The Bear follows a young chef prodigy named Carmen Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who returns to Chicago to run his family's sandwich shop following his brother's suicide. Upon arrival, he almost immediately conflicts with his "cousin" Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) over the new direction the shop is headed in and the hiring of another young chef, Sydney (Ayo Edebiri.)
Inside the kitchen, the fires blaze, the pans sizzle, and the screams and arguments run rampant. Trying to cook and get food to customers inevitably leads to chaos, and the clash between new and old philosophies does nothing to calm things down.
Every day in the kitchen, you feel the tension go from simmering to boiling. Carmen (or Carmy as everyone calls him) has tried to institute a new system that models itself after the one he used in the fancier restaurant he used to work at. Sydney, who comes from that sort of background too, also attempts to help get it going.
The old-school cooks in the kitchen struggle to adapt, and the fights arise right from the start. Much like the chefs, you can feel your blood start to boil, and your skin crawls; you begin to sweat just a little bit, wondering how these issues will be fixed. And, like in life, many problems don't resolve themselves easily, if at all.
Carmy returns to The Original Beef of Chicagoland to save the business and provide the people of Chicago with a great Italian Beef sandwich, which, in a town that has hundreds of places to get one, is no easy task. He tries to infuse the knowledge he's gained from his culinary education with the shop's traditional recipes, but the transition is anything but smooth. However, even with all the conflict, the food is always great.