradeshow in Chicago that had the camera team, the gaffer and key grip talking about their process and all. And before working in film I've worked in the restaurant industry for 12 years, but to learn just how intentional the tight spaces were built into the set and how the movements from the talent and camera were was incredible to learn. And I've got to say I grew an even greater appreciation for the crew who I already admired before the show even aired because I was very very VERY fortunate enough to have had work with a lot of them before.
Once the ticket machine started spewing out orders, I heard the sound of the crappy dot matrix printer we had in our kitchen, not the sound used in the television series.
PSTD achieved.
Man, the sound of that printer going nonstop haunts my dreams
Currently working in a burger joint. The constant non stop printer is the worst because the customers rather order one by one than in groups.
Reminds me of the worst and busiest nights working at a Dominoes Pizza.
One of my first cooking jobs was at a beer garden. Simple menu; burgers, hot dogs, fries, chicken wings and some shellfish. It was the day of a new draft beer being introduced to the public and the place was packed to the brim, around 150 people.
There were two of us in the kitchen, and my partner decided to quit right before the event started, and once it started all hell broke loose. Tickets were on the floor, just like in the video. It was insane, the servers had to stop taking orders because it was way too much to keep track of by myself.
This show took me back to that moment. It definitely didn't feel like it was in the show though, i kept calm and did my damnest to get everything out, but of course, it's impossible for a single person.
This episode reminds me of the reason I left the industry, but I really enjoyed it. Before COVID hit this kind of stress was a regular thing on our Friday/Saturday Nights, honestly I miss it a lot, I miss seeing customers out the door 10 minutes to close. We just handled the stress better. We came together as a team before COVID (to be clear, many people still left), afterwards it was much more like this episode. I still really liked this episode, brings back memories.
Totally - the resonation was real
You quit an industry because of a tv show?
This is great! I'm no chef, but I've cooked, waited tables and managed multiple types of restaurants over the course of 20+ years. This entire show is pretty well done as far as the reality of food service.
This show is a rare masterpiece. Season 1 was incredible, season 2 was a masterpiece
I've been out of the kitchen for over a decade, but I still have a recurring nightmare of an event that happened to me that was very similar to this episode. Total chaos, people melting down, etc etc. The sound of a ticket machine still haunts me in my sleep. This was definitely the most realistic show in regards to kitchen life/work I've ever seen. Of course, some things were added for drama, but for the most part very solid.
This show and this episode in particular perfectly encapsulated I feel working in a restaurant/service career while also grieving
This episode is so relatable it reminds me of the time I worked at a chaotic dining room as a server. The dining room had about 200 residents that would come in all at the same time with no host and no reservation and having theirs orders all taken around the same time with a small kitchen with only two line cooks and an expo that quite mid service and I had to take over with residents walking in the kitchen to yell at me. The room service phone wouldn’t stop ringing and the orders kept printing non stop. After working at that place I have the mentality to work anywhere honestly
As an ex sous, nothing made me madder than watching Markus in this episode. Man this show is so good
he 💯 deserved to get yelled at. and - I was annoyed that he got an apology.
@@maddymud Neither Markus nor Syd deserved an apology. It's literally the opposite. They should be apologizing to Carm if their characters had an ounce of self awareness, the writers dropped the ball hard on that one. He's the one giving them the chance to elevate both their games. Letting Markus experiment and develop his skills and letting Syd have any responsibility at all given her history is two a massive leaps of faith they straight up would not get from anyone else as skilled as Carm.
I remember being pretty confused in the aftermath of this episode, with the view being shifted to Carmine being the one in the wrong. Sydney had consistently been impatient, then when shit hit the fan couldn't knuckle down and follow the rank structure. Marcus was absolutely out to space - he deserved to get shit on for worrying about his doughnuts at that point in time.
At the end of the series when Carmine apologizes, it just felt wrong. Is your staff just allowed to have tantrums and dictate the pace of the kitchen? Threw off the series a bit for me.
100% agree
Yes, didn’t understand this either. Sure, Carmy probably shouldn’t have lashed out like that, but he didn’t actually cross any lines. At least in my opinion. Sydney on the other hand knows this was her idea and her mistake with the preorder in the first place, so at that point putting your head down and just doing the work is the way to go, and talk it out with the boss later. Not to mention bringing Richie’s child in the discussion is so incredibly not cool. If she was focused on her work she wouldn’t have stabbed Richie either.
So where Carmy wasn’t in the right necessarily, Sydney crossed several lines and should’ve also apologized. Especially for walking out on the situation she helped create.
Who knew Richie would be the real MVP tho? Like when shit hit the fan the dude took his orders like a champ, even with a stab wound. He really deserved an apology tho.
Agree... I didn't watch the last episode in full, I just fast forwarded it, coz I was disappointed 😥
@@Sebisajiminstan Couldn't agree more
Totally on point! In addition,neither M or S apologyzed to Carmy. Completely wrong.
Carmy’s arrogance is what brings his downfall in this episode. He could’ve easily shut down the app, recalled the orders and cancelled them. But instead he tried to save his reputation and yes, the restaurant to a degree but really he wanted to show that he had brought this team to “his level”.
Yes, Marcus is nonsensical in this episode for the exact same reasons you mentioned but Carmy lost that service as soon as he decided he was “the one”. His whole arch this season is about recognizing that he needs his people just as much as they need him and that he needs to listen to his family.
I actually watched this episode during morning prep for a all day shift. Got to the dinner rush on a Sunday and the printer broke. I genuinely felt like I was reliving the episode
I lived the cooking life for years, and to be honest, the pressure really got to me. I ended up leaving the food industry, and becoming a landscaper. I sometimes miss the rush of crushing a rush, and too be honest the drugs and booze. But I'm happier and healthier more than ever, i even got sober.
great job on getting sober! Stay strong!
Love the way this scene was filmed you can clearly tell it was done in one take and no edits. Makes you feel you’re a part of the chaos.
Did you catch the long take in Episode 10 of Season 2? Those videos start going live on Monday!
@@justinkhanna I did, that was also one heck of a take.
I like the how the editor cut it. It didn't feel obnoxious because you can't post the full episode. It felt much more natural.
Marcus’ reaction makes more sense if you read him as being neurodivergent. He hyperfixates on things. The cakes and then the donuts. He stayed overnight and wasn’t showering because of how focused he was on getting the recipe right which points to executive disfunction. Marcus isn’t going to react in a way you expect because his brain isn’t coded the same way.
As someone that’s also neurodivergent but not a chef I have to say that if I’d been spending days perfecting the donuts only to get yelled him my face I would have reacted the same. When I get hyperfixated on something everything around me falls to the background. Marcus didn’t notice the chaos because of that imo.
Thats definitely part of it as a Pastry Chef that’s autistic as Shit😭
I completely agree! I’m neurodivergent and Marcus’ behaviour leading up to this, and his reaction both felt like they made complete sense to me. The fact he even approached Carmen when he was so obviously overwhelmed showed that he wasn’t able to look beyond the doughnuts and see what was actually happening in the kitchen.
He didn’t come off this way till this happen, I think he’s closer to having a break than being divergent
One of my busiest shifts was at the bar and grill I was the head chef of. In a small resort town down here in Australia. In the middle of the busiest school holidays the towns seen so every hotel, holiday home, caravan park and campsite fully booked plus more illegally camping. Three of the maybe 10 restaurants in town were closed that day to give staff a break, with us being one of the few casual places open that was affordable for families with kids (the majority of the towns bookings). We ended up doing almost double covers than the usual that night. Every seat had butts in it open to close.
We had to tell the FOH to shut the doors to walk ins after awhile. And it wasnt even like we couldnt keep up, I had a dynamite team, I just didnt have any food left to serve people after a point. We prepped for it to be bad but I didnt even have the fridge space to maintain the par levels needed for a service like that. Not when we'd have multiple groups of 10-20 people walk in looking for tables.
So it was bittersweet because we did everything right and rocked it, but still couldnt keep up.
My only comment on the service here is that Carmy was wrong to fire all at once. Sydney had it right in that you need to try and organize the chaos. Its not reasonable to think any team could make 200+ sandwhiches in 8 minutes anyways so find a number that they can make and go from there.
Still, maybe my favourite episode of anything from 2022. If you could liquify work anxiety and inject it id be this and thats what the show was going for. Bravo
Yeah good point. I think there are 2 things Carmy was doing - he was definitely organizing the chaos with creating that taped off section, but the "fire everything" moment might've been more to change the energy and pacing of the brigade more than anything else (and maybe Sydney could've been better at articulating her plan and showing pace vs organization). I don't think he actually thinks everything can get picked up all at once, it's just more to get folks to strap in and focus - totally agree with you though on the anxiety lol
I’ve worked with a couple of Marcus’s in my time. Folks who are so enamored with the high end stuff that they tunnel vision so hard on their creative projects that they forget their daily routines.
It’s the sense that I’m good enough that I can probably bang out my usual stuff in a heartbeat. I would even argue that this was effectively foreshadowed by Marcus blowing the power grid trying to rush and catch up after falling behind.
That and I’ve also seen a couple of dessert chefs flutter off into their own world, oblivious to the rest of the kitchen, even when the kitchen is in the weeds. Pâtissières are a special kind of folks. 😂😂😂
This was my SONG in highschool too! I wish they'd put in the original version but it was still such a delight to here it in this fantastic show.
Truuuuue.
I just found your channel
I'm a trained server with a cooking degree so I been in both sides for the past 11 years (I'm 28).I've never met a server who was also a cook like me.
I gotta say my busiest day was when we were short staffed and the all electronic system went down,the typical, so we had to write it all down on paper talk to all the tables and we had to close the restraunt sooner because we couldn't keep up with the day
Keep up the good work and a huge thumbs up from Portugal
Great to have you following, Miguel! Paper tickets take so much time to make lol - kudos to you for pushing through that
Used to work in a country club in the restaurant portion in high school/college. They put my to work in the expo window after a year. Man is this bringing back some PTSD about those crazy nights where the ticket machine was ALWAYS printing out. You got sous chef yelling at you, servers yelling at you, and youre responsible for the pacing of everything going out of that window. Was a great experience i felt like i built up some work ethic that others my age didnt really have, but damn i wil NEVER do that shit again
Real
Christmas day 9 years ago. Tickets down to the floor + two full rails. Just had to keep going. Picking up 3-6 tables at once depending on the size till it was all done.
This stuff is so real. Glad they put it out there for people to see and I hope they understand a bit more why and how we do this day to day.
I've noticed the same - if your every day is like episode 7, you've got problems lol but other comments have echoed the holiday rushes that just stretch capacity and make for a really challenging service
@@justinkhanna agreed
Arriving late is not my standard, but I'm late to The Bear and newly obsessed, so these videos are new to me! I feel like I have a foot in both worlds as somebody super well-versed in professional cooking due to a TON of family being in that world and being fascinated by it and soaking up all I can, but still being in a different career field.
To me, Marcus getting frustrated and walking out was someone reacting to the often abusive and unnecessary ways that chefs can treat their crews. Marcus reacts like a normal person to Carmy losing it on him, not like a trained chef. Carmy has been kind and supportive of every one of Marcus's endeavors thus far, and was even sympathetic to his earlier mistakes. Marcus SHOULD have popped into gear, but he didn't realize how much the kitchen at large was drowning, and Carmy roasted him and disrespected him. Not "I need you on cakes, Marcus, what are you doing" but "are you fucking with me" as if Marcus was deliberately trying to drag the service down.
Carmy and Syd talk so much during the series about how much they want the environment to be "different" than the other places they've worked, and I think someone as talented but untrained as Marcus walking out--someone normal who doesn't expect that harsh treatment--was totally predictable. I think this show has a lot to say about how militant kitchen environments can be and whether or not they need to be that way for everyone to produce their best work, which is a really fascinating question to me!
Better late than never, Clare! Thanks for writing this, I hear you on all of it - I asked myself the question: if the environment was different, and it was a fishing boat or a fashion designing firm or a Broadway play...would it be reasonable to have someone "on-the-clock", but prioritizing a separate project over their core responsibilities? My mind says no, and, like most things, there's a middle-ground that's probably the best place to land, where Marcus steps up slightly, and Carmen cools his jets a bit. It's easy to point fingers and paint one person as the bad guy, but it's usually a mix of both. I think that's what made this scene so good and relatable!
being in the weeds is one thing, that over time and experience you can deal with. But I have been in a situation like this early in my career and this episode brought back ptsd I wasn't ready for. That moment of clarity when you realize there's nothing you can do. Great break down.
This was the last episode I've watched, it definitely brought up some bad memories. Reminded me of a time when chef threw a plate of quail at me (that was the entree) because I was too slow on appetizers one night. I know that didn't happen here but just seeing Chef fly off the handle like that is all it took.
Oof, so sorry that happened. Yeah the flare ups can be difficult to manage, and definitely should be handled more productively vs violently
The Marcus donuts thing is a great example of this show just throwing emotions out there and seeing what makes the final cut. They probably told the actor to do that, they captured it so well they put it in without thinking about the character’s narrative. This is the problem with the show, lots of cutesy caricatures, but no real depth or understanding of the subject matter, just portrayals for portrayals sake, which makes it trivial
Working a kitchen with such high volume I’m graceful for it bc honestly it taught how to be fast and get things done efficiently but with speed
100%
Incredibly relatable. Expoing chaotic dinner services with a non stop printing printer, churning out orders all through the chaos, people yelling at each other. I don’t miss those moments tbh, they could be hell. But I’m glad I had those experiences
I was head of FOH and bartender with two hreen servers we were scheduled for a slow morning. It was the world cup. Walked into a line around the block. I think it was about 350 heads. So true, change strategy and just keep going. Never walk out.
I work in a small pub kitchen where there’s normally just two of us on shift. Shit properly hit the fan last week, with tickets still coming through after the kitchen was closed. I’m used to working in bigger chains so I’m pretty good at prioritising and ‘switching off’, but my coworker hasn’t experienced that before. Managed to calm him down and just explain that we push through, call out the tickets you’ve got on, and go until there are none left. It’ll be shit, you’ll be angry, but you’ll get through it and we can have a ‘team smoke break’ (sit and cry outside for a bit by the bins) after. This episode emulated that feeling to a t, where you just want to give up but you can’t
To me it seems like Markus is passionate about trying and perfecting new things… once he perfects the chocolate cake he loses interest in that and wants to move on to donuts even though he’s supposed to be making the chocolate cake. When he feels like he’s perfected the donuts and is happy with what he’s made, he goes to the person who previously encouraged and nurtured his interest but is met with the polar opposite reaction of what he was expecting and he realises that in that moment Carmen doesn’t want him to be creative and passionate, he wants him to be productive and efficient and that’s where the switch flips for him, the person who ignited this spark in him and introduced him to all these exciting things is the person who snuffed it out and told him he couldn’t have it. It’s in the next episode he realises that while Carmen encouraged his creativity, he needs him to be a team player, to focus on his responsibilities first and nurture his creativity in the space around his responsibilities
yeah, the only hangup I have about this episode was Marcus. Like the writers had to make an excuse to add more conflict and chaos into the scene by having written Marcus to be off in another world with his donuts when the kitchen was crashing and burning. Like did he not hear Carm chew out Sydney for trying to expedite in a different way (not to mention being sexually harassed and disrispected by Richie). That moment got me ticked off with Marcus that was not fixed until mid season 2.
My only "kitchen" experience was a fast-food place that would cater and have online orders. The website wouldn't let you order catering and would give you the phone number to give the place time so that we wouldn't have this exact thing happen, someone figured out that if you just made 25 consecutive orders for as much as the system would let you it would all go through. we were just winding down from lunch and cut from 14 staff down to 4 when 25 tickets just started printing enough to feed 200 people. That and Free Sandwich Days were fun times, but at least we knew about Free Sandwich Days weeks in advance.
episodes 6-8 are some of the greatest tv episodes I've ever seen
💯
Naw cuz as someone thats been in Markus’ shoes its soooo fucking easy to get trapped in ur own world when ur the pastry chef in the kitchen especially if your the only one because you have no one to reality check you at times like these. U really need to train urself how to switch gears when ur in ur own little bubble doing a task that requires so much concentration and precision. I agree that his reaction is definitely from lack of experience in this type of setting since im assuming its his first pastry chef gig with the added layer of the environment being a small mom and pops restaurant where he’s normally in a setting that allows him to experiment more and with more added time. I was thrown into my first completely solo pastry chef gig freshly 18 at a high level country club and I had sooooo many moments of me getting my ass beat for being a dumbass and not knowing any better so I really empathize with Markus being inexperienced and thrown into an obnoxiously stressful environment.
Makes sense - the lack of support is totally a contributing factor, the entire station/area is on his shoulders.
My first job was at McAlister’s Deli and those tickets come in fast! I loved being the lead because it was go time and my co-workers who wouldn’t get frustrated kicked ass. Loved it.
Carmen turned on the ordering system, he should’ve turned it off. AND, he should’ve checked the setting before turning it on.
Kinda surprised you said how Markus never showed this behavior before.
Remember in the fermenting episode, you pointed out the difference between Sydney and Markus when they are both working on their little project.
You can see clearly how Markus is so fixated on his project that he is late on the restaurant meal, which lead to the whole machine act up and shutdown the restaurant.
The same is here, Markus was so fixated on this donuts, he feel like he almost figured it out so he forgot what is happening around him. Which is basically his fault and the lack of experience working in this intense environment (clearly because the shop has never been this “popular”).
I can see that - I guess I've always experienced the reverse: being inexperienced and going into a high-caliber environment, not someone high-caliber (Carmy) coming into an inexperienced place. From the "how realistic is it" perspective, I'm used to seeing folks nerd out on things outside of work because of that reason...they don't want to have their cool ideas be executed at a restaurant level. Definitely an example of how there's often a disconnect between the two!
As a current server in a fine dining steak house and having started working in the line at 14 before making the switch, this episode just had me almost like laughing scared with how accurate it was.
2 days I worked that stick out in my mind. 1 the corporate team dropped a fundraiser on us for the families of some people who were shot in the community, it was monday night, we found out sunday, nobody was available for backup. It was a disaster where they left the relatively new KM (me) alone and I got chewed out by a line of people who had to come in and help us, each one thinking I should be doing something other than what the last one told me to do lol.
2nd was Mother's day 2020, we were like the only place open in town, the owner put a tent up outside and let people sit, he made a brunch menu that none of us had any idea how to execute until we had orders for it. Total disaster, its all togo, the people sitting down think they are getting their food in 15 minutes. I have 300 open orders, all large family style platters, quote times of 2 hours, servers and foh mgrs are pulling my orders apart to build ones for people who showed up 30 minutes early and are screaming at them about the wait. Fucking awful lol. The owner gave up at 3 and we were still cooking till almost 6pm lol
By the end of covid we had it down with things being organized by name and time and all that. Was much better
Omg haha both sound bad, but that second one seems like it was brutal - the owner giving up!?
@@justinkhanna yeah. He threw up his hands screamed about how we do this every day and he doesnt understand the issue and shut orders down. It was bad, got to the point where I couldnt even cook by check because they were just taking whatever they got yelled at for so we just fired a shitload of food and I sent out whatever I got screamed at about regardless of tickets lol
@@feircy I've done that, just cook a shit load of what's selling, expo and servers can figure it out
@@bradleyrobillard6917 lol I got to the point where I basically stopped putting orders together and just waited for them to yell at us. We just kept it full like a buffet lol
My old steakhouse used to be pretty quiet on Tuesdays, so we operate with a skeleton crew.
We had a bachelorette party reserved (16 top), so we were mentally prepared for that. What we weren’t ready for was for the owner to show up with a 22-top unannounced. He then proceeded to invite folks in off the street to celebrate his grandson’s birthday.
There were 3 of us in the back, 4 of us out front. It was the longest 6 hours of my life.
Omg lol. 22 out of no where is not cool
6 hours? You need to step up the pace. 40 people served is an hour tops. What kind of 7 course meal were you whipping for his grandsons birthday?
I have 22 show up every other day unannounced. You must not have many fire departments or police stations nearby. 😂 they always surprise me
6 hours? You need to step up the pace. 40 people served is an hour tops. What kind of 7 course meal were you whipping for his grandsons birthday?
I have 22 show up every other day unannounced. You must not have many fire departments or police stations nearby. 😂 they always surprise me
@@bobbyhill1013did you even read what he wrote??
@@chance757 yes. Are you confused?
I remember when the UKs top food critic came to our restaurant last year. No one cared, but I just started and for me it was the first glimpse of restaurants I’ve seen only in movies. Then the article came out and I sat on my bench reading it like a kid on Christmas 5 minutes before service. Then we got our first Michelin star and it was one of the best feelings - it wasn’t even my star!
I worked in a smoothie shop and on "Dollar Smoothie Day" I will never forget the sight of turning around and seeing so many tickets shooting out of the printer that they were literally snaking down to the floor and gathering in a heaping pile. We stopped taking orders for a moment and picked up all the tickets and organized them and just started blasting them in the order they came and it was chaos. We got it handled eventually but I will never forget that image.
1. While I'm not a chef, I do understand Marcus's reaction to this situation. He's consumed by and solely focused on his art and wasn't really paying attention to what was going around him. This happens to me a lot. I get so focused on one specific gratifying task that I start to ignore the mundane, routine, necessary tasks. I think we saw this earlier when he lagged behind on his cake orders and, in his rush to catch up, he blew up the cake mixer. We also saw him shut down in that same episode because the cake mixer eventually shorted out the electricity. I feel like you're coming at this from a professional viewpoint and not a novice's viewpoint. Marcus wants to be a professional, but he's still a novice.
2. I'm a little disappointed you didn't show Sydney's evisceration of Richie -- literally and figuratively. (You also missed that Carm told Richie to switch from the fries to the giardiniara, which triggered the confrontation with Sydney.) Yes, Richie was a sexist, condescending asshole to her, but what she said to Richie was waaaay out of line. I think it's important to point out because it shows how Carm's stress and intensity was rolling down hill. That scene also showed that Richie didn't trigger the confrontation and was putting his head down to do the work asked of him while Sydney was the one messing up and falling apart. She didn't call corner. She wasn't working as a team. She ignored her job to pick a fight with Richie. And she wasn't taking care of where she was pointing her knife. I thought that was really important to the plot and important character development for both Sydney and Richie.
I noticed that too. Richie actually started helping her with her task after she treated him like absolute shit, which honestly requires a better person than I would have been and shows growth. But she didn't let him out of pride. You can't afford to do that in a crisis.
Great points!
Im a novice and i don't understand Marcus at all, i find it so stupid that he wasn't able to read the room like ar all.
@@vicentegeonix Your viewpoint doesn’t matter, this is his character and in the show his character is extremely emotional, amateur and unprofessional. He’s not ready for high intensity and the way that was showed was executed perfectly.
@@obscurit_y4536 i agree. He is an idiot.
One thing this ep and your commentary makes me think of, one of the proudest moments of my career... at a 5-star hotel as chef de cuisine, the exec chef gave me an application and said he wanted me to hire them. It was the nephew of the boat captain that the chef would go fishing on, so doing a personal favor. I had 2 openings, and 3 applicants including that guy. Two blew me away... not coming in with a great resume (none of them did), but with an attitude I thought meant they'd be great employees. The other, I just got red flags. And, of course, the problem child was the one my boss told me to hire.
I went to him, handed him the applications and interview notes I took, and said, "I want to hire these two, they are what we need.... I don't want this guy in my kitchen." He said, OK, and let me hire who I wanted. He then passed the application on to the Garde Manger chef, who went ahead and hired him.
So, we did orientation in groups, so we did a "Day One" with all the new hires, among all the departments, to do the final paperwork and teach them company culture. The hotel director always went first thing to meet the new hires... and by 8am, there was this rumor of "who the hell hired this guy" from the GM. About an hour later, I tracked down that is was the kid I refused to hire, that the GM read the same thing, and started asking about.
Trust your gut, if you feel uneasy about someone, that's not going to go away. Whatever your biz is, if you're interviewing and have this feeling of "this one's a bit of a douche"... the douch-y-ness isn't going away, you can't "make it work".
I'm impressed. Both with Justin's play-by-play and the comments. All of you added something to my day.
Never knew about The Bear or Justin Khanna until today. Probably a sin.
Thank you for you making my day a better one.
Pleasure to have you watching! Season 2 goes live on the channel starting on Monday
Marcus and Sydney: two children who dont know how spoiled they are.
One wants the prestige of being a showrunner without actually having the chops to stand on stage
The other is a giant child that has no concept of the world that he claims he wants to be apart of.
What makes their behavior unacceptable is the attitudes they both carried afterward.
Syd and Marc both hangout and lick each other’s wounds and basically chalk up their shared experienced as a “We survived Carmen” instead of a, “We screwed over a guy who believed in us more than anyone else probably ever has” or a “We caused and/or contributed to a very avoidable situation through our incompetence or arrogance”
The hotel restaurant I work at always emails a list of all the recent reviews and I love reading them everytime, all the positive reviews on the food and stuff just hit different especially reading them at home
This episode resonated with me so heavily. I'm 41 years old and been in this business since the beginning and I remember as a manager at Pizza Hut the day we rolled out online ordering (with timed ordering ahead option). I opened that morning and I was there 3 hours past close because the chaos we could not have been prepared for. The whole flow changed, it went from orders coming in a manageable time frame because csr were taking orders over the phone to there being a full screen with 33 orders pending that we can't see yet. Since it is on a conveyor oven you have to grab those pizzas or they will start smashing into each other. I yelled out to a CSR "come over to cut table with me, all you will be doing is putting boxes down and putting stickers on what they are and putting them together" and I grabbed both clamps and was just grabbing pans, one in each hand 2 at a time, sliding them on to boxes and tossing empty pans in a pile. All of the dough prepped was used and every single pan was piled up to the ceiling.
Working other places (a bbq joint for example) when we rolled out online ordering I knew what I needed to do and yet it was still chaotic because my team was used to going off a kvs screen and the online orders did not display there, they only printed tickets and not only did we not know it would be like that, it created chaos because as it was we would have a line wrapped around the building when we opened and then a ton of timed orders on tickets for different times as pick up but they print out when ordered. So you can have all the tickets right there but when already backed up on top of that you have to remember to interrupt those in store orders to make the online order at a specific time. Its not like one person can do in store one on the online orders because we only have one cook line. Ugh
As much as i understand the tension and the urge to just throw the towel and quit, this made me lose a ton of respect for three characters in particular, but most of all Sydney. She made a mistake the entire crew was willing to work on, just like she'd done one or two episodes prior for Tina, and admittedly got more flak for it than she gave others. She then makes mistakes herself, and not even understandable ones, she just ignores basic training that even amateurs like Richie have down by now, ending up in getting staff injured, which absolutely must not happen, holding a knife in a way where it can stab someone in the ass is a rookie mistake that feels way out of character for her. And her reaction is to have a meltdown and leave a guy she just stabbed and who canonically has no way to drive himself to the hospital as well as the guys cleaning up after her mistake to sink or swim on their own? Okay. I get that this conflict has been built up from the first minute of her entering the Beef, but that reaction didn't exactly endear her to me, and i assume others either.
Had some chaos like this just this past sunday during fathers day at one of the resturaunts i work at. From open to close tickets did not stop printing. It's only me and 2 other people cooking in this kitchen not including our sushi chef. I'm very new to this field of work and I'm very grateful i get to have an experience like this so early on in my career. The gear shift didnt feel as immediate as it did in this episode, it was very gradual, but nonetheless hectic. Not only were we runnin a full house we had loads of online orders being put in as well so while we cooked online orders, one table even walked out, but nonetheless we pushed through it and still somehow managed to have the place cleaned and clocked out before 10. Man i never felt so tired in my life, but what i love about this line of work is that i work my ass off all day long and when its over i feel satisfied and proud, and that sthe first time ive ever felt this way doing a job.
Every time I watch this show, I'm so thankful I'm strictly a morning prep cook that doesn't work during service hours.
I've worked in a lot of fine dining but I grew up in dinners, family spots, etc like this. This episode holds true to the chaos of those environments completely. You have the sous that has never really been "yelled" at yet (or has and came to you to get away from that), the cook who is budding and not been quite put in stress yet, and a chaotic service that puts everyone over the edge. I think the point of the episode is that Carmen fucked up, and he knows it by the end. He shouldn't have flashed out. He should have been stern and given direction. I've been there a few times running a kitchen and at the end of the day I felt like shit. But I learned from it. So does he in the show.
I get what you said on the ordering thing, and I founded odd when I watched, but now I think it was printing all the orders he already saw on the monitor, but it prints slowly. I guess this is to drive us more crazy while watching it, bc we (that doesn't has any experience working on a kitchen) get the notion of how MANY orders actually is. Just a thought...
Thank you for getting straight to the point and starting the video.
Season 2 is even better this is the most accurate show on tv right now
The chaos of the kitchen brigade is probably the only reason I have been able to handle the work I do now at an animal shelter. Of the team I started with 2/6 of us were kitchen vets the other was our team lead, and now that she is gone I am the team lead despite not being most senior. Only one other person still there from when I started 10 months ago.
Here is my one thing that did take me out, he called out his pars and they have no where near that amount of food. Why did t they just unplug the machine and call support?
As someone who dropped out of culinary school, I 100% imagine this is what it would have been like to work in the industry. I tried bits and pieces, and despite my deluded ideals of grandeur, I just ended up chopping a shit-ton of parsley and prepping ravioli until I never wanted to look at it again, when I actually got to experience the industry. I now work in the very different- but also stressing environment of sales, and I've got to say there are days where I do miss it.
I do think Marcus is nerodivergent. It was clear he didn’t have a clue on what was going on when he brought Carmin that donut lol. He was too excited about showing Carmen his success.
Yeah, read the room Markus. Now is not the time to tell the boss you figured out your doughnuts. And Sydney, when the s*** is hitting the fan and the boss tells you to stand down, don't make him say it three times until he has to swear at you. Learn to listen, don't just storm off like a child.
Worked in a pizzeria and can confirm its crazy. When we were loaded with tickets owner would say either let the phone ring and dont answer and if we do answer tell then its gonna be an hour wait with how busy it was. And turn off online ordering until in house tickets were done and finished.
My take away from Carmy not just shutting down the pre order system was that this is essentially the same situation as his fryer fire incident he talked about before. He has the choice between letting everything burn down around him (getting swamped with an impossible amount of orders) so that his anxiety's go with it instead of fixing the situation rationally. Obviously this is in a more metaphorical sense as that fryer fire situation literally happens in the following episode.
This whole season and even the next we become more and more aware of just *how severe* that deep-rooted desire to succeed affects Carm, I really love moments like it because he’ll do what may seem irrational, but it’s always the Carmy thing to do
9:10
The youtuber CGPGrey had a great line about this sorta thing in his pirate video
"The Captain position can be challenged any time the crew feels it necessary - with one exception. BATTLE, is no time for diplomacy"
The whole episode feels like we're supposed to see Carmine being in the wrong. Except Marcus that was just not the time to be working on new donuts when everyone was in panic mode.
No, that’s not what this episode does. This episode is meant to exacerbate the intensity of a high stress environment. Nowhere in the show is Marcus or Sydney given the “woe is me” treatment. They don’t get sad music, they don’t get long monologues about their person, they don’t get standalone scenes. The scene showed how they, in their own seperate ways, are not capable of handling the environment they’re in.
To an extent he is - he acted the way most head chefs would in that situation. But The Bear is to a decent extent also about how soulcrushing and abusive that environment often is.
By normal standards, Carmy was in the right. But he was trying to set himself to a higher standard than that.
@@obscurit_y4536 they got apologies when they were both in the wrong. sydney fucked up the orders and marcus wasnt doing his job and they both left and got off the hook as if it was all Carmens fault
Lmao! Gosh I’m this brought me back to my kitchen days! This show is amazing
my husband and i are talkers when we watch movies and shows at home; normally we have a lot to say and will sometimes have to rewind things once we finish some tangential discussion that started bc of something the show made us think of, so our tv watching is usually pretty interactive lol. this episode though? we were dead silent the whole time. when the episode finished and the credits rolled, we just looked at each other and saw each other’s faces with eyes wide and mouths agape and just said “holy SHIT” lmao. such a good episode and it does an amazing job of portraying the absolute mayhem of a bad day in the kitchen.
Dude yelling at the girl to get off his expo line. Brings me back to my Red Robin days. Nothing glamorous or anything special but we were around the corner from NC state and it for sure got very busy every weekend 😅 yelling and screaming is fairly normal
I'll never understand why they didn't just cancel the orders they couldn't fulfill. The restaurants I order from do that all the time when they can't keep up. It's no big deal. Had Carmen kept his head cool and just done that, things would have been absolutely fine.
I don't get what "the pickup" is. Profit? Prep time?