Carmy admitting out loud in a job interview at a large Chicago architecture firm that he was using other people as tools to get something for himself means he’s already flubbed the interview.
He tries to downplay his success as a chef almost immediately.
But let’s remember! He got this interview because Stevie probably sold him this way (just like Michelle did to get him a spot at yet another super-famous chef’s restaurant, Daniel Boulud), and was telling him to lean into his weirdness and family stuff to hype him up for the interview.
Think back to when the foodie tourists are allowed into the kitchen during service in S5 by Richie to turn tables, Syd makes Carmy talk to the guests and revisit all those places he’s worked at before. Carmy then pulls in Luca, who also worked at Ever and now works in Copenhagen and is planning on going right back there.
Marcus had just recently received a major culinary award, btw.
Syd has also just been awarded two stars at this point (not Carmy, he only ever retained them), but in the interview Sue mentions eating at Ever and perks up immediately when Carmy says he worked there.
Sue goes on about the experience she had and the artistry of the dishes at Ever. I think, probably knowing he worked there from his resume and hoping that this weird interview will now turn back to design and making carefully curated “experiences” for mostly rich people, which is still what the architecture industry mostly revolves around.
But, Ever is closed now in The Bear’s world, and that’s not what Carmy really wants to talk about.
He leans into what Stevie suggested and starts talking about his family, and that he loved the colors of the food, when, we’ve just seen very clearly, that while Carmy has been drawing food (very erotically, btw) in his books since he dedicated his whole life to fine dining, he has really been learning techniques mostly and balancing flavors in the French culinary tradition (lots of cream-based sauces), and drawing what he sees other chefs make.
His family’s cooking isn’t informed by color, either; it’s inspired by chaos.
When it comes to color, and Carmy being inspired, it has alway been looking at Syd directly for inspiration related to this. Her scarves are the only bright colors in the restaurant. Her outfit at the wedding also inspires him making sauces for the lamb dish he wants to present to her.
Even his drawings about Claire are colorful, but he doesn’t even know her or spend time with her and when he finally does he can’t force himself to love her.
So, he’s lying during the interview to Sue. He’s lying the same way Syd did on the first day she showed up about going to The Beef as a kid.
Carmy is talking about Syd as his real inspiration; not his love for design. Which is the same way Syd is talking about Carmy when she brings up the best dish she ever ate. She doesn’t mean the dish, she means she felt inspired.
Carmy wears a suit and tie to the interview, which we only see him do at Mikey’s funeral (it could even be the same suit?). There’s a flashback scene where he’s sitting in the car outside the funeral and it looks like he’d just taken off his tie to me.
He doesn’t wear a tie to the Ever funeral dinner, either, and he doesn’t wear a suit he wears mismatched separates that don’t even fit well.
And when he goes to the architecture job interview, he can’t hide the tattoos on his hands, but he doesn’t feel comfortable with the tie around his neck.
The interview feels like the reverse of his expectations when he shows up in S1, and he looks the part of “cool” “bad boy” chefs we’ve all seen (like they even showed an image of Bradley Cooper at Ever and he played Anthony Bourdain).
Carmy brought all his notebooks and his culinary books and awards into The Beef in S1. Because we see Marcus checking them out.
But Marcus only really does that once Syd shows up and confirms that Carmy is “the real deal”. Marcus didn’t trust Carmy to be any different until Syd shows up.
Marcus will later tell Carmy, “Take us there, bear.” To me, it was obviously making fun of the movie The Blind Side and audience expectations that Carmy was “the guy” when it was always going to be Syd, and that reference comes up again in S5, Syd brings it up.
The firm Carmy goes to interview at is in a hi-rise in Chicago. That means it’s very likely a major corporate office or HQ or hub for that firm.
After COVID, most architecture firms allowed staff to work from home, but it created a crisis in the real estate industry (domino effect in banking/investment and insurance industries). They had all this unoccupied real estate that was empty, and wanted people to get back into offices as fast as possible.
The Bear was one of the few shows that didn’t ignore the impact of COVID on the restaurant industry and openly talked about it. They were expected to keep feeding people (Chi-Chi brings this up), but the corporate model changed as whole, and the small businesses who couldn’t pivot fast went out of business. They comment on this inside the show and also with the delivery bot.
Carmy fails his interview the moment he describes how struggling together in this one service, when everything seemed so horrible, but he loves these people so much because they grow together.
The architecture industry is tied to the same kind of historical extraction and exploitation as the culinary industry.
Both pre-exist the entertainment industry, but they were both definitely forms of entertainment and patronage mostly accessible to wealthy white families in the West who accumulated wealth through imperialist wars and the slave trade.
Syd’s scallop dish always had her flavors and Carmy didn’t mess with that, but she breaks it down even further to something you could make with just three ingredients that aren’t expensive. Same with the cola ribs (but they take time and thinking about family).
Just like the lamb Tonnato dish Carmy made for Syd was a tin of anchovies and a rack of lamb stretched further. Just like how Syd elevated the Hamburger Helper in Worms.
Carmy appears to go back to The Bear. He texts his dead brother Mikey everything is “good”. Carmy said Syd was the “good” that walked in the door and changed everything.
And Syd said during the service that we’re not doing this “the Berzatto way” without saying those words, but that’s what happened and that’s what she did.
She also told Donna to her face that’s what she would accomplish.
And Richie asks Syd what happens the next day (and basically the one after) and she says we keep doing THIS.
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