Cooking became one of the favorite themes in cinema in 2022. Projects about the conflict of tastes such as 'Boiling Point' (an hour and a half shot in one take) and the satirical 'The Menu' hit the screens. But why is everyone talking about Hulu's 'T...

Young and promising chef Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who has worked in America's best restaurants, is forced to return to Chicago to manage a small family fast-food joint after the death of his brother Mikey (Jon Bernthal). On site, Carmen faces unruly staff, debts, sanitation issues, and personal dilemmas.

The description of 'The Bear' doesn't sound particularly unique. The news of a relative's death is a standard trope in dramas, and the twist of returning home and giving up great success is fairly formulaic for cinema. But if you set aside skepticism and suspicion, 'The Bear' will surprise you from the very first episode. Above all, with its frantic pace and endless chaos that the main character faces day in and day out in Chicago, both in the kitchen and in life. Carmen has to learn to dance his own version of culinary rock 'n' roll to balance personal problems, conflicts with staff and relatives, and solving the financial difficulties of his new workplace.

'The Bear' is a dramedy based on the true story of a family cafe in Chicago. The series throws both the hero and the viewer from one extreme to another. Drama coexists with comedy, tragedy and irony go hand in hand, and laughter through tears is common. The episodes in the show are not clearly connected; each is an independent story telling one day in life. But despite the fragmentation and disorder, everything that happens ultimately comes together into a single whole, governed by one leitmotif. Like the different ingredients used to create signature sandwiches in this Chicago eatery.

You can't catch a break in the series not only because of the jumpy storyline but also because of the visuals. Many scenes here are clearly shot with a handheld camera, which adds energy, tension, as well as shakiness and even hysteria to the frames. A favorite filming method in 'The Bear' can be called the one-shot take, so often does it appear here. This adds liveliness, documentary feel, and keeps you glued to the screen, afraid to blink in case you miss something important.

In the end, it turned out to be a show not about the agony of choosing cream for brioche buns or sauce for tortillas, but a culinary thriller where the main question is who will survive to the end in this kitchen. And instead of the friendly chef Jamie Oliver, we get a broken, tired but still fighting Jeremy Allen White. Along with the noisy and charismatic team played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ayo Edebiri, Lionel Boyce, Liza Colón-Zayas, Edwin Lee Gibson, and Corey Hendrix.

For his role in 'The Bear', Jeremy Allen White won a Golden Globe and became a laureate of the 2023 Critics' Choice Awards (the largest association of US film critics). After high ratings and public recognition, it's no surprise that the show was renewed for a second season, which will include 10 episodes (two more than the first). So we have at least one more season ahead about the behind-the-scenes work in a Chicago eatery, where something is constantly smoking, boiling, chopping, or burning, while shouts and endless swearing are heard in the background.