Is ‘The Bear’ Based on a True Story?

Since FX’s The Bear, Christopher Storer’s adrenaline-pumping dark culinary comedy, premiered on Hulu in June 2022, it’s received a whole lot of love. The show follows professional chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returns home to Chicago after a tragedy to run his family restaurant and lead a kitchen staff comprised of his “cousin” Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), sous-chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce), and more. The first eight-episode season explores food, grief, family, the pursuit of self-improvement, and the immense pressure to succeed. But is the popular series based on a true story?

In addition to an intense original score, stunning camerawork, palpable anxiety, and career-great performances, The Bear has been praised for accurate portrayals of toxic restaurant culture and the harsh realities of working in a kitchen. Because so many of series’ details are on-point, viewers can’t help but wonder if Carmen Berzatto is based on a real chef, or if The Bear is based on a true story. If you’re hungry for answers, you’ve come to the right place.

Is The Bear Based on a True Story?

The short answer is no, but the long answer is that numerous aspects of the series were inspired by real life. While there are countless real-life stories of high-stress culinary environments and chefs who fly off the handle like Carmy, The Bear is ultimately a work of fiction from Christopher Storer — known for his work on Ramy and Eighth Grade. However, the team worked hard to make the series feel as authentic as possible, and Storer took inspiration from Chicago and his own upbringing.

“I think we really wanted to focus on these original characters and the story about small business, but the small details, that came from Chris [Storer’s] upbringing, and obviously, that’s just one part of Chicago, right?” Joanna Calo, The Bear‘s executive producer and co-showrunner told Forbes. “That’s just one Chicago experience, and I know there’s a lot of different parts, but yes, that jersey, those sports teams, those specifics about mustard versus ketchup, those were true to him. And yeah, just sewn into the fabric of the show.”

Chicago’s real Italian beef sandwich joint, Mr. Beef, also inspired The Bear‘s restaurant, The Original Beef of Chicagoland. “Chris knew the family, or knows the family, behind Mr. Beef. And so this was a very true story for him. He spent a lot of time in that beef place,” Calo told Forbes. “And I will say also while we were shooting, that some days we actually did shoot in the Mr. Beef on Orleans, and people would show up and bang on the windows trying to get their beef, and we ruined it for them because we were shooting, and it wasn’t operational that day. I think the passion for the beef and the truth of this place and what it meant to people really came through and FX always got that, which I love.”

Season 2 also featured a number of real Chicago restaurants and chefs, but Storer’s sister, a culinary producer on the series, said the food and kitchens aren’t the only part of the show based in reality. “I grew up in a very big Italian family at first, but my parents went through a really bad divorce. There’s a lot of trauma in our family. So I would say that big family got really small, really fast,” Courtney told People in a 2022 interview. If you’ve watched The Bear‘s second season, you know that Carmy and his sister’s relationship, along with family trauma, is explored further. And some of the show’s famous dishes, like the spaghetti and chicken piccata from Season 1 were inspired by the Storer family.

“That spaghetti is a recipe Chris used to make for me all the time, which is really sweet. It’s a Marcella Hazan recipe… Chris would make me spaghetti usually on Sundays. I would be burnt out…and that was always the one we made,” Courtney told People.” As for the chicken piccata, “It’s actually what Chris and I make on Thanksgiving instead of turkey,” she said. “We like to reestablish Thanksgiving traditions.”

The Bear‘s creator also opened up to Esquire about parallels between the show and his own family, saying, “When I was growing up, my household was kind of gnarly. I had mental illness and addiction in my family. I go to Al-Anon all the time. I’m still dealing with this, as an adult, and finding healthy ways to approach it. Some of the same thoughts that I was feeling about my family I noticed in a lot of toxic work environments.” Storer also said one of his friends died by suicide before he developed the series, which ties back to The Bear‘s storylines and character grief surrounding Carmy’s late brother Michael.

Is Carmy from The Bear based on a real chef?

While Storer made a real effort to accurately represent Chicago’s Italian beef sandwich scene, star Jeremy Allen White also did some serious time in the kitchen to enhance his performance. Carmy might not be based on any one real chef, but real kitchens, chefs, and shared experiences inspired the ways in which White played the character.

“He had to work extremely hard,” Calo told Entertainment Weekly. “Jeremy is very good with his knife now.”

White described his culinary training as “extensive” to EW, sharing that he was “completely clueless in the kitchen” prior to filming the show, so he decided to go “kind of mediocre.”

“I went to two weeks of cooking school. I worked in several really wonderful restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago, and in New York,” White told EW. “It was really amazing — I’d never studied a skill that much for any other job, and it was really great to have months of training to learn about character and learn about Carmy through a skill that he’d also studied.”

White also explained that a chef from the Michelin star-rated Pasjoli restaurant in Santa Monica, California, was especially helpful during his training period. “The chef there, Dave Beran, was a chef at Alinea in Chicago, and he opened another small, tasting menu restaurant before Pasjoli that also got a Michelin star,” White told EW. “He’s a really serious guy, very good at what he does, and he let me spend a lot of time there. He let me cook on the line during busy nights. It was pretty incredible that they really let me in.”

Calo said another reason the series feels so true to culinary reality is because the team worked closely with professionals such as celebrity chef Matty Matheson, who co-produces the series and makes a cameo in several episodes as the restaurant’s handyman Neil Fak.

“We were very lucky in that we had access to a lot of chefs and had them come in, and specifically Matty Matheson really gave a lot of himself,” Calo told EW, explaining Matheson would share a lot of impactful stories that served as inspiration for the cast and crew.

So there you have it. While The Bear may not have been based on a true story, a significant amount of time, research, and effort went into ensuring the series felt like a true story. FX officially renewed The Bear for Season 2, so here’s hoping for another authentic ride.