10 min readSINCE MAKING ITS debut back in 2022, The Bear has gone out of its way to authentically portray kitchen life, whether it’s the cramped chaos of a sandwich shop or the stressful pursuit of perfection in a Michelin-starred restaurant where, as the show reminds us, every second counts. If there’s one takeaway from Carmy Berzatto’s journey over the past four seasons, it’s that being a chef is not for the faint of heart—and between grueling 14-hour shifts and the financial challenges one must endure to simply stay open, it’s not something you do unless you really, really love it. All the spills, shattered glassware, and accidental stab wounds are ultimately worth it when you can find joy in service and the knowledge that you’re doing exactly what you were born to do.
That’s what happens to Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) in season 2’s “Forks”—one of the most beloved episodes of the entire series and arguably its biggest turning point—when he stages at a fine dining establishment called Ever. In the world of the show, the Chicago restaurant, helmed by the fictional Chef Andrea Terry (Olivia Colman), is the best in the world, and its closure in season 3 sets the stage for a “funeral dinner” featuring cameos from an array of culinary superstars. In real life, Ever is the brainchild of Chef Curtis Duffy, and it’s both very much still open for business and just as impressive as The Bear portrays it to be. In 2021, just nine months after it opened its doors in the middle of the pandemic, Ever was awarded two Michelin stars, and it has managed to retain those stars every year since.
Just like Carmy, Duffy began his career under the tutelage of icons. He staged for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry—something we also see Carmy do in a flashback sequence in, funnily enough, one of the episodes filmed at Ever—and worked alongside legends like Grant Achatz and Charlie Trotter. (There is speculation among Bear fans that Joel McHale’s Chef David Fields is partially inspired by the notoriously temperamental Trotter.) And, like our hero, he knows what it’s like to painstakingly build a restaurant from the ground up; in 2012, he opened Grace, his first solo venture, and in 2014 it earned three Michelin stars, becoming just the second Chicago restaurant at the time to receive the distinction.
But Duffy and Carmy don’t just share similar resumes. Like the fictional chef, Duffy had to endure a rough childhood and a devastating family tragedy. In 1994, when he was 19, his father abducted his mother from her workplace and held her hostage for 10 hours before ultimately shooting and killing her and then taking his own life. Last year, Duffy released his memoir, Fireproof, where he details his grief and the ways it fueled his pursuit of greatness as a young chef. The book also reveals one more poignant coincidence: Duffy’s father went by the nickname “Bear.” As the chef puts it in Fireproof, “The universe is talking, perhaps.”
Men’s Health caught up with Duffy ahead of The Bear’s fifth and final season to discuss how closely the show reflects his own experiences as a chef, what it was like seeing his restaurant on-screen, and why it’s Richie, rather than Carmy, whom he identifies with most of all.
MEN’S HEALTH: You have a unique perspective on The Bear’s authenticity, because they filmed at Ever. How much input did they allow you to give? Were you able to weigh in and say, “Oh, that's actually not how we would do that” for certain details?
CURTIS DUFFY: Yeah. They certainly leaned in for advice when it was needed. And they were very understanding when I, or one of the team members, would say, “That's not exactly how I would do that.” Certain things didn't feel natural. And obviously everybody wants that natural feeling, so it was encouraged for us to help guide them. Especially when you're working with the actors—that's not their everyday job. You know, we're in the kitchen making 250 different quenelles just so they can get the feeling of it down, so when it actually comes time for them to quenelle something and plate it, it looks like a very natural thing. It was really great.
MH: Generally speaking, how accurately does the show depict life as a chef?
CD: I can look past some of the dramatic portions with the idea of knowing it's for TV, and there needs to be some drama in there. If you can look past that, they nail 90 percent of it. They nail the good, the bad, and everything in between. There are so many moments where I think chefs can just relate to it. Not even just chefs, but front-of-house people or the wine team too. Maybe it's the interaction with the guests or the way they pour something, or the way they remove something and the way they move through the kitchen or the dining room. All of that is so real and very well thought-out.
MH: The show really emphasizes the importance of mentorship and how vastly different Carmy's experiences have been with someone like Olivia Colman's Chef Terry compared to Joel McHale's character. How important are those dynamics for a young chef?
CD: It's extremely important. We put heavy emphasis on mentoring the younger cooks who come through my kitchen. We want them to leave with this knowledge and a certain level of craftsmanship and professionalism. That's certainly put forth through the way we conduct ourselves in the kitchen, the way we hold ourselves, the way we treat each other with respect. You can see the difference of McHale’s character, who's just one of those old-school classic chefs everybody gets a picture of—this chef who's honed in, driving it home and relentless—and Olivia Colman, who's on the totally different end of the spectrum of elegance and refinement, and has a way with words.
I've lived in that world, where I've worked with somebody who was a tyrant and was very demanding and relentless and throwing pots and pans. That's the way they communicated with you. That's the way it was done 20 years ago. You can't do that in this world today. No one would stand for it, and rightfully so.
I've also worked for somebody who is that elegant, refined, well-spoken chef who can articulate what they need without having to yell and scream. That's the way I run the restaurant: very quiet, focused, purpose-driven. You look to the person beside you, and you garner that respect because the way you speak to somebody is the way you would want them to be speaking to you. We all have one goal in mind, and that's to be the best we can possibly be within the four walls of Ever restaurant.
MH: Carmy's story is different from yours, but you both had to deal with difficult family situations and the trauma and grief of losing someone to suicide. Did the way the show portrays this as part of Carmy's journey resonate with you?
CD: I would say very much so. I think with my background—with my parents’ deaths—there was a certain aspect of [the kitchen] that was my safe place. That was a place I wanted to be more than anywhere else. When everybody left for the night, I wanted to be there. I was so hungry and eager, and wanted to learn everything I could about the restaurant. But then there was this creative side I could tap into when no one else was around, because I wasn't under the pressure of service. I wasn't under the pressure of the daily needs of getting certain tasks done, so I was able to spend that time creating things I thought were interesting. Then there's that aspect of not wanting to be home, because being home meant I had to deal with my issues. Now I had to deal with the death of my family. And it was so much easier to be at work—it just became this very safe place for me. I'm sure that's the way Carmy’s character feels at work: that safe place, that place of refuge.
MH: How accurately do you think the show depicts the process of opening a new restaurant?
CD: It's very much like that. I mean, it’s a million spinning plates in different directions, and you're on a deadline every single day. It becomes this chain reaction where you’re waiting for one person, who's waiting for the other person, who's waiting for the next and the next and the next. You rely on somebody else's work ethic a lot of the time, which is terrifying. I've always said, if these craftsmen, the electricians, the plumbers, the carpenters… if they had the drive of a chef, how much faster things would get done? Because most of us have that mentality of we do it till the job's done, and that's it. Because there's no stopping until the work's done. It's so easy to watch most of the people who are involved in building the restaurant not have that drive. You rely on so many people, and then when you're relying on everybody else, everything gets pushed back. That's why those restaurant openings never hit the timeline—because we're so dependent on everybody else.
You get to a place where you think you’ve budgeted enough money for certain things, but then there's this realization of all of these things you didn't even think of. It doesn't matter how many times you open a restaurant, you're never going to think of every single thing. All of a sudden you find yourself $600,000 behind budget and you're like, “Where am I going to get this money?”
MH: There are obvious parallels between Carmy's career and your own, but I thought it was interesting that in the chapter of your memoir about The Bear, it's Richie whose trajectory you say really resonates with you. What is it about his character arc that hit home?
CD: Probably because I've seen Richie’s story play out so many times in my career. I can relate so much with Carmy, of course. But what I love about Richie's character was the idea of him polishing forks and what that transcends to. You're not just a chef when you walk in the back door of the restaurant. It’s a lifestyle. It’s who you are. It's how you carry yourself throughout life. And it's really not a light switch—it's your entire being.
I've seen so many of these transformations in the kitchen happen in front of my eyes, where these young cooks come in and they're just in disarray. There's no structure in their life, and there's no goal set. They're just all over the place, but they're hungry and they want to learn. And you take a restaurant like Ever or Grace or any of these great restaurants that have structure and have culture bred into that world, and it becomes infectious, right? You start to see these young cooks slowly transform their lives. It not only infects their life in the restaurant world, but their personal world too. I loved when even Richie’s household was a total mess. He was waking up with barely enough time to get to work. And then over time, things started to refine. He was up before the alarm clock. He was cleaning. He would see a spot on his counter and he'd wipe it. Those are the things where it’s like, “That really happens.”
MH: In the show, Carmy says his initial reaction to finding out about getting three Michelin stars was “panic,” because he knew he'd have to retain them. Is that a pressure you felt after getting your stars at Grace and at Ever?
CD: [Laughs] Obviously it's a pressure, but I've always tried to look at it from a different perspective. I've never really looked at it from the idea of, “Oh my god, now I have to maintain.” I've always felt like you continue to do what you were doing to get there. You don't change course. You don't start refining and overanalyzing and rethinking a million things. You just keep doing what you were doing, which was obviously great things to get you to that point.
MH: Work/life balance is another big theme on the show, and it's also something you've written about in your book. How do you avoid burnout in such a demanding career?
CD: It's important that you have interests in other things in your life and career. If you focus 100 percent on one thing all the time, yeah, you're going to get burnt out. I've never had that feeling. This is what I chose, what I love. I'm not saying I love every day of it. I'm not saying I love every aspect, but I've never felt the idea of like, “Oh, what if I did a different career? How do I get out of this?”
I wake up every day and feel blessed to be able to do what I do, but that’s because I'm not 100 percent focused on it. I have other things I love to do in my life. I love martial arts. I love music. I learned how to play the bass, and now I'm playing in a band. And those are the things that give you these kinds of reset moments. I love motorcycles. Clearing your head by getting on a motorcycle and riding for a few hours does wonders. It's finding those things that are just as important as cooking.
Finding balance for me has been about finding balance in the moment. When I'm doing something, I'm not focused on anything else. When I'm here, I'm here; when I'm with my wife, I'm with my wife. When I'm at work, I'm at work. When I'm spending time with my children, it's with them. When I'm riding motorcycles, I'm riding motorcycles. That's the focus, and that's the balance—not trying to do it all at once.
MH: Do you have any hopes for the final season of The Bear?
CD: Well, I didn't see the last season, so I don't know where it sits right now. It's a little hard to watch, because it's so close to the world of what we do. It's not something you want to do on your time when you're supposed to be disengaged from the restaurant. But I do need to catch up, because I want to see how everything unfolds. It's been an incredible run. I'm incredibly proud to be part of that, and I'm incredibly honored to know some of the guys and watch their careers explode because of this show. They really nailed it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Bonnie Stiernberg is a writer and editor based in New York City. In addition to Men's Health, her work has appeared in Billboard, Rolling Stone, Glamour, GRAMMY.com, Vice and more. She formerly served as Managing Editor for InsideHook and, prior to that, Music Editor and TV Editor at Paste Magazine. In 2025, she won a National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club for a profile of Michael Ian Black and was also recognized as runner-up for Online Journalist of the Year. She is also a craft beer enthusiast and long-suffering Chicago Cubs fan.
