That episode was directed by Ayo Edebiri (Chef Sydney). Amazing.
I missed that then. On the assumption that they’re all talking about the same person, that makes me feel better. I was worried they were going to do something cheesy like start S4E1 by revealing that he happened to be sitting across from a mirror.
I feel like Season 3 is really just a half-season setup for Season 4, which they better drop really f’n quickly. Finished episode 7 which still didn’t do much to progress the story other than add new potential stressors. Some more character development, but it’s worthless character development if we just abandon it when it’s convenient for the story you want to tell.
I did appreciate Claire’s handling of the 2 dipshits. “I love you, get the fuck out of my workplace.”
Season 3 and Season 4 were filmed back to back. I don’t know when it’s being released, but I’m guessing Seasons 3 and 4 will be like one season broken into two parts. I think Breaking Bad did the same thing.
I’m so salty about The Bear sweeping the Comedy awards at the Emmys last year that I watched this whole season 3 in a very grumpy mood. Last season wasn’t funny and this was even less funny. The show takes itself too seriously. It is indeed stressful to watch.
Oddly enough, I did spend my late teens and early 20s working in an upscale restaurant (with my cousints, no less!) and I get the drama and I can understand the whole rush of upscale food service and the complexity of working with family. I did love it. But I wasn’t a chef, I was a prep chef somewhere between Fak and Tina. We did have some intense chefs, and intense front-of-the-house managers, but I would have rolled my eyes so hard at anyone being at the levels of these characters.
I too hope that Sydney skedaddles.
Emmys, and note that its wins were for the first season. Because of the strikes, the next Emmy awards it’s up for will be for the second season.
Thanks, I fixed it. I’m staying with my mom right now so “Grammy” (that’s what everyone calls her) is on my mind! 
I guess I should watch this show. I was very disappointed in the tomato ex machina which resolved the money issues in season 1 (you know what happens when you take germ-ridden money and seal it in a sugar rich environment like a can of tomatoes? Pretty sure you get gas. And exploding cans.)
It appeared to me that the writers, who may know a lot about running a restaurant, dug themselves into a hole with the entire $300k story line without really thinking of how a sandwich shop could earn $300k in free cash flow to pay off said debt. Not knowing how business works, they said ‘shit, let’s just have someone find the money’… and then came up with a solution which was anything but.
Regardless, people just love on this show, and since it’s relatively short, might as well see what the continued fuss is about.
Interesting take. I had thought read that it captured the chaos pretty well but I will certainly take your word for it.
As I remember, we’re told that the money is from selling drugs. (It also actually belonged to Uncle Jimmy, who is some sort of mobster or otherwise quietly involved in crime.)
Thank you for this!
Oh, I’m not concerned about where the money came from.
It’s just if you have a sealed can of tomatoes, then open it (thereby breaking the seal and introducing oxygen to the environment), remove enough tomatoes so that you can place $10g’s in it, and then reseal the can (HOW??? I mean, you CUT the metal to open the can - you can’t just reseal that thing, it’s not a mason jar)… that shit is going to either explode like Krakatoa or go moldy so damn fast that you’re not going to notice the $10g sitting at the bottom of a can of vomitous gloop.
Actually I wondered how they could have resealed tin cans. So I Googled. Machines are available for that for about a thousand or two though I don’t think that sort of home canning was ever as common as using Mason jars.
I, too, did extensive research on this topic, and a few people noted that while there are home-based machines that could possibly seal new cans, nothing can seal a can which has already been cut open.
Presumably, Mikey used new cans, with the labels from the old cans carefully applied to them.
Canning the money isn’t that far out of reach. You could even take off the old lid by removing it completely (as opposed to cutting through it) and reseal it. The money was in vacuum sealed plastic so that’s not a problem either. The logistics are the least silly thing about the premise.
Oh, not to say that this intensity doesn’t exist! Our place wasn’t Michelin-level but it was still fine dining. I guess it’s more fair to say that this level of intensity/pretentiousness wasn’t what our restaurant was about. I’m sure those types of places exist and this is a good representation of them. But it’s also not all-encompassing in fine dining.
There was a scene in the third season in which Uncle Jimmy complained to Carmy about the $11,000 bill for butter. I think Carmy said something about the butter costing sixty bucks a pound. That’s real; the butter he was describing is from Animal Farm Creamery in Vermont and its butter really does cost that much. I read someplace once that it’s the butter of choice at the French Laundry restaurant, which is one of the places where the fictional Carmy trained.
Carmy starts opening, then throws away, one of those cans of tomatoes in the pilot episode. I think it’s fair to say this was the plan from the beginning, not that they backed themselves into a corner.
Also, I don’t know how much ‘free cash flow’ they have, but a busy shop like that will bring in more than you’d guess. I wouldn’t be surprised if the place was doing something in the neighborhood of a million a year (gross/top line).
There’s always money in the tomato cans.
I agree, off the few issues I’ve had with the show, getting the money into the can isn’t one of them. Entirely coincidentally the person sitting next to me just brought up the show. I mentioned the money in the cans and before I finished my thought he brought up that, on his second watching, he spotted a canning machine (not a can opener, a can closer) in the background of one of the scenes.
Considering how much butter restaurants use, that’s eye-watering.