February 01, 2024 | FEATURES | By Julia Decker
The art of translating the kitchen’s atmosphere and its chain of command to actors on set is “just like coaching a soccer team,” says Courtney Storer.
Storer is a Chicago native who started in the restaurant industry at 15 and progressed into becoming a high-end chef in famous kitchens including Jon & Vinny’s in Los Angeles and Verjus in Paris. She now lives full-time in L.A. to be closer to her brother Chris, producer, and creator of the show “The Bear.”
“The Bear” established itself on top at this year’s Emmy and Golden Globe awards. Every January, pop culture fans eagerly anticipate the glitz and glamor of these red-carpet events. The Emmys and Golden Globes are highly desirable awards given for artistic and technical merit in the American and international television industries.
“The Bear” started 2024 with a bang — they won a total of 13 awards and nominations at the Emmys. Lead, Jeremy Allen White, who plays the lead character Carmy, won “Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy” for his driven and emotional character in the show, a remarkable achievement. “The Bear” is seriously crushing it, as they scored their spot as the “Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy” according to the Golden Globe Academy.
“The Bear” wouldn’t be the same without all the elaborate, delicious looking food. Storer’s experience as a chef inspires every cooking scene, making the show a more realistic and relatable piece of media about the restaurant industry. Storer takes charge and mentors the actors by “talking with them about their comfort zones” and how to portray the restaurant world of culinary arts on screen. The Q&A begins with her seeing how the actors respond to working with different recipes and challenges.
“I can kind of get a feel for what we can highlight on screen regarding their skill set,” she told me in a recent interview. Storer is the heart and soul of the cooking on set, and helps the actors “execute the cooking element and feel comfortable because that is what makes the show feel really authentic.”
The following are portions of our conversation, edited for length and clarity:
Decker: How is creating food for TV different from in the restaurant?
Storer: What makes it so different is that we are building out a restaurant from the ground up, so it’s expedited, which feels very true to what you feel in a kitchen. There is a lot of pressure. You have to move quickly and think on your feet.
It felt very real on set. We used all real ingredients and didn’t want to cut any corners that way because you would be able to tell. Whenever I watch food television and I see something that’s a real ingredient and then something that’s not, it totally takes me out of it. Part of the magic of it is that we had a production that was real: the ovens were real, we had real cutting boards and knives, and everything was designated for station just like you would in a regular restaurant.
The actors had to do that, too. They had to make pasta in a line, grill steaks, and break down fish.
I think we brought the kitchen to life in a very real way.
Decker: What are some techniques you use to make food look more appetizing on television, even under studio lighting and long shoot days?
Storer: It’s such a village.
The set decorators, the props department, and the crew—everybody’s on the same page, and we are using real food, so that means I have a culinary team.
We do eight to 20 resets of the food because we do not want it sitting there for hours and you see that, in “The Bear,” the cast is eating a lot! They’re tasting things and putting their spoon in things. So, I have to make everything taste delicious, and I want them to have a real response. You can see when something tastes bad, the actors have a very visceral response.
In season two, when Carmy and Syd are in the apartment, the dish they make looks crazy, and that is on purpose. It doesn’t look good, and it shouldn’t, so we made it look wacky and weird.
If Chris says we are shooting something three times, then we will have multiple of whatever food ready to go because everything moves so fast. The camera team is counting on us to be prepared.
We are not one of those fake commercials where they use hairspray on fake food. This is real.
Decker: Any tips for when I recreate the omelet from “The Bear”?
Storer: Sydney, in the show, uses the fork to strain the egg mixture, and the reason you do that is because you are homogenizing the egg proteins between the yolk and the white. So, you break all the protein up in it, and it makes it that nice yellow color without any of the protein whiteness.
I like to use a nice non-stick pan because it does make a difference in how the egg folds on itself. It’s all about heat control for an omelet, so make sure it’s on medium-low.
Low and slow! You don’t ever need to go higher.
We wanted Ayo (Sydney) to do it on her own, so she practiced a lot, and I was right there cheering her on. She’s such a natural cook, so it was fun to watch her face the challenge and do it. I believe anyone can do it, really.
This was a famous technique that chef Ludo Lefebvre makes a delicious omelet in his restaurant here in L.A., so I was kind of paying homage to him because Chris and I love him. We wanted to put something we learned from him on the screen and make it our own by adding the potato chips.
Also, I don’t use pepper until after, and on the show — we use sour cream and onion chips for the garnish.
Decker: How do you show the energy and atmosphere of being a chef in a kitchen to the actors on set?
Storer: We set the actors up with people they could shadow in the kitchen, and they also did a culinary program. On the line in the kitchen, they are watching me move, and I also coach them, but they do a lot of observation.
I would say things like “Hey, maybe this would look a little differently if you were in an urgent situation.”
I taught Ayo to carry trays using her shoulder instead of on her hips because that’s a technique I use.
Each character moves through the kitchen differently based on their role. For example, a sous chef moves differently than a savory or pastry chef. Carmy is dealing with the macro, and then Ebraheim, played by Edwin Lee Gibson, is dealing with his station, which is the micro.
Movement is such a big part of it, and if we didn’t have the actor’s pay attention to that, you would have been able to see it in the show.
Decker: How would you recommend someone get involved in the food industry?
Storer: I would love to talk to and mentor more high school and college kids and encourage them to go into the food space.
A great place to start is to have a passion for food production and food for television and say yes to as many opportunities as possible. Just get your hands on food, whether it’s working with farming, restaurants, or culinary schools.
There are a lot of different worlds in food, and something like food journalism or food magazines is a great place to start.
I went the traditional chef route and look at where I ended up!
You never know where food will take you. I think that being malleable is super important, and never in a million years did I think I would be working on a TV show about a restaurant I grew up with in Chicago.
Also, reaching out to people you admire and learning about hospitality is a great way to get involved in this world.